Speaking to the press Saturday, Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said that the move will not go against the prime minister's directive because "it did not apply to the state," according to New Straits Times. Taib said the land targeted for new plantations "were not permanent forest reserves but land targeted for agriculture since the 1950s."
He added that orangutans were "safe" in the state due to the establishment of a sanctuary. He said the state had also set up a 30,000 hectare (75,000 acre) reservation for the Penan and other indigenous nomadic tribes that live in the rainforest.
Oil palm plantation and forest in Malaysian Borneo.
"There are no reasons for us not to continue opening up more land," he said.
Taib's comments shortly after a month-long protest by the indigenous Kenyah over illegal logging on their communal lands. The blockade of logging roads was broken up by Malaysian police earlier this month.
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