MIRI: It is blazing hot in Miri and to make matters worse, many big, tall and shady trees are being cut down throughout the city.

Miri is not the only place facing this situation.

Other urban areas in Sarawak such as Kuching, Bintulu and Sibu are also no longer as “green” as before.

In fact, even the rural areas are becoming less green by the year.

I was quite shocked to see vast stretches of land on both sides of the old Pan Borneo Highway berween Miri and Batu Niah totally cleared of forests.

I took a drive along the route recently and saw massive land clearing taking place.

It was not that long ago when these stretches were full of tall trees and dense bushes.

The lush greenery is now gone and the hillslopes are barren. They have been cleared for the setting up of oil palm plantations.

It was quite a shock that so much forested land had been cleared in recent years.

If one were to drive through the lower Baram area, similar scenes can be seen.

And now even the forests adjacent to Mulu National Park in the centre of Baram are being cleared.

Such is the ferocious pace of logging cum plantation development in Sarawak.

There is a need for stricter laws in this state to govern the activities of logging and plantations for the sake of preserving our natural assets.

Four years ago, the then Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem stopped the issuance of new licences for commercial large scale plantations in Sarawak.

The Sarawak state government, he said, will no longer issue new permits for such large scale commercial plantations as there were too much controversy over these land openings.

Announcing this during a gathering with Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) leaders and members in Miri then, he said there were enough of such plantations in the state already.

There are too many court cases over land disputes due to such commercial plantation issues. Enough is enough, he said.

“I have to look into the interests of all sides, especially the natives.

“We the state government are carrying out comprehensive surveys to mark the boundary of the native customary land.

“We are serious in wanting to protect the native land,” he said.

Adenan was the president of PBB which is the backbone party of the then Sarawak Barisan Nasional.

Sadly, Adenan passed away in early 2017.

He had by then frozen new permits for logging and plantations.

While it is good that no new licences will be issued for new plantations, my question is, what about those companies with licences in their hands?

It looks like they are now allowed to continue expanding their plantations by clearing more forests.

We need stricter measures to stop such large scale land clearing before more damage is done to the environment.

Sarawak used to be very green but the situation now is worrying.

The present administration led by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg must reverse the situation by halting large scale clearing of land.