Rimbunan Hijau logging in Russia sparks eco-fears
Copyright 2001 Malaysiakini
November 16, 2001
6:15pm, Fri: Russian environmentalists expressed their concern that logging activities in the northeastern region of Russia by Malaysian timber company Rimbunan Hijau would cause irreparable ecological damage and adversely affect the lives of people there. Approximately 310,000 hectares of forest in the sub-district of Lazo, Khabarovsky, would be affected and 550,000 cu m would be logged yearly. The logging concession was sold to Rimbunan Hijau in 1997 for a period of 49 years. The company has also bought up the concessions for two other areas, Solnechsky and Ulchsky, further up north.
Rimbunan Hijau is owned by Sarawakian timber and newspaper tycoon Tiong Hiew King who has business interests in Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and other places.
“The ecology and the environment as well as the livelihoods of people living in the area would be severely affected,” indigenous rights activist Radion Sulandziqq told malaysiakini today.
Overlapping territoriesSulandziqq lives in Gvasyugi, a town about 50km away from the logging area, which is part of a territory allocated for traditional use of resources by indigenous populations.
“Our biggest concern is that Rimbunan Hijau does not have any long-term plans and it is only there to maximise profits. It is an international company that just takes what it wants and leaves.
“It (this issue) also concerns the indigenous people and the landscape,” Sulandziqq said.
According to him, the logging activities overran a territory marked out for the use of the locals to hunt, fish and gather. Destruction of the forests would mean that locals would be forced to move out farther to survive.
The Penan, an indigenous group in the interior of Sarawak, have also protested in August last year against Rimbunan Hijau when its subsidiary Lajung Lumber logged their forest settlement in Baram.
Fined several times
In another development, Sulandziqq also said a road was being planned to connect the northern region of Russia to a port on the Sea of Japan.
“If the new road is opened up another area in the neighbouring region of Primovsky would be affected. There would be logging and illegal poaching,” he said, adding that another Russian company was also aggressively logging in Primovsky.
Irina Belova, a journalist who lives in the Khabarovsky region, said that Rimbunan Hijau had been fined several times for infraction of forestry laws.
“It has paid the fines but the regional administration is becoming less and less vigilant or eager to record down infractions,” Belova said.However, according to her, Rimbunan Hijau had also paid RM380,000 (US$100,000) for a reforestation programme, RM1.71 million (US$450,000) to the regional administration and RM380,000 to the indigenous population.
“The project, however, also provides work for the people living in Sukpai, which was a Soviet-era town created to harvest the timber there. When the economy took a turn for the worse, the people there lost their jobs but they gained employment when the company came in.
“But you must keep in mind this is only for the short term,” she said.Sulandziqq and Belova are part of a group of Russian environmentalists who came to Kuala Lumpur for a three-day conference called the ‘Ring of fire’ that discussed industrial timber trade activities and forest conservation efforts. The conference ended yesterday.
Members of the coalition of environmentalists and indigenous activists who attended the conference are from Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Burma, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Russia, Indonesia, the United States and Japan.
Rimbunan Hijau and other loggers urged to be more ‘responsible’