Gerak Saga Sdn Bhd is signatory to a 100-year Sustainable Forest Management License Agreement ("SFMLA") over 6,467 ha of land located on the Bengkoka Peninsula in the Pitas district of the State of Sabah.
The SFMLA is for the development of a managed Industrial Tree Plantation in an area dominated by frequent fire events and wild Acacia mangium regrowth. The little natural forest patches remaining are concentrated in river corridors and have been protected.
Under the provisions of the SFMLA, Gerak Saga is required to undertake, inter-alia, the extraction of residual timber, establishment of a managed forest plantation and restoration of natural forest areas. The company is scheduled to plant 5,800 ha Eucalyptus pellita and Acacia crassicarpa, to be completed by the year 2023.
Harvesting is based on a ten-year rotation cycle and will yield approximately 100,000m3 per annum of plantation timber.
We operate within a rigorous planning, production and auditing processes, supported by GPS based forest mapping and drone aerial photography.
Data is captured into our GIS and work managed through our integrated forest management system, Viso-Apps.
Silvicultural regimes are established and continually developed to improve the quality and quantity of products from plantations. Activities in the establishment regime include:
Maintenance works reduce the competition between the trees and weeds at the same time promote growth and increase chance of tree survival. Maintenance works include:
Gerak Saga measures an ever increasing network of Permanent Sample Plots to monitor actual growth of the planted forest stands.
The company is also a member of the Borneo Forestry Cooperative which provides a forum for companies to perform collaborative research in the following areas:
Conducting sustainable harvesting operations based on the detailed annual operational harvest plan. The aim is to:
The handling and control of harvested timber from stump to point of sale is a crucial aspect of profitability. The logistics team has to ensure that the flow of logs is efficient and secure. Their work includes: