Compliance Certificate 2019, 2020 Awarded To SFM Licensees, SFM Project

Press Release Issued by Sabah Forestry Department
 
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has adopted the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) policy since 1997 to conserve, protect and enhance the State’s forest resources and maintaining a balance between social, economic and environmental development. The SFM implementation is made through smart partnership with the private sector through the Sustainable Forest Management Licence Agreement (SFMLA). As of today, the State Government has entered into 38 Sustainable Forest Management Licence Agreements with  private companies covering approximately 1.6 million hectares of Forest Reserves.  The SFM practices are also being implemented in 860,000 hectares of forest reserves, mostly in Class I Protection Forest which are directly managed by the Sabah Forestry Department (SFD) through various SFM project, mainly for conservation purposes.
Under the SFMLA, the SFM licensees are required to prepare a 10-year Forest Management Plan (FMP), a document that provides the guidance in managing their licenced areas, and to prepare an Annual Work Plan which prescribed the activities to be implemented within a calendar year. The main SFM activities involves timber harvesting, establishment of forest plantation with fast growing and high value tree species, restoration and rehabilitation of degraded forest areas and social forestry
The Implementation of various SFM activities is regularly monitored, assessed and evaluated to ensure compliance with the management plan and good management practices. Field monitoring, are conducted regularly by the District Forestry Officer (DFO) and submit Quarterly Progress Report (QR) is submitted to the headquarters for assessment and evaluation. The outcomes of the assessment are disseminated to the DFOs for improvement of SFM implementation.