Greening of CFS Corridor helps preserve forest biodiversity, ecosystem

MERSING, Dec 3 -- Greening of the Central Forest Spine (CFS) Corridor, which will be the green lungs of Peninsular Malaysia, is hoped will ensure sustainable forest management and land use in efforts to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Johor Forestry director Datuk Salim Aman said through the initiative, more than 3,000 saplings of rare trees and non-dipterocarp species or forest trees, such as Merbau, Tampoi and Kerdas, would be planted in the  Mersing Forest Reserve.

He said the Mersing Forest Reserve was part of the ecological corridor for 'Improving Connectivity in the Central Forest Spine' (IC-CFS) project and a subset of the Endau Rompin-Ulu Sedili Forest Complex, which is a wildlife habitat area and an Orang Asli  settlement.

IC-CFS is a project first introduced in 2014 which aims to conserve biodiversity, as well as ecosystem services,  in the forest landscape of interest in the CFS area by the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia.

"Tree planting activities does not only benefit the wildlife in the ecological corridor, but also among the methods in promoting carbon absorption," he said at the CFS Corridor Greening 100 Million Tree Planting Campaign at the Mersing Forest Reserve here yesterday.

The text of Salim’s speech was read out by the State Foresty deputy director Abd Ramli Zauyahhudin. 

Also present were social media influencers Hazeman Huzir, Shazz Zainuddin and Schaffy Zainuddin who joined in the tree planting.

Salim said greening of the one-hectare CFS Corridor involved the cooperation of various parties including the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN), the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), the Orang Asli community and FELDA.

“Among others, the programme provides a platform for biodiversity conservation and wildlife rehabilitation efforts, especially in enhancing IC-CFS ecological connectivity in Labis Timur-Lenggor-Mersing Forest Reserve with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

"Apart from that, the Endau Rompin Forest Reserve as the country's second largest mega-microbial diversity area is an added point towards the conservation of the critical IC-CFS network in the Endau Rompin-Ulu Sedili Forest Complex, which is an Orang Asli settlement, "he said.

For the record, the Johor Forestry Department targets 4 million trees to be planted within five years to achieve Malaysia's greening agenda through the 100 Million Tree Planting Campaign by 2025 with an average of 800,000 trees per year.

-- BERNAMA