Permanent Forest Estate

The Forests Ordinance cap 126 provides for the establishment of three categories of permanent forests.

Forest Reserves. Forest Reserve is a part of the Permanent Forest Estate which will normally be a productive forest, destined to be the principal permanent source of the state's supply of timber and other forest produce which admits limited rights or privileges for the local people to utilize the forest produce. Forest Reserves are constituted wherever the strictest form of control is necessary for the realisation of sections (1) and (2) of the general statement of the Forest Policy.

Protected Forests. In Protected Forests, the Forests Ordinance cap 126 permits the people of Sarawak to take forest produce for their own domestic use, to hunt and to fish, and to pasture cattle. A Protected Forest may be constituted if the primary purpose of constitution is the general protection of soils and waters, and the terrain or vegetation is of such a nature that intensive management as an important productive forest is unlikely to be practicable; or if an extensive Permanent Forest is constituted in little-known territory, where the correct use of all the land cannot yet be determined.

Communal Forests. A Communal Forest will be constituted only where it is clearly the desire of a settled community to set aside a convenient area of woodland to provide the domestic needs of forest produce. Such forest shall be under the control of the Administration, who shall, however, consult the Forest Department on all important technical matters. Communal Forests will normally be large enough only to supply, permanently, the domestic needs of the community specified, allowing for a reasonable increase in population; but exceptions may be made when the necessity of preserving forests for protective reasons is combined with the need for domestic supplies of forest produce.