INFAPRO Workshop

The Chairman of th~ Board of Director of Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd, Tan Sri Datu Khalil bin Datu Haji Jamalul said that the Innoprise - FACE Foundation Rainforest Rehabilitation Project [INFAPRO] demonstrated the possibility to plant dipterocarp trees on a large scale.

Tan Sri Khalil said that there is an 'infinite' possibility of increasing tree biodiversity with INFAPRO compared with fast growing tree plantations. Speaking atiOil'fP1e closing ceremony of a three-day INFAPRO workshop and field studies at the Danum Valley Field Centre, Lahad Datu on Augus: 1, 2000, Tan Sri Khalil added INFAPRO also offered a new approach in financing tree 'plantatio I y utilising 'carbon money' .

"ICSB had adopted a similar programme in another part of the concession area in Tawau involving rehabilitation of degraded forest," he said.

The only difference, he added, is that ICSBhas a partner, IKEA one of the largest furniture stores in the world. The Innoprise-IKEA or INIKEA project started in 1998 aimed at rehabilitating 14,000 hectares of degraded forests in Luasong, Tawau with indigenous tree species.

Tan Sri Khalil explained that INFAPRO or its akin, is only one approach of keeping the forests stocked with regeneration. "It isan expensive approach. The cost of rehabilitating a logged forest is in the region of RM1,000 to RM1,500 per hectare," he added.

Albert I. Ganing, INFAPRO \ field staff, [with hat] explaining the shorea ocalis [seraya kepong] seedling to the workshop participants during their field studies at th fNFAPRO nursery I Tan Sri Khalil presenting a

certificate to one of the workshop participants

He also said that given the extent of the forest concession that Yayasan Sabah has, the amount of reforestation efforts done by ICSBis meager by comparison. participants attended the workshop whiiCh was jointly organised by lCSB and FACE Foundation of the Netherlands with the theme "Forest Rehabilitation and C02 Sequestration of Logged Forest in Sabah".