Remote sensing way to also monitor illegal logging, fires

Remote sensing way to also monitor illegal logging, fires
08 April, 2005
Kota Kinabalu: Two State government agencies sealed a Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the Malaysian Centre for Remote Sensing (Macres) to capitalise on precision spatial technology to boost resources management and productivity.

The ceremony was witnessed by Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datu Nasrun Datu Mansur, representing Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman at Pacific Sutera Harbour Resort, Thursday.

Musa said it was timely for both Sawit Kinabalu Group and Yayasan Sabah Group to obtain expert service in up-to-date technology in the bid to better manage its resources and boost productivity.

He said the use of Remote Sensing (RS) technology by Yayasan Sabah would allow a more efficient sustainable management of its vast tract of forested land in the State, while for Sawit Kinabalu in managing its rapidly expanding oil palm plantations.

The MoU with Yayasan Sabah also covers the monitoring of illegal logging and forest fire.

"So the use of RS technology would assure enhancement of productivity capacity," said Musa who is Yayasan Sabah Board of Trustees Chairman.

Musa who is also Sawit Kinabalu Group Chairman said it was important for government agencies to take steps to position itself with a competitive edge by keeping abreast with advanced technologies.

He said Sawit Kinabalu, for instance, must make strategic choice to adopt best practices and new technologies in order to confront the uncertain business environment.

He added that the State Government was willing to invest in the business in the business where it can increase the competitive edge of Sabah through its corporation such as Sawit Kinabalu.

Sawit Kinabalu Group was represented by its Acting Managing Director, Salim Mohammad, while Director, Tan Sri Khalil Jamalul on behalf of Yayasan Sabah Group signed the MoU with Macres represented by its Director, Datuk Nik Nasruddin Mahmood.

Under the collaboration, Sawit Kinabalu would acquire the necessary knowledge and skill in the processing and analysing satellite data as well as spatial modeling in the Geographical Information System (GIS) environment.

While Macres would get the experience in developing an operational methodology for an effective oil palm plantation management using the Remote Sensing (RS) and related spatial technologies.

The project is expected to be implemented over five years beginning next month with the first stage involving a collaboration on oil palm nutrition using RS technology to develop a model to identify areas with nutrient deficiencies.

This allowed Sawit Kinabalu, which is the first oil palm plantations' company in Sabah to venture into the technology, to take corrective measures on poor performing palms accurately, faster and cheaper.

Salim in his speech said the scope of this collaboration also involve human resource development programme.

He also said that the joint project was crucial for Sawit Kinabalu to help achieve its goal of productivity improvement, which is 25 per cent Oil Extraction Rate and 35 Metric Tonnes of Fresh Fruits Bunches per hectare/year.

Sawit also hoped that the project to commercialise the project in the future. According to Nasruddin, said the RS technology is based on the Macres transceiver station in Temerloh, Pahang, which has the capacity to receive data directly from satellites such as RadarSat, Spot 2,4,5 Landsat, NOAA, MODIS and OCM at real time.

Khalil believed that the combination of Yayasan Sabah's knowledge in the forestry industry and Macres expertise in RS, it would lead to new and benefiting results not only for both organisations but also for the industry.