KUCHING: World Wildlife Fund for Nature-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) supports the Sarawak government’s intent to uphold integrity and legality of logging operations in Sarawak.
WWF-Malaysia applauded the move in getting the main logging firms touted as the ‘Big Six’, as well as the 15 forestry-related government agencies and companies to sign the Integrity Pledge.
WWF-Malaysia chief executive officer (CEO) Dato’ Dr Dionysius Sharma said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem has been very consistent in his message to all stakeholders concerning the issue in the past few months, and this shows his seriousness to improve Sarawak’s reputation which has been tarnished by allegations of illegal logging and corruption.
“Adenan’s recent statement acknowledges the challenges and gaps that have proliferated into one of the major economic activities for Sarawak. WWF-Malaysia would expect the Chief Minister to send the same message to all levels of economic activities in Sarawak that deal with natural resources,” he said.
Dr Dionysius emphasised another area that WWF-Malaysia would like the Sarawak government to get commitment towards the integrity pledge are agencies entrusted to safeguard the natural resources of the state, covering water, rivers, flora and fauna and minerals.
“These are important components of Sarawak’s rich biodiversity, and are important not only economically but also for the ecosystem.
“WWF-Malaysia believed that Sarawak is moving towards the right path in improving the level of protection of its natural assets and the organisation looks forward to collaborate with the government and other stakeholders towards this end,” he said.
He added that a concerted effort between the government, local communities, timber companies and WWF-Malaysia was needed to uphold the integrity and legality in Sarawak’s timber industry.
The organisation, with its pool of experts in responsible forestry and conservation, could assist in identifying priority conservation areas to determine which areas should be protected first.
“WWF-Malaysia could help to enhance network of totally protected areas through working with local communities to support the gazettement of totally protected area,” said Dr Dionysius.
“We could guide timber licensees on good forest management and eco-system connectivity in ensuring that sustainable logging are done properly in areas already earmarked by the government as totally protected areas upon the expiry of timber concessions, thus not leaving degraded forest when licences expire,” he added.
Dr Dionysius hoped that Sarawak would also go for independent third party auditing for its legality system which will further enhance transparency and strengthen the state’s credibility in long term forest management improvements towards sustaining its natural resources.
He pointed out that having such a system will increase buyers’ confidence in the global timber market that they are purchasing legally produced timber.
Such a move to eradicate illegal logging will make it possible for Sarawak to expedite in the signing of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement – Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VPA-FLEGT), giving access to wider market and reducing the state’s dependency on Japan and Far East.