00:00A forest reserve is a protected area which has been set aside to preserve wildlife, plants
00:06and other elements within its ecosystem.
00:09While squatting has been a problem dating back from times immemorial, it is taking on
00:13a different dimension which, according to Chief Executive Officer of the Land Settlement
00:18Agency Hazar Hussain, is causing serious damage to this country's forest reserves as hundreds
00:24of new squatters erect structures annually.
00:27In particular now, there's a lot of movement of new structures in our forest reserves which
00:33is frightening.
00:35And if we look at the Valencia area, the long stretch reserves, there's a lot of new squatting
00:42taking place and destruction of our pristine forests.
00:46And that is something that is troubling to all of us.
00:50Commissioner of State Lands Paula Driggs believes it needs urgent attention before all of the
00:55forest reserves are depleted and she points out that squatting isn't the only issue.
01:01We don't have much time.
01:02I think we are out of time as a matter of fact.
01:05And there are two reasons mainly.
01:07Of course, yes, it's the clearing of the forest reserves, let us say, in the lower levels.
01:12Those have practically gone, either into residential squatting or quarrying.
01:22At least with the legal quarrying, we know that it will be rehabilitated later on.
01:27She indicates that while the Northern Range is private lands and as such does not fall
01:31under state lands, there are forest reserves there as well.
01:36But there's a problem.
01:37Some of them are not officially up to now designated as forest reserves.
01:42So I know Conservatory of Forests and myself have been working to de-reserve some of what
01:48has already been lost and formally reserve the forest reserves in the Northern Range.
01:55If you're wondering just how dire the situation is, Driggs has provided a jaw-dropping estimate
02:01of the affected reserves in the Northern Range, to which Public Accounts Committee Chairman
02:06Devindranath Tanku expresses concern.
02:09I can't give an exact figure at this point or percentage, but I will say it's about 50
02:15to 60% of those forest reserves in the northern part of the country, northern central part
02:20of the country.
02:23Thank you very much.
02:24That is extremely, extremely disturbing because I live in a constituency, I run a constituency
02:29that has flooding as a major, major factor and the deterioration of the hillsides will
02:35be an obvious factor in causing flooding.
02:39So that's a major concern.
02:41The LSA CEO has revealed that the agency is in the process of assessing the situation
02:47at a Valencian long-stretch forest reserve through a survey that is underway.
02:52It is being done through data collection underground as well as drone technology for imaging.
02:58So far we have surveyed approximately 4,000 acres in the particular area, Valencia Forest
03:05Reserve, and we have discovered over 5,000 structures.
03:09The surveyed area accounts for one-third of the entire reserve.
03:13The LSA is hoping to complete the survey of the other 8,000 acres in short order, following
03:19which it says the data can be submitted to the Public Accounts Committee.
03:24Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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