Forests

The federal Forestry Department in Peninsular Malaysia began the 1970s confronting several issues from an unexpectedly turbulent first decade of independence (Malayan Forester 1983). The 1958 Forest Administration Report by the chief conservator of forests had been upbeat about the possibilities for forestry in the new nation (quoted in Malayan Forester 1960a, p. 1):

Thus it comes about that the present time is one where there has been a culmination of three factors vital and favourable to the future of forestry in Malaya. Firstly, the “tools” for the essential job of converting the nation's forests to a higher yielding type have been evolved. Secondly, after eighteen years of delay resulting from the war and the Emergency, ¹ it has now become possible to put the tools to work. And, thirdly, the machinery now exists, under a strong Federal Government, for developing a practical Federal Forest Policy before it is too late.