SHAH ALAM - The Selangor Forestry Department clarified today that the gazette notification (G.N. 1645-2022) to degazette the Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve on May 5 is to complete the delisting process that stopped around 2006.
Its director Datuk Ahmad Fadzil Abdul Majid said based on Section 13, Enactment (Application) of the Selangor State Forestry Act (EAPN) 1985, the state authority must notify of any permanent forest reserve area that has been degazetted.
He said based on records, the degazetting process for Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve took place from around 1991 to 2006 including an area covering 406.22 hectares (ha).
"Various possibilities can be factors for the degazetting process to be put on hold at the Gazette Plan stage which is PW1443. Thus, the gazette notification issued on May 5 was backdated to refer to the decision of the State Executive Council (MMN) in 2000.
"These actions were also implemented after taking into consideration the comments from the Selangor State Legal Advisory Chamber. In general, the degazetting is to complete the process that was pending in 2006.
The Selangor government has taken the appropriate role to resolve matters that were delayed over 20 years ago," he said in a statement.
Ahmad Fadzil said the degazetting did not follow a public investigation process as approval took place before the amendments to Section 1, EAPN Selangor 1985 in 2011.
"However, this area of 406.22 ha is no longer recorded in the area of permanent forest reserve since 2006. Currently, the remaining Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve is 1,298.86 ha and the Bukit Cherakah Additional Forest Reserve is 982.80 ha.
"Both of these forests are still managed by the state Forestry Department as classes of protected forests that are habitats for various flora and fauna," he said.
Ahmad Fadzil said this when commenting on the viral news about the statement on the degazetting of 406.22 ha of the Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve, Section U10, near here, last May which was allegedly not through a public hearing process in accordance with Section 11, EAPN Selangor 1985 which was amended by the Selangor government in 2011. - BERNAMA