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KUCHING, Sept 4: Only land owners with alienated land, gazetted Native Customary Rights (NCR) land and State land titles are eligible to be issued with Sarawak carbon trading licences.
Ministry of Energy and Environmental Sustainability (Meetsy) Deputy Minister Dr Hazland Abang Hipni said for alienated land, the landowners are either themselves or companies.
According to him, the first licence for alienated land was issued in March this year to one of the biggest timber companies in Sarawak with about 1.2 million hectares of land.
“The Sarawak government also allows the company to have not exceeding 20 per cent of dedicated reforestation area within that area of land to plant fast-growing trees which can be exported,” he said during World Green and Sustainability Summit held at UCSI Hotel here today.
As for gazetted NCR land, Dr Hazland stated smallholders with minimum of 100 hectares each may participate.
However, he pointed out that for economic gains, 100 hectares of land is not viable because of the high fees.
“So the actual minimum size is about 500 hectares, and smallholders can join together to make up the numbers to be at least 500 hectares so that they can profit from it.
“State land, of course, will be managed by government-linked companies (GLCs), either existing or new, which will manage carbon trading for Sarawak,” he added. — DayakDaily
