(MY) World Heritage site Maliau Basin

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New Straits Times 31st. Dec 2005

Coal mining prohibited

Jaswinder Kaur

 

KOTA KINABALU, Wed

--

 

Far from allowing mining in the Maliau Basin, Sabah is in fact working

to achieve World Heritage Site status for the bio-diversity rich area.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman dismissed talk of the Maliau

Basin being mined for coal as unfounded rumour.

 

The State Government is firm in its decision to conserve the site.

 

" It is a Protected (Class One) Forest Reserve which means it cannot be

touched, " Musa told reporters after opening an international seminar

on " The Truth of Islam: A Vision for the Ummah and the Rest of the

World " at Sutera Harbour Resort here.

 

" You cannot touch the trees, you cannot cut the trees, don't talk about mining.

 

" As far as we are concerned, we are never going to mine the Maliau Basin.

 

" We want it to be classified as a World Heritage Site, " he said.

 

Musa was responding to speculation that the site would be mined for

its coal deposits despite past assurances to the contrary by the

Government.

 

He said it was not easy to re-classify protected forest as commercial

forest, which only the State Assembly could decide.

 

In 1997, the Maliau Basin conservation area was upgraded by the Sabah

Government to a Protected (Class One) Forest Reserve and extended to

its present size of 58,840ha.

 

It was originally part of a one-million-hectare timber concession

belonging to Yayasan Sabah.

 

In 1981, the foundation voluntarily designated the Maliau Basin as a

conservation area for research, education and training.

 

Day-to-day management of the Maliau Basin is carried out by the

foundation through an inter-agency Maliau Basin management committee

comprising several stakeholders, including the Sabah Forestry

Department and Sabah Parks.

 

In 2000, Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, who was then Primary Industries

Minister, came up with the poser of " monkeys or gold " , which led to a

debate, mostly against mining Maliau for its coal.

 

Lim had said that the Maliau Basin had abundant mineral deposits and

that underground mining would not disrupt jungle life.