The Kota Damansara Community Forest Reserve covers an area of 321.7 hectares. It was regazetted for conservation, recreation and education in 2010 in response to a civil society campaign to prevent this forest from being converted into housing. Today it is all that remains of the much larger Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve of 6,590 hectares, one of Malaysia’s oldest Forest Reserves, which was first gazetted in 1898.
The Forestry Department of Selangor is the official custodian of the forest and enforces Forestry laws. KDCF Society was established to represent local residents and all who have an interest in safeguarding and conserving the forest. Together we are developing a framework for collaboratively managing the forest, while creatively finding ways to generate funding to develop programmes to enable all segments of society to connect with nature.
The Kota Damansara Community Forest Reserve is an exciting model of what can be achieved when diverse groups committed to caring for nature are enabled to work together for beneficial outcomes.