SHAH ALAM, 11 Sept: The area of the Permanent Reserved Forests (PRF) in Selangor has recorded an increase of over 3,000 hectares over the past five years and it is contrary to report in a daily newspaper recently.
The Director of the Selangor State Forestry Department (JPNS), Dr Mohd Puat Dahalan, said that the newspaper report was inaccurate because it took into account the mangrove areas in Selangor as a whole.
“The area of the mangrove forest as stated in the newspaper was 22,530 hectares which is the total area of mangrove forests in Selangor consisting of PRF and also the State Land Forest.
“Based on the JPNS records, PRF have actually increased from 15,090 hectares to 18,998 hectares since 2009.
“This includes the Pulau Ketam Reserved Forest which was gazetted as a PRF on May 6, 2009, through Gazette Number 1790 covering 2,365 hectares on what was originally government land,” he told Selangor Kini.
Mohd Puat said that the mangrove forests that were gazetted as PRF includes mangrove forests in the district of Sabak Bernam, Kuala Selangor, Klang, Kuala Langat and Sepang.
In addition, he said that since 2010 until now, there has been no gazetting outside PRF areas on mangrove forests done.
“All land development involving mangrove forests are government and alienated land only.
“The placement location for residents in Pulau Ketam is in the area of government land and it is under the administration of the Klang Land/District Office,” he said.
Pulau Ketam is one of the six islands that were reported to disappear and has about 5,000 residents. The five other islands are Pulau Klang, Pulau Tengah, Pulau Selat Kering, Pulau Che Mat Zin and Pulau Pintu Gedong, all located along the coast of Klang.
Referring to erosion which was raised, Mohd Puat said that it is a natural process at all coastal area due to choppy waves.
“This process is closely linked to the ‘cut and fill’ method which is natural and continuous. Reclamation and sea sand produces new land known as mudflats.
“There are a number of mudflats that have happened like the one adjacent to the Pulau Ketam Reserved Forest, the Pulau Tengah Reserved Forest and the Pulau Che Mat Zin Reserved Forest,” he said.
NS
