Below is an extract of Global Environment Centre. Please support and defend the KLNFR before it is becoming a mixed development area. We must fight to protect our priceless forest! The Selangor State Government is now proposing to degazette 930.93 ha of the forest reserve for a mixed development project. The Selangor State Forestry Department has, by way of a notice in the media on the Feb 5, 2020, invited stakeholders in the Kuala Langat district to voice their objections to the proposal within 30 days.

Protecting every piece of our peat swamp forests is crucial in combating haze and climate crisis.  HELP SAVE KUALA LANGAT NORTH FOREST RESERVE: Home of Orang Asli & Biodiversity. If we do not end deforestation or degazettement, it will jeopardise our efforts to reduce global warming and mitigate climate change. Please kindly support this petition. Share it on your social media and talk to your family and friends about it. Share the updates world-wide and tag influencers.
 
We need all the support from the public (including the youth groups, universities, climate change and environmental focused groups) in this effort to Save Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve by providing additional information on values of forest in payment for ecosystem, biodiversity (flora & fauna), carbon assessment, social values for OA and others. Various groups are already carrying out separate campaigns for this cause.  The proposed degazettement of KLNFR is not in line with the Selangor State Government's plan in the 2035 State Structure Plan to maintain 32% of the forest area in the State of Selangor. This proposed degazettement is also not in line with the Act 313, National Forestry Act 1984, National Action Plan for Peatlands (2011-2020), the National Policy on  Biological Diversity (2016-2025) and the Third National Physical Plan (NPP-3), the Land Conservation Act 1960 (Act 385) related to conservation and protection of environmental resources and other obligations both in Malaysia and abroad.

WHAT IS AT STAKE?

1. Degazettment of KLNFR would disregard the rights of the Orang Asli people who have lived for more than 134 years (since 1886). The State Government must be fair and equitable to protect the interests of the indigenous communities in the area;
2. The clearing of forest area for development purposes will endanger ecological degradation, loss of wildlife habitat, flora and aquatic extinction;
3. Increase the risk of fire in the KLNFR and surrounding peatland areas;
4. Increase soil subsidence and flood risk in the area and the surrounding peatland areas;
5. Increase the risk of floods in oil palm plantations managed by the Orang Asli;
6. Ecological disturbance to the Langat and Klang rivers basins;
   Development of KLNFR (including tree felling, peat and drainage) leads to the release of 5.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), which contributes to local, and global warming and climate change problems; and
7. Loss of research and education, recreation, eco-tourism sites and local socio-economic.                                                                        At 957.63ha of KLNFR, it has the capacity to store carbon up to 1,600 Mg C ha-1 per hectare and the total stored stock capacity of KLNFR is approximately 1,500,000 tonnes of C. An estimated 5.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions can also be avoided if the KLNFR is not developed and maintained as a Permanent Reserved Forest.  Doesn't the Orang Asli in Malaysia mean anything to us, they have to fight to stay in their Ancestral Land, more often than naught, they lose the battle as their voices are unheard and because they don't know how to legally contest their heritage land, they are displaced and chased out again and again and again.  Do you know what it is like to be treated worse than  dogs? Then that is how the Orang Asli, the Aborigines of Malaysia are treated. They have nobody to fight for them, it is up to us to support this cause. They have been in the forest for generations, and presently, they are displaced and the forest cleared until there is nothing left. Stand up and fight for a worthy cause. Fight for their rights and against the Degazettment of the reserve land.