Chief Minister's Message
Minister of Industrial Development
The one-day conference will showcase the Sabah State Government Forest Conservation efforts and how we can grow money from trees.
The Sabah International Business Conference 2010 (SIBC2010) will provide a platform for investors, conservationists and policymakers to learn more about the market potential of sustainable forest management programs. The speakers involved in forest and conservation management will share their experience and discuss how we can monetize our forest other than cutting down trees.
In the Juma reserve, in Brazil's Amazonas state for example, business minded conservationists have struck on what they think is a solution. The idea: how to calculate many trees that are in danger of being deforested to determine the value of forest as timber or agricultural land and develop a financial instrument to match or exceed the value. In Sabah, for example, a Sydney based investment firm New Forests has established a "wildlife conservation banking scheme" to protect the 34,000 hectares Malua forest reserve. The company expects to receive a return of 15% to 20% by selling "biodiversity credits" on the voluntary market.
The list of voluntary initiatives is a long one. Sustainable forest certification initiatives, such as those developed by sustainable agriculture and forestry bodies such as the Rainforest Alliance and the Forest Stewardship Council, have brought value to well managed forests. Eco Tourism is another means of achieving the same end.
Investors are slowly warming up to the idea of market based forest conservation, but turning theory into reality is not easy. Critics are quick to point out the methodological hurdles. For example, how can we arrive at an accurate figure for the averted carbon emission? Environmentalist can also object to credits being used for monoculture commercial tree plantations, like palm oil, which they argue destroy local biodiversity.
Politics and principles also play a major part. Many biodiversity rich countries worry that forestry credits schemes will result in them losing their land sovereignty to international carbon traders in New York, Frankfurt or London.
Forest Carbon and other market based proposal will invite debate for some time to come. For the moment though, the main players are merging towards one shared consensus i.e. the success of any scheme will depend on the cooperation of governments and the local communities obtaining substantive benefits.
This is an important conference for participants who intend to embark on market based forest conservation and to identify opportunities to monetize Sabah's forests through sustainable management program.
