PUTRAJAYA, Sept 4 – Malaysia’s tropical forest still has large potential to be explored to generate revenue for the country, said Human Resource and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G.Palanivel.
He said currently, forestry was no longer linked to only timber production,but it also encompassed goods and services.The perception by some quarters that forestry was only about timber production, he said, was not accurate.
“Te challenge facing those in the forestry was to optimise the added value of forest from revenue generated through a single-product to multi-products, he said when opening the National Conference on Economic Evaluation of Forest Resources here Palanivel said that the forestry sector contributed RM8.5 billion or 0.9 per cent of the total Gross Domestic Product, besides providing employment opportunities for more than 300,000 people.
As such, he said, there was a need to ensure sustainable management of the forests in the country to ensure the forest area could be conserved for future
generations.
In another development, Palanivel said the Forestry Department was studying a proposal on the setting up of an evaluation and accounting centre for forest resources.
-BERNAMA
