KUALA LUMPUR – States should be given more funding to buy back privately-owned forest areas to protect them from deforestation, environmental groups have suggested for Budget 2025.
Persatuan Aktivis Sahabat Alam (Kuasa) said the budget, to be tabled in Parliament this Friday, should increase allocations for ecological fiscal transfer (EFT) schemes for states.
This will enable states to buy up environmentally sensitive land from private owners through the Land Acquisition Act 1960 and the National Land Code.
Kuasa’s media officer, Shakila Zen told Scoop that many green lands have become privately owned, citing an example of the limestone hills in Ipoh that are facing destruction due to quarry activities, even though the area is a level 1 environmentally sensitive area that should be preserved.
“By giving more EFT funds to the state governments, they can buy back or reclaim the land by compensating the owners. With this method, more forests and environmentally sensitive areas could be protected,” she said.
Echoing Shakila’s sentiment on the matter is Meenakshi Raman of Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) who said that the budget increase for EFTs should include not only be done for biodiversity conservation but also for forest protection and conservation as well.
This is critical, she added, if Malaysia wants to protect its water catchment forests to ensure water supply security and prevent floods and soil erosion.
“The forests and biodiversity (rich) states will be less tempted to convert their forests and biodiversity with increased resources for the provision of these ecosystem services.
“(The) RM200 million (given in the last budget) does not go far enough to secure the incentives needed for states to do what is needed,” the SAM president said.
Support smaller, community-scaled projects rather than ‘big, unproven’ projects
Meenakshi also said that Budget 2025 should not provide an increment in incentives for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects and hydrogen sulphide projects, which were said in the previous budget to be finalised by the end of this year.
“Rather than providing such incentives to CCS projects, which are unproven and expensive, the government should channel incentives for increasing renewable energy use as well as for energy efficiency and conservation,” she added.
Similarly, budget funds should be channeled to communities to implement workable climate adaptation projects rather than to third parties, Shakila said.
Community-based programmes to fight climate change are already in practice, she added, citing Kuasa’s works in Orang Asli villages in Kelantan where solar panels were installed by volunteers and Orang Asli themselves in their villages.
This is a better approach rather than funding third party installers, she said.
Other climate change adaptation measures Budget 2025 should increase financing for include enhanced protection of highlands and hills-slopes from heavy rains and erosion; mangrove projects to strengthen coastlines and improve fishermen’s livelihood; creation of more sponge-like spaces in cities to absorb and mitigate flood problems, and proper tree-planting programmes, said Meenakshi.
The budget, she added, should also provide more social protection to farmers and local communities that are affected by climate-related impacts such as fires, droughts, and floods.
Tax plastics production, tax-exempt green NGOs
Meenakshi also suggested the annual budget introduce a tax on plastic production manufacture, sale, use and disposal as an initial step towards reducing plastic production, use and disposal.
She also hopes that the budget would incentivise non-profit environmental groups by exempting them from paying taxes. She said that many groups have to raise money for the activities that they organise, which are non-profit in nature.
“To value their work, such tax exemption will boost environmental activities even further, for the benefit of the nation and the planet.” – October 17, 2025