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Company: Sabah Forestry
Management | Operations | Main Markets | Milestones | Timber Species | Sabah Forestry
ANCO offers documentary evidence for all of its wooden garden furniture be it FSC or otherwise. Since all of its timber comes from Sabah, the state considered by many in possession of one of the most advance forest management system in Malaysia, documents linking to the forest compartment and in certain cases even to the stump is possible.
Overview
 The state of Sabah still retain some 60% of its land surface under natural forest cover despite rapid land development since 1960s. This translate into some 3.9million hectares of forest reserves, parks, wildlife sanctuaries and water catchments, devoted to forestry and conservation purposes.
The state government implements this through 2 mechanisms:
- issuance of long term SFM licenses for 100 years to the private sector (Forest Management Unit – FMU). The licenses is obliged to follow the Deramakot princicples and
- expansion of forest reserve areas to be directly managed by the Forestry Department in accordance with the Deramakot Principles.
Since 1997, some 2 million hectares of Class II forest reserves have been licensed for long term tenure following the principles of Deramakot. With the latest arrangement, long term planning is finally a real possibility. Although the success of this government-private sector collaboration is mixed, in that there are excellent examples but also some non-performers whose licenses had to be terminated, it shows the government has both the vision and commitment to protect its forest.
Legality of Sabah FMU timber
Most of the Sabah timber comes from the FMU and state land. In FMU, prior to harvesting, forest inventory check is conducted to register all logs that are >60cm in diameter. The system in Sabah is such that all logs are stamped with the relevant Sabah Forest Management License Agreement (SFMLA) to identify which FMU (and the compartment within the FMU) the log has originated from. Sabah Foretry Department will also stamp on each logs to verify that the royalty of the log is paid. Presence of both these stamps indicates that the timber is legal. This info is listed in the Timber Disposal Permit issued by the Sabah Forestry Department.
The control of the Chain of Custody for the FMU timber goes beyond marking of the logs to the transportation of the logs from the forest to sawmill. This control comes in the form of a document from Sabah Forestry Department: Removal Pass. Logs can only be transported when Removal Pass is issued. This further strengthens the integrity of the Chain of Custody of the Sabah FMU timber.
Third party witness
To ensure no unwanted or illegal timber enters ANCO production system, we enlist the help of third party surveyors to witness and document the cutting of logs in the appointed sawmill into sawn timber. The integrity of the Chain of Custody is then extended from forest sources right up to the sawmill then to ANCO (as the next and final destination of the sawm timber is ANCO timber storage yard).
Deramakot Forest Reserve
Realising the reality of forest depletion, the Sabah Forestry Department with technical support from the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) have developed a management system aimed at sustainable production of timber for logged over forestlands in 1989. The system requires substantial investments in forest planning, infrastructure, low impact harvesting equipment, and training of foresters, managers and forest workers in new techniques.
The objective is to begin the application of ecologically and scientifically acceptable forest management to the logged over Commercial Forest Reserves of Sabah. The intent is to manage the commercial forest reserves in a way that mimics natural processes for production of low volume, high quality, high priced timber products. Sustainability is defined in terms of balance nutrient cycles, forest structure, biodiversity, forest function and socio-economic needs.
Deramakot Forest Reserve is the first natural tropical rainforest in South East Asia managed in accordance with sustainable forestry principles. It was audited by SGS - Forestry Malaysia and certified in 1997 as complying with the requirements of the Malaysian Criteria and Indicators (MC&I) and the Forestry Stewardship Council's (FSC) Standards for Sustainable Forest Management.
Following on the success of Deramakot, the State Government has allocated more areas for the Foresry Department to manage directly such as FMU 10 (75,000 hectares), FMU17 (80,000 hectares), FMU1(11,000 hectares), FMU22 (50,000 hectares) and FMU20 (250,000 hectares).
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