KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — The Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change is reviewing the effectiveness of the Malaysian Greening Programme through the 100 Million Tree-Planting Campaign.
Its minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said it was to ensure that the campaign really had an impact on the environment.
“Currently, we have planted 58.52 million trees, but we want to look back at how effective it is because those who planted trees, were only involved in the planting. What happens to the tree after that, whether it suits its habitat and so on, has yet to be determined.
“We do not want this tree planting activity to become greenwashing without having any real and effective impact on the environment,” he said when winding up the committee-level debate on the Supply Bill 2023 for the ministry in Dewan Rakyat today.
In other developments, Nik Nazmi said Malaysia and Brunei are working on signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to receive the results of marking and measuring the border that has been completed so far.
As of today, the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia (Jupem) has carried out marking and measuring for 128.45 kilometres (km) in the border of the two countries, with the remaining land border distance expected to be completed in the coming year.
As for the status of the Malaysia – Indonesia international border marking, he said Jupem has so far carried out marking and measurement for 1,943 km out of the total distance of 2,063km of the international land border.
“There are still areas that have not yet been finalised involving a distance of 119.9 km, in which there are seven problem areas or Outstanding Boundary Problems (OBP) with three OBPs in the Sabah-North Kalimantan sector over a distance of 44 km and four OBPs in the Sarawak-West Kalimantan sector with a distance of 52.9 km, ” Nik Nazmi said.
An area west of the waters of Sebatik Island (Tawau, Sabah) 23km away is also in the process of planning measurements and solutions for three OBPs in the Sabah-North Kalimantan sector in 2024.
“At this time both countries (Malaysia – Indonesia) have given good cooperation in negotiating, planning and also resolving these demarcation issues,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Dewan Rakyat passed an allocation of RM1.67 billion for the ministry in Budget 2023 at the committee level through a majority voice vote after a debate by 20 MPs from the government and the opposition.
— Bernama
