Author: Stephen David; Published Date: 26th September 2022
This visit was held on 6th – 7th September 2022 to fulfill the invitation from Forest Solution Malaysia Managing Director (MD) Mr. Glen McNair. The official visit was led by SFDSB MD Mr. Norman Wong, Mr. Bryant Wong, Mr. Teddy Sius, Stephen David, Flerrencius Josilin, and G. Ary Micheal. The purpose of this visit is to visit their plantation operation, and the main objective is to exchange ideas and challenges faced by the company and how they handle them.
The visit started with a big breakfast at the FSM office and, at the same time, presented us with the official video of FSM overview of their office and ground operations. After breakfast, we traveled to Gerak Sabah, Bengkoka Forest Reserve Pitas.
At the planting operation led by Mr. Alexander Mawing, they use SK-10 fertilizer. This fertilizer is in the form of nuggets and is waste-free from using a plastic bag to pack the fertilizer.
We visited Taxa Trial Plot, managed by Mr. Jino Albert. He explained the taxa trial operation, the importance, and how they conducted the data collection. Unfortunately, as described by Mr. Jino, the white laran growth is not promising due sandy soil in their area.
At the nursery, which Mr. John Payoi managed, he enlightened the nursery operation work, method, and tools used by them. Their timeline is shorter, i.e., eight weeks, as they use 50cc of cell sizes. One interesting thing, as observed at the nursery, during the transplant work, they use a tool that resembles a “Congkak” that makes their job easier and increases their productivity.
After lunch, a poster presentation from respective departments will explain their roles and responsibilities: forest planning, community program, quality control, compliance, and restoration team. Next station, we visited EP clonal planting, where the EP clonal growth is uniform and growing well. In this session, the officer in charge presented to us and explained the planting material, the history of the plot, and the growth model over time. Next, we visited the Bambangan Log yard, where the logs were delivered and were explained the chain of custody and the process.
On the last day, we visited the fire store at Seraya Camp before moving back to the FSM office in Kota Marudu. Mr. Alexander Mawing has explained the tools and actions should forest fire happen. At around 8.00 a.m, we traveled back to Kota Marudu. Last but not least, this is my second visit to FSM after the previous BFC Operational Field Week Visit last July 2022. I felt honored to join this eye-opening visit, which challenged our team and me in Sapulut to do better. To all my colleagues in Sapulut, Let’s work together to make continuous improvements by beginning with ourselves and Sapulut through training and learning and practices “I see, I think, and I do” to achieve a better result.