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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Malaysian Government Responds to Widespread

Accusations of Timber Company Misconduct

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

7/1/97

OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE

Denials, PR campaigns and general defensiveness seem to have set in as

the Malaysian government issues denials of gross misconduct worldwide

by Malaysian timber companies. The first piece is Borneo Post

coverage which quotes the Foreign Minister's as saying that

accusations that Malaysia logging companies are practicing

unsustainable logging and illegal logging in the Amazon "are

baseless." The second Borneo Post article provides news concerning

huge new timber concessions by Rimbunan Hijau and WTK in the Amazon,

both from Malaysia.

The conduct of Malaysian timber companies in Sarawak, Papua New

Guinea, Guyana, Suriname and elsewhere makes their brazen and

aggressive expansion an important target for the worldwide forest

campaign. While these companies are a target in their own right,

their conduct is indicative of the wider issue of destructive logging

and the tropical timber industry as a whole.

This said, increasingly the threat posed to virtually all remaining

tropical forest wildernesses by the Malaysian giants (Africa, Asia and

South and Central America) is an international ecological, political

and social crisis. In Papua New Guinea for example, it is impossible

to ignore the significance of Rimbunan Hijau and WTK, nor MUSA in

Suriname, Berjaya in Guyana, Samling in Cambodia, Toledo Atlantic in

Belize, and so on. Several other Chinese and Indonesian companies

round out the large scale Asian rainforest juggernaut.

Certainly these companies provide a new and distinct threat to

rainforests, biodiversity and indigenous cultures in terms of the size

of their concessions, the speed of their expansion and the degree of

their political and economic influence. Some of the other features for

which they've been criticized are hardly unique- among these are

obtaining concessions through bribery; contempt for national forestry

and environmental legislation; intense disputes with local

communities; entering countries and operating behind a complex web of

front companies. Admittedly the Asian Companies are remarkably bad on

all these points and bring these problems to a new level and scale of

operation.

A campaign in its own right against Malaysian style industrial

forestry

is necessary because:

- they are so aggressive that they are opening up new areas that might

not have been logged (or might have been logged by better companies or

even local communities). Certainly they are not just getting

concessions but are buying up whole countries and bioregions.

-that are being actively promoted by their national governments

-they are already influencing (and even drafting) national policy and

influencing international policy. They do not just fit into a

political context but seek to change it to suit themselves. They are

also major funders of political parties in their countries and are

sometimes introducing a new culture of corruption and political

patronage into countries. Individual companies seek to dominate and

monopolize the timber sector in a country so that they can exert

economic leverage and cannot be thrown out. This is clearly different

to a timber industry based on heterogeneous competing companies.

-they are displacing and in some places completely replacing the

domestic timber industry. This is dangerous from an economic and

political basis. Being foreign companies makes them less accountable,

harder to influence domestically, and they transfer their profits.

It is critical that campaigning against Malaysian style industrial

forestry does not fall into the trap of being seen to campaign against

just Asian or just Malaysian companies. The Malaysian timber industry

represents a case study, and the leading evidence in illustrating that

the tropical timber industry is out of control and needs national and

international legal and policy restraint.

g.b. & a secret helper

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

ITEM #1:

Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 19:05:37 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: MALAYSIAN COMPANIES IN BRAZIL

MALAYSIA NOT WORRIED ABOUT LOGGING BASHING IN BRAZIL

Kuala Lumpur, Thurs (Borneo Post : 27.6.97):- Malaysia is not worried

about the latest bashing by environmentalists over its involvement in

logging activities in Brazil, Foreign Minister Datuk Abdullah Ahmad

Badawi said today.

"We are not worried because their accusations are baseless. Let them

do them do what they want and we will continue the explanation," he

told reporters after witnessing the signing of a Memorandum of

Understanding between International City Institute of Technology

(Citi) and Ohio University, here.

The minister was responding to a foreign wire report that several

Malaysia logging companies were accused of practising unsustainable

logging and illegal logging in the Amazon.

"The accusation are not true. No Malaysian companies are involved.

Maybe there is some political or economic agenda behind the bashing.

"This is not the first time. We have been bashed before in Papua New

Guinea for the same reasons. We are not worried with this latest

attempt," he said.

He said the foreign environmental groups were merely unhappy with

Malaysia's active involvement in logging activities, especially in

producing tropical woods in other countries. "Although our ambassador

in Brazil had denied the allegations they (environmental groups)

refused to listen," Abdullah said.

The report also mentioned that some western countries had joined the

environmental groups in making the accusations.

He said Malaysia would not launch any campaign to counter the

accusations but would continue explain the actual situation.

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TIMBER DEAL IN BRAZIL NOT THROUGH YET: RIMBUNAN HIJAU

SIBU, Fri. (Borneo Post 28.6.97):- Rimbunan Hijau Sdn. Bhd, a major

local timber group, has yet to finalise its proposal to purchase two

logging firms in Brazil, its executive chairman Datuk Tiong Hiew King

said today.

He said the proposal was still at the planning stage and there was

nothing concrete yet on the deal.

Tiong was asked to comment on a foreign wire report which quoted a

Brazilian official as saying that Rimbunan Hijau had taken over the

two timber firms based in Belem, Para State for about US$40 million.

Asked to comment on foreign environmental activities' objection to the

deals, he said: "Well, these people always opposed, what can we say.

He had earlier attended an underwriting agreement signing ceremony

here for Subur Tiasa Holdings, a member of the Rimbunan Hijau group,

in conjuction with its proposed listing on the Main Board of the Kuala

Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE).

The report also quoted Malaysia's Brazil Ambassador Datuk Zainal Zain

as confirming that another local-based timber firm, WTK group had

purchased a sawmil and about 300,000 hectares of timber concession in

a remote area of the Amazona State.

The area was said to be situated between Jurna and Purus River not far

from Brazil border with Peru and Bolivia.

However, WTK's group chairman Datuk Wong Kie Nai was not available for

comment as he was still abroad.

A WTK official when contacted refused to confirm the deal but said

that the company had not started any timber activities in the South

American Country.

Foreign Minister Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when commenting on the

report yesterday said Malaysia was not worried about the latest

bashing by environmentalists over its involvement in logging

activities in Brazil.

He had said that the report was not true and that no Malaysia logging

companies were involved in (in unsustainable and illegal logging) in

the Amazon-Bernama.

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