The Sabah state government said it remains on target to achieve 30 percent of Total Protected Forests or TPA under the Heart of Borneo (HOB) initiative undertaken by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Sabah aims to expand  to 30 percent from the current 26 percent of the state’s land area or 1.9 million hectares already gazetted as TPA under the HOB initiative.

About 75 percent of the 1.9 million hectares of TPA is located within the Malaysian boundary in Borneo.

The HOB initiative began 14 years ago and since then Sabah has achieved significant progress in forest conservation.

The TPA expansion target is in line with Sabah’s five-year development plan – the Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) 2021-2025 which included the HOB initiative in the Green Infrastructure and Sustainability Networks.

The Sabah government stated that from their concerted efforts it has maintained 50 percent of its landmass under forest cover and the state has increased forest covers to 65 percent of which 52 percent were gazetted as forest reserves, parks and wildlife conservation areas.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE