TOKYO: Sarawak is committed to curbing illegal logging and its associated trade, said Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) managing director and chief executive officer Datu Len Talif Salleh.
He said the state imposes very strict requirements on legality verification of logs, with five independent bodies — Forest Department Sarawak, SFC, Harwood Timber Sdn Bhd, Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation, and Royal Malaysian Customs Department — involved in the process.
“These organisations not only enlist internal auditors, but also engage independent external auditors from the National Audit Department, Audit Department of the Chief Minister’s Office Sarawak and financial audits,” he said at the two-day International Symposium on Legality Verified Wood 2010 here on Friday.
Sarawak has also designed and tailor-made a Log Tracking System (LOTS) to capture, record and monitor the details of logs felled, the volume of logs that have been royalty assessed, and the movement of logs from one place to another.
In his comprehensive presentation titled ‘Legality Verification of Logs in Sarawak’, Len said the state has long practised forest management.
“The forest department in the state was formed almost 100 years ago, so this is nothing new to us, and the forest policy of the state was formed some 56 years ago.”
He added that the state’s land code also recognises native customary rights over land even though there is no title.
Sarawak is a major supplier of tropical logs to the global market with exports to Japan for logs and plywood at around 277,000 cubic metres and 1.2 million cubic metres last year.
When queried on the environmental impact of timber harvested from conversion forests and land use matters, Len said this is a very important issue and that the international community should understand local sentiments, political will, as well as the demands and requirements of society for development in the state.
“For the size of 12 million hectares, (Sarawak) has dedicated six million hectares for permanent forests, reserves and estates, together with communal forests, and one million hectares for Totally Protected Areas (TPA) for biodiversity reserve, conservation and education eco-tourism.
“Then we have 1.6 million hectares of NCR land belonging to natives to be used for agricultural crops like rice and oil palm, which is also forest area. The balance 3.7 million hectares is for other land use, part of which is for agriculture, urban development and so on.
“If we combine all of this land, we’re talking about less than 20 per cent of land for agriculture, and at the end of the day, we will develop up to 25 per cent, which is about three million hectares for agriculture, with over 71 per cent under forests,” he explained.
In terms of Sarawak’s development model in relation to land use, he said the government encouraged estate development.
“We encourage large companies to develop oil palm estates because these companies have the financial capabilities to set up manufacturing services, namely the mill, which involves high capital investment.
“Smallholders will not be able to set up a mill to process the oil palm. At the end of the day, the government has to come in and the public fund has to come in to set up the mill, which we are not in the business of running.”
Therefore, he said, it is important for the development of Sarawak to have a combination of estate, private sector, as well as smallholders, so that each can complement the other.
“We have to be very careful when discussing this issue in relation to human rights as this will uplift the socio-economic status of our rural folk to higher levels.
“Otherwise, our people will be condemned to the same lifestyle of the last 100 years for the next 100 years, and we don’t want that,” he added.
Len led 13 Malaysian delegates from the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC), Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB), Sarawak Forest Department, Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC), SFC and Sarawak Timber Association (STA).
They joined around 150 delegates from Indonesia, the United States, China, Japan and Europe.
Meanwhile, in his opening address, Forestry Agency Japan director-general Yoshitsugu Minagawa said illegal logging is one of the factors directly contributing to deforestation and forest degradation.
“Not only does illegal logging damage the forest ecosystem, but it is also widely acknowledged to pose a major challenge to maintaining biodiversity and pursuing sustainable forestry management,” he said.
In 2006, the Japanese government included wood and wood products verified as being legally and sustainably produced in the Law on Promoting Green Purchasing.
Since then, Goho-wood (legal wood) has become the base index for green procurement of construction companies, and local and national government.
The demand for Goho-wood “is expanding in the Japanese market, and has now gone beyond the government and into the private sector,” said Council for Tackling Illegal Logging and Promotion of Goho-wood chairman Motoaki Okuma.
“Wood and wood products pass through complex processing and distribution routes and it is not possible to efficiently check all products at several processing locations. Thus Chain of Custody (CoC) systems become necessary.
“These certify businesses engaged in processing and distribution, and entrust them with providing information on legality and sustainability,” he said.
Since 2006, the number of companies participating in the Goho-wood programme has gone from 4,906 to 7,661.
Minagawa said this shows that “Japan has taken positive action against illegal logging”.
Last year, around 59 per cent of wood products imported into Japan were from Malaysia, and 33 per cent from Indonesia.
In his address to the symposium, Japan Federation of Wood Industry Associations (JFWIA) chairman and Japan Lumber Inspection and Research Association (JLIRA) president Hideo Namiki said: “Our highest goal is the elimination of illegal logging from the face of the earth, and our ultimate dream is that symposiums such as this will become completely unnecessary in the future.”
Organised by JLIRA and JFWIA, the symposium was held for private, government and non-government organisations to convene and exchange information on the latest systems and programmes being implemented to fight illegal logging.
Forest issues have been rising to the forefront of the global stage, with 2011 marked as the International Year of Forests by the United Nations.