About the Malaysia Safeguards Information System (MY-SIS)

The Malaysia Safeguards Information System (MY-SIS) has two primary purposes, namely (a) to ensure the sustainable management of Malaysia’s natural forest, and (b) to meet the requirements of UNFCCC for results-based payments (RBP). In the MY-SIS, this is achieved through drawing on independent assessments of forest management practices for certification, measuring the effectiveness of forest management practices, and examining progress towards key national targets for sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation. It is a unified platform for reporting on state, federal and international levels that shows how Malaysia addresses and respects the seven Cancun Safeguards, and which shall help to mobilise funding under the UNFCCC REDD Plus framework.

The main features of the MY-SIS are:

  • It provides transparent and reliable information.
  • It is cost effective, by building upon existing systems and data sources, specifically from the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) and from the Biodiversity Management Division under the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change (NRECC).
  • It supports online data entry.
  • It supports key reporting requirements, including generating data for Summaries of Information (SOI).

How MY-SIS Operates

The MY-SIS was established through a series of consultations with relevant stakeholders on its content and design. It is based on an online database that is structured to facilitate the storage, retrieval and modification of relevant data  to demonstrate how the Cancun Safeguards are addressed and respected within Malaysia’s circumstances, which then will facilitate Malaysia’s reporting to the UNFCCC.

Guided by the requirements proposed by Decision 12/CP.17 of UNFCCC and Malaysia’s unique forest management system, MY-SIS is based on existing national systems, in which relevant aspects of these systems were adopted to structure and support the MY-SIS database. The two key systems are:

The approach used to develop the MY-SIS was a practical one, where the complexity of forest issues and relevant jurisdictions were examined, and relevant laws and policies assessed, covering forestry, biodiversity, environment, climate change and other related areas. The relevant policies, laws and regulations forms the basis for how Malaysia addresses and respects the Safeguards, while the MC&I SFM indicators contribute to how safeguards performance can be tracked. In addition, FMU-level reporting against the MC&I SFM, and reporting on the National Policy on Biological Diversity, form two key information sources for updating the information in the MY-SIS and monitoring progress.

The MY-SIS is managed by the REDD Plus Unit (URP) under the Malaysian Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change (NRECC) and is updated on a regular basis.