PIRECFS to become guidelines for planning, physical development of forests within Peninsula - PM

KUALA LUMPUR - The Central Forest Spine Master Plan for Ecological Linkages (PIRECFS), the main policy relating to town and rural planning, was approved today as the guidelines for planning and physical development of forests within Peninsular Malaysia.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the 40th meeting of the National Physical Planning Council, which he chaired today, had agreed to approve the master plan which was an initiative to connect eight major forest complexes located in Kedah, Perak, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.

"This is to protect forest areas within Peninsular Malaysia so that there will be a physical link that connects the forests in the Central Forest Spine areas, in line with the vision of reconnecting the forests.

"The master plan has also identified 39 ecological linkages to connect forest areas or forest islands which were separated due to forest fragmentation,” he said in a statement here today.

He said the master plan would also be able to reduce human-wildlife conflict by ensuring that the natural wildlife corridors from one forest area to another would not be affected by development activities.

In addition, he said Malaysia’s pledge at the Rio Earth Summit 1992 to maintain at least 50 per cent of its land mass under forest and tree cover, would also be achieved through the implementation of the master plan and commitment from the federal government and state governments involved.

Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri said the meeting also took note of the Report on the Status of Public Open Spaces in Peninsular Malaysia and Federal Territories 2020, which was prepared by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government through PLANMalaysia.

He said the meeting also called on state governments, through their relevant agencies, to expedite the process to gazette the public open spaces under Section 62 of the National Land Code.

"The total size of public open spaces in the peninsula and the federal territories is 23,433 hectares (ha), but only 33 per cent or 7,662.6 ha were gazetted, 24 per cent (5,738.4 ha) are in the process of being gazetted, while the rest have not been gazetted,” he said.

The prime minister said the gazetting of the land would ensure that they will remain preserved to function as public open spaces that can be used by the people for leisure and recreational purposes towards a more liveable Malaysia.

The government has set a target of having two hectares of open spaces per 1,000 urban residents. - BERNAMA