Merely gazetting Tasik Chini, Pahang, as a forest reserve would not provide adequate protection for the lake and its surrounding ecosystem, said the lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan.

This is because state governments can unilaterally gazette and degazette permanent forest reserves under the National Forestry Act 1984 (NFA) by simply publishing a notice in the national gazette.

“As such any ‘protection’ afforded by the gazettement is purely illusory...