RimbaWatch calls for Sirim subsidiary's suspension over timber certification concerns

 

RimbaWatch has urged the government to temporarily suspend Sirim QAS International Sdn Bhd as a notified certification body for Malaysia’s timber industry, following concerns regarding Orang Asli rights and sustainability.

Sirim QAS International is a subsidiary of Sirim (Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia) Berhad, which is under the purview of the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry.

In a statement today, the environmental watchdog noted that Sirim QAS International functions as the sole auditor of certified forest management units involved in the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS).

While the MTCS is endorsed by the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), Sirim QAS International is the body which issues the MTCS/PEFC certification for the seven forest management units in Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Selangor, Terengganu, and Kedah.

Referring to a 68-page report launched today on auditing practices of MTCS-PEFC forest management units between 2021 and 2024, RimbaWatch said the report’s findings indicate that potentially controversial auditing practices have “severely undermined” the credibility of MTCS-PEFC recognition in Malaysia.

It added that timber under such certificates is at risk of association with human rights violations, large-scale conversion of natural forest to monoculture, and harm to Ecologically Important Forest Areas (EIFAs).

Conflicts and grievances

The report, launched with Friends of the Earth - England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, analysed the auditing practices in relation to indigenous rights, EIFAs, and forest conversion.

According to RimbaWatch, the report found that in at least nine audit reports across a range of forest management units, Sirim QAS International failed to acknowledge “well-documented and widely reported” indigenous land conflicts and grievances occurring within the units.

With the auditor said to have opted to certify the units instead, the environmental watchdog further claimed that auditors had engaged with "only small fractions” of indigenous communities in each unit.

Besides allegedly making limited attempts to visit communities that had lodged complaints and relying primarily on government agencies for consultation and verification, the auditors are also said to have “dismissed” blockades by indigenous land defenders.

Claiming that the auditors had argued that such blockades were “not in accordance with legal requirements”, RimbaWatch said all forest management units containing indigenous rights conflicts were eventually certified as “sustainable”.

The group noted that while global standards require forest managers to recognise and respect indigenous territories, the auditors had allegedly said: “Orang Asli or local communities did not have the right of ownership over land in the PRF (permanent reserved forest).”

Large-scale conversion

Additionally, the NGO said certification audits included areas of natural forest earmarked for large-scale conversion to monoculture within the scope of certification, meaning that the deforestation of natural forest could be certified as “sustainable”.

“Further, at a minimum, two forest management units possibly exceeded a five percent conversion limit stipulated by MTCS-PEFC standards.

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“Auditors did not account for this, even though this exceedance was documented in a 2022 Auditor-General Special Audit report on Forest Management and Environmental Impact,” it said.

It added that between 2021 and 2024, at least 34,260ha of natural forests were cleared for conversion to industrial timber plantations within Environmentally Sensitive Rank 1 areas that had been classified as unsuitable for development by local authorities.

Separately, at least 65,000ha of logging in general occurred in Class I Tiger Conservation Area, as identified by the National Tiger Conservation Action Plan (2008-2020).

“There is little transparency of forestry data, with environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and forest management plans being unavailable, no independent oversight for procedural and factual inconsistencies made by auditors, and no cohesive complaints procedure,” RimbaWatch said.

In response to the report’s findings, the group urged the MTCS to explicitly recognise the customary rights of indigenous peoples to their traditional territories beyond legal requirements and require that the forest be held responsible for implementing such matters.

It also recommended that the MTCS end the certification of all areas involving the conversion of natural forests, and that the MTCS-PEFC auditors be independent of forest managers, as well as state and federal governments.

Malaysiakini has contacted Sirim for comments. - Mkini