KOTA BHARU: The total area of permanent forest reserve (HSK) in Kelantan has exceeded the area of production forest said Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah.

He said HSK area has been increasing in the past five years and as of 2021 there were 629,880.95 hectares compared to 613,275.43 hectares in 2017, while production forests covered 468,714.63 hectares as of 2021.

Mohd Amar said forest harvesting or logging activities were only allowed in the production forests.

"Kelantan also has forest carbon credits covering an area of 149,025 hectares in 2021 aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation," he said in an interview here recently.

Elaborating, Mohd Amar said various parties claimed that the Kelantan state government had been allowing logging activities without supervision but each logging activity was carried out based on the annual felling ration (CTT) quota.

He revealed the Kelantan CTT quota under the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016-2020) was 27,085 hectares, and only half (13,054 hectares) was utilised.

"During these five years, the logging activities were less than the given quota. For example, only 1,277 hectares was utilised, though the approved quota in 2021 was 3,900 hectares.

"Between 2017 and 2020, the permitted CTT quota was 5,417 hectares annually but in 2017 only 3,100 hectares were taken up, 2018 (3,147 hectares), 2019 (1,858 hectares) and 2020 (2,325 hectares), he added.

-- BERNAMA