Sapuan (left) speaking to reporters after officiating at the workshop while Dr Ahmad looks on. — Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: Prosecution of illegal logging cases can be expedited if the Sarawak Attorney General (SAG) is authorised to prosecute offences under the State Forestry Ordinance, said State Forestry director Sapuan Ahmad.
Mentioning that investigation into some 100 of such cases had been completed, he said the cases were pending and awaiting prosecution by the federal Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP).
Thus, he hoped that discussions on the devolution of power between the state and federal government would soon yield positive result so that more cases could be processed and immediately brought to court.
Authorising state legal officers to prosecute offences under state ordinances is one of the administrative matters agreed to in the devolution of power talks between Sarawak and Putrajaya. The Forestry Ordinance is one of the laws unique to the state apart from Sarawak’s Natural Resources and Environment Ordinance, Wildlife Ordinance, Land Code and Housing Ordinance.
Sarawak Forestry Ordinance, gazetted in 1953, was enacted to provide protection and management of the state’s forests and to regulate the extraction of forest produce.
“We have submitted around 100 cases and a few of them are with the SAG including the one in Loagan Bunut (Miri) and Kampung Danu, Padawan. When it comes to prosecution, the federal DPP will prosecute and not our local AG. That is why we want that power back to Sarawak so that any state laws will be handled by our local legal officers.
“Once this power is given back, more cases can be processed and implemented in court,” Sapuan told a press conference after officiating at the Sarawak Heart of Borneo (HoB) Government Agencies Workshop at Century Hotel here.
Also present was state Forestry research officer Dr Ahmad Ampeng.
On the Kampung Danu case, Sapuan explained that it was still under investigation and if there is evidence that illegal logging activities took place at the Bengoh Range National Park and native-customary rights (NCR) land, the case would be submitted for prosecution.
Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) chief executive officer Wong Ting Chung was reported as saying on Jan 21 that a disciplinary process was underway against a senior officer of the corporation for allegedly masterminding illegal logging there.
Wong confirmed that the logging permit given to Kampung Danu Cooperative had been withdrawn after it was discovered that it had been abused for logging activities outside the permitted area, which was said to be state land. The state Forestry also seized 750 logs and machines used in the illegal logging during a raid on Dec 8.
Prior to the raid, a group of Kampung Danu villagers who are committee members of the village cooperative, lodged a report at the Siburan police station, denying giving approval to use the cooperative to apply for the logging permit.
In their report, they claimed that several people, who are cooperative members, had used the cooperative’s name for their personal benefit.
Sapuan said disciplinary action had been taken against the SFC officer allegedly involved in the case.
When asked on claims that certain Forestry enforcement officers were giving a blind eye or trying to cover up some illegal logging activities, Sapuan regarded them as isolated cases that needed to be reported to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) so that investigations could be carried out.
He stressed that all enforcement agencies should work as a team under the National Blue Ocean Strategy initiative to curb illegal logging in the state.
“The Forestry Department cannot do this alone. That is why we need cooperation from SFC and the police force among others. Sarawak, with the size of 12.4 million hectares, is as big as the peninsula minus Perlis and Melaka. In Peninsular Malaysia, they have 5,000 staff where as myself only have 900,” he continued.
Under Ops Gergaji with MACC, about 90,000 cubic metres of logs were seized in 2014 following the launch of the war against illegal logging that year. Last year, about 47,000 cubic metres of logs were seized.