Don’t blame us for scrapping of forest project, says group

 Bruno Manser Fonds says the real reason was the Sarawak government’s policy change over logging core protection zones.

Residents during a 2024 protest against logging in the Upper Baram Forest Area. (BMF pic)

PETALING JAYA:

 Environmental group Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF) tonight denied a claim that it failed to meet conditions set by the Sarawak government, which led to the termination of a forest project.

It said the claim was baseless.

BMF said the Sarawak government’s policy change over logging core protection zones was the real reason for the International Tropical Timber Organisation’s Upper Baram Forest Area (UBFA) project being scrapped.

“We are not willing to take the blame for a policy change by the Sarawak government,” Lukas Straumann, the director of the Switzerland-based group, said in a statement.

Earlier today, Sarawak deputy minister for urban planning, land administration and environment Len Talif Salleh told the state assembly that BMF had focused solely on the Penan community in the UBFA.

He said BMF had overlooked other key indigenous groups such as the Kenyah, Kelabit, and Saban, who also have legitimate interests in the area, and that such an approach risked undermining community harmony.

Separately, Celine Lim, the managing director of Sarawak-based NGO SAVE Rivers, said they had worked with non-Penan communities, adding that these groups were part of the UBFA Project Steering Committee.

“So, it is not true that the overall communities were not well represented via the NGOs’ coalition,” she said.

Lim accused Len Talif of villainising the role of SAVE Rivers.

Len Talif had said the project’s termination would not affect the well-being of local communities as various initiatives by the forest department, ministries and government agencies were being executed to improve livelihoods across multiple sectors. -FMT