KUCHING, March 29: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, acting primarily through the FAO EU FLEGT Programme, signed a Letter of Agreement with the Sarawak Forest Department to carry out a gap assessment of the newly harmonised Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) guidelines for Sarawak against international best practice and through multi-stakeholder consultation.
The EU FLEGT stands for `European Union (EU) Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade’.
The letter was signed on Wednesday (March 27) by FAO EU FLEGT Programme’s Asia and Pacific Regional Office’s forestry officer Bruno Cammaert and Sarawak Forest director Hamden Mohammad.
The harmonised RIL Guidelines For Sarawak is an important step to standardise timber harvesting method in Sarawak in order to regulate the timber industry in Sarawak.
In this project, FDS and WWF-Malaysia will work together to ensure successful implementation of the projects.
Together, both parties will ensure that the RIL guideline for Sarawak is improved following international best practice and through a consultative process.
The event was witnessed by Head of Conservation from WWF-Malaysia Dr Jason Hon, FAO EU FLEGT Programme in Asia Pacific consultant Josie P Murray, Sarawak Forest Department deputy director Abang Ahmad Abang Morni and Sarawak Forest Department International Affairs Division head Mohd Shahbudin Sabki. — DayakDaily
