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Extracted from Malaysiakini
Taib defends timber
policy
Dec 1,
Sarawak
Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud strongly defended his timber policy following
what he described as a smear campaign by western environmentalists and
non-government organisations (NGOs), against logging activities in the state.
He said despite the government “having successfully
countered the unsubstantiated accusations with scientific facts and figures,”
these groups continue to raise the issue from time to time.
However,
he added that the state government was not “overly concerned about such
unfounded accusations.”
Taib was speaking at the opening of a three-day
International Media and Environment Summit, attended by about 300 delegates and
journalists from about 40 countries in Kuching yesterday.
He said the state was practising sustainable forest
management and conservation based on plans and policies it had initiated with
international agencies such as the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO),
the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) and the Malaysia-German
Technical Co-operation (GTZ).
According to Taib, the forest conservation area in
“This area will remain undisturbed forests for generations
to come as we have put in place the necessary legal framework to prevent any
changes to their permanent status,” he said.
Millions of hectares
Taib did not reveal the extent of the total area being
logged, but malaysiakini learnt that several million hectares have already been licensed
as large logging concessions of no less than 500,000 hectares each with a
25-year cutting cycle based on a selective felling, at the rate of seven mature
trees from one hectare.
He
said annual log production from what is described as permanent forest estates
does not exceed 9.2 million cubic metres, but it is also learnt that illegal
logging still does take place, even though enforcement on the ground has had
some limited success in checking it.
As
a result, actual log production could be higher, easily exceeding 10 million
hectares, which is however way below the high of 18 million hectares annual log
output per annum at one time in the recent past.
Timber is a major source of income for
Large concessions are mostly in the hands of state
timber-based conglomerates such as Samling, Ta Ann, KTS, Rimbunan Hijau,
Shinyang and WTK.
The opening of such large areas for logging had created
numerous conflicts, some even fatal, on the ground between logging companies
and natives.
Taib said Sarawak had become the target for concerted
attacks by various environmental organisations, culminating in a number of
untoward incidents, including setting-up road blocks in the jungles to prevent
logs from passing through,
“Our determination to solve the issue in a constructive
way was testified by the fact that all timber companies which have suffered
from the blockades have treated the local inhabitants humanely and even fed the
protestors for months on end during the blockades.
“We were perplexed as to why we were chosen as the
target,” he said, adding that “the only logical conclusion we can make is that
Sarawak seems to be the only place left in the world that is still unspoilt and
has the luxury of having a large tract of tropical virgin forests containing a
wide variety of bio-diversity resources.”