12 Million Trees Planted Nationwide So Far

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 -- More than 12 million trees have been planted nationwide so far under the campaign to plant 26 million trees by 2014, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas disclosed Tuesday.

At the end of the campaign, it was envisaged that a total of 38,470 hectares of degraded forest, logged over forest and coastal areas would be planted with indigenous woody species, he said.

"We realize the potential and opportunity of planted forest. Thus, in the last five years, we aggresively established about 500,000 hectares of planted forest with commercial forest species and timber latex clone.


"This, I believe, will in a small way contribute to the achievement of the goal of increasing forest cover by at least 20 million hectares of all forest types by 2020 in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region," he said at the first Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meeting of Minister Responsible for Forestry in Beijing, China.

His statement was made available to Bernama today.

Uggah Embas told the meeting that the tree planting programme was under the campaign themed "Greening the Earth: One Citizen One Tree" which was launched on April 22 last year in conjunction with the 'Earth Day'.

The 26 million trees represent the estimated 26 million population of the country. The types of trees planted included the "cengal", "pulai" "cempaka", "keruing" and "meranti".

Uggah Embas told the conference that Malaysia had practiced Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) and committed to maintain its land area covered with forest, of which it had been the government's aspiration to have a minimum 50 percent of its total land under forest cover.

"We are pleased to inform that currently about 56.4 percent of our land area is under forest cover of which a total of 5.06 million hectares or 15 percent of its land area has been declared as protect forest," he said.

According to the "Asia Pacific Forest and Forestry to 2020" report published in 2010 by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Malaysia has a per capita forest cover of 0.6 hectares.

He pointed out that the report had recognised that Malaysia accorded high priorities in environmental pretection and forest plantation expansion in the Asia Pacific region.

"In fact, based on 2010 figures, Malaysia has a per capita cover of 0.7 hectares, which is a significant achievement for a rapidly developing economy like Malaysia," the minister added.

Sri Aman To Have New Hospital 2015

Presently, Sri Aman town is served by a district hospital manned only by Medical Officers. The specialist services are provided by visiting specialists from Sarawak General Hospital. In the 10th Malaysia Plan, a new Sri Aman Hospital will be built. It will have 108 beds and will be equipped with facilities to provide general specialist services.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Dato Sri Douglas Uggah Embas who made a working visit to Sri Aman recently said the estimated cost of this new hospital is RM200 million. The project is scheduled to start in early next year.
In the meantime a special arrangement is being made to place two specialists at Sri Aman Hospital to provide specialist care. These specialists are from the General Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology disciplines.

Both have started to provide service from 8 August, 2011. These specialists, coming from Sarawak General Hospital and Sibu Hospital will be attached to Sri Aman Hospital on weekly rotation continuously so that Sri Aman Hospital will always have a specialist at all times.
The patients from surrounding clinics and Hospital Betong can also now refer Medical, Obstetrics and Gynecology cases to Sri Aman instead of to Kuching.

Menjelang Sambutan Hari Kemerdekaan ke-54: Eratkan Perpaduan

Pada 31 Ogos 2011, kita akan menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan. Sebagai satu aktiviti ke arah sambutan Hari Merdeka tahun ini, YAB Perdana Menteri kita telah merasmikan pelancaran Kibar Jalur Gemilang di Sentral Kuala pada 27 haribulan Julai yang lepas. Elok kita renungkan dan amalkan seruan beliau dalam ucapan perasmian seperti berikut:

“Seluruh rakyat Malaysia tanpa mengira ideologi politik, warna kulit, kaum serta agama perlu menyambut ulang tahun kemerdekaan ke-54 dengan semangat yang luar biasa, kerana negara ini masih lagi berdepan dengan ancaman luar”.

YAB Perdana Menteri menyeru rakyat Malaysia supaya kibarkan Jalur Gemilang dengan semangat perjuangan. Ini ialah kerana dalam Jalur Gemilang terkandung empat tonggak utama yang mewakili empat jalur iaitu, perpaduan nasional; nilai sanggup berjuang dan berkorban untuk negara; nilai keharmonian dan keamanan serta nilai jati diri, harga diri dan akal budi. Marilah kita sama-sama menyahut seruan tersebut dengan mengkibarkan Jalur Gemilang sempena Sambutan Hari Kemerdekaan tahun ini.

Dalam suasana kita menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan dalam bulan Ogos ini, kita tidak boleh lupa akan pengorbanan tokoh-tokoh kemerdekaan kita dan rakyat kita dalam mengecapi erti kemerdekaan. Pada masa ini, kita dapat menyaksikan pelbagai perubahan dan perubahan ini tidak datang bergolek begitu sahaja. Sebaliknya, ianya hasil perpaduan, perancangan dan komitmen kerajaan bersama rakyat untuk kesejahteraan hidup yang berkekalan.

Oleh yang demikian, kita tidak boleh memberi laluan kepada usaha-usaha sesetengah pihak yang ingin menghuru-harakan negara ini seperti yang telah berlaku di Libya dan Turki baru-baru ini. Atas sebab itulah kerajaan tidak membenarkan perhimpunan haram yang akan merugikan semua golongan rakyat dari pelbagai aspek. Kita amat arif tentang keadaan negara-negara yang berhadapan dengan elemen perhimpunan haram ini dan kita telah melihat sendiri tahap kemusnahan yang telah dibawa oleh elemen ini. “ A big loss to the nation”.

Bayangkanlah apakah akan terjadi sekiranya kita membenarkan demonstrasi jalanan bagi setiap isu yang dihadapi. Kalau Bersih dibenarkan, kumpulan lain yang memperjuangkan isu lain akan membuat tuntutan supaya mereka juga dibenarkan mengadakan demonstrasi. Cara sedemikian untuk membawa perubahan bukan cara yang sihat kerana ia akan merugikan kita semua dan boleh mengancam keharmonian dan perpaduan negara.

Sesungguhnya, Kerajaan telah menyediakan pelbagai platform kepada rakyat untuk menyuarakan pendapat, idea dan luahan hati sebagai pendekatan berorientasikan rakyat iaitu 1Malaysia: Rakyat didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan. Demonstrasi jalanan bukanlah cara untuk menentukan parti mana yang membentuk kerajaan.

Sebagai rakyat di negara yang mengamalkan demokrasi berperlembagaan kita mempunyai kebebasan mengundi setiap 5 tahun melalui saluran pilihan raya telus. Dakwaan bahawa proses pilihan raya tidak telus dan korup adalah amat tidak berasas. Bagaimana kita boleh mempunyai 86 ahli parlimen dari pihak pembangkang dan 5 negeri dikuasai oleh pihak pembangkang dalam pilihan raya 2008? . Maka saya menyeru kepada semua agar tidak terlibat dengan sebarang perhimpunan haram dan adalah menjadi tanggungjawab anda sebagai penjawat awam untuk menjadi contoh terbaik kepada rakyat Malaysia.

Merdeka!