SABAH TIMBER SCAM, BASELESS ALLEGATION

By : DATUK SAM MANNAN

AN ALLEGATION has been made that large scale and rampant illegal felling of timber has been ongoing in Sabah, the proceeds of which, are purportedly to have purportedly to have been laundered outside the country, as widely reported by blogs and surprisingly thereon by various an international press agency, in print and online.

A figure of USD $90 million has been quoted as the nest egg or close RM300,000,000. lf this allegation was true it implies that not less that 1 million m3 of timber have been illegally felled. That represents plandering of at least 20,000 hectres (50,000 acres) of well stocked forest.

This scale of logging if true would represent of 50% of the timber produced from natural forest in the year 2011 or about 30% of Sabah's timber production in 2010.

The Forestry Department acknowledges that illegal felling does exist in Sabah but no way near the scale and extent as allegedly reported. The allegations are therefore 'baseless and made with bad intention's (Mal fide) to discredit and lessen the effort and sacrifices made by the state government of Sabah, to achieve good forest governance and SFM (Sustainable Forest Management) in the shortest time possible, despite the economic financial and social challenges.

The fact's to discredit these wild and malicious allegations are as follows:

(1) The enormity of the alleged extent of illegal felling (1 million m3) could not have escaped the attention ofthe world at large. A well stocked forest of 20,000 hectares badly logged because of illegal felling would have been easily detected by satellites and attract the attention of NGOs, environmentalists and the communities living nearby. No way could have such acts be committed and passed without notice. Unless and until the burden of strict proof is shown the allegations are baseless and untruths.

(2) lf 50% ofthe annual production oftimber from Sabah was alleged to be illegal world markets especially sensitive ones like Europe, North America and Japan, would have long ago stopped buying timber from Sabah, and the enormous economic and financial implications would have been dire to the state as a whole. This never occurred because the alleged large scale alleged illegal logging never happen.

(3) Sabah’s long term licences have been subjected to third party auditing (independent audit) since 2010, under the Ma|aysia—ECTLAS) Timber Legality Assurance Programme) the independent auditors would have detected such large scale illegal felling. On the contrary Sabah has always been transparent and letting her forest manager be opened to public scrutiny and third party auditor in wanting to attain world recognition an credibility.

(4) RIL (Reduced Impact Logging) has been introduced in 2009 with full implementation in 2010, again verified independently by third party auditors such an allegation of rampant illegal felling (20,000 ha at least) would have been impossible to escape the attention of the auditors who are well renowned international players.

(5) At least 800,000 hectares of Sabah's forests are partially of fully certified under various internationally recognized system (Forest Stewardship Council or FSC, MTCS — Malaysian Timber Certihcation Scheme, PEFC — Pan European Forest Scheme). This also covers the Sabah Foundation with at least 250,000 hectares of fully certined and 150,000 hectares partially certihed forest.

Many more forest areas are being earmarkedfor certification as Sabah has set 2014 as the year for all long term licensed areasto be fully certified. The process of certihcation means independent third party on auditing the ground to access credibility. If such an allegation wastrue, why does Sabah continue to attract the attention of certifying bodies and NGOs, who want to be our partners and to assist us in obtaining verihable and certifiable good governance?

(6) lt is not lost to the world that Sabah is the tirst tropical region in the whole world to have a tract of rainforest certified under the Gold Standard ofthe FSC in 1997. i.e. Dermakot Forest Reserve. This is a model area notjust for Malaysia but the tropical world.

(7) Sabah’s Ulu Segama-Malua eco·region bordering Danum Valley, is also home to the wor|d's GRASP (Great Apes Succeed Project) model under UNESCO, whereby not less than 3,000 orang utans are now protected in an FSC certified forest for which the state government underthe leadership of Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman, put a total halt to logging on 31.12.2007, afterthe policy announcement was made on 15.3.2006. Thisbold decision was made despite the enormous hnancial implication — loss of potential revenue of at least RM4 billion. Why lock up valuable rainforests forever ifthe administration was bent on organizing illegal felling?

(8) The area of TPAS (Totally protected areas) reserves in Sabah is now reaching 1.3 million ha. or about 20% ofSabah’s total land area, even exceeding the IUCNstandard of10%. The latest addition is about 180,000 ha — the 55,000 ha. wildlife corridor linking Maliau Basin, lmbak Canyon to Danum/Ulu Segama and the re-classification of Ulu Segama (130,000 ha) to total protected status. lt must be put on record that the leadership ofthe current Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman, has seen the greatest extent of TPAS expansion in the history of Sabah, despite enormous opportunity cost of conservation.

(9) Under his leadership, SFM has improved by leap and bounds, Short term licences that cause tremendous damage to the environment are being drastically phased out and Sabah's forest management credibility is at its highest-an open-book philosophy whereby, logging and forest management areas, are all open to third party and NGO scrutiny. The good, the bad and the ugly are laid bare with the intention of improving standards and practices on the ground.

(10) The planned drop in forest revenue is also a deliberate strategy to ensure that the forests are given a chance to recover (about RM150 Million/year today as opposed to RM500 Milion — RM1 billion in the forest) and the stocks are rebuilt again in the next 20 years and this will benefit those generations to come. It would have been too easy to liquidate more forest for revenue solely and to abandon conservation and raising standard in the short term. If such a policy was pursued then there will be absolute depletion in the future. This is commonly known in economic as "The Tragedy Of The Commons".

(11) The Wild and baseless allegation actually do a lot of harm to the forest of Sabah not help it. A gullible audience would have stopped buying timber (most valuable resourse financially in a forest) from Sabah, rendering the rainforest and the SFM efforts worthless and of no economic value. Once rainforest have no more economic value and the timber therein unsaleable, in the rainforest of continuing socio-economic, development, then they will be threatened by alternative land uses. If SFM and conservation no longer sell or bring benefit to society, then there will inevitably be dropped as policies, despite the progress painfully gain over the years.

(12) lt is hoped that those who have projected the unfounded allegations realize the enormity of misinforming the world and in the process, they have in effect hurt our conservation effort as a whole.

(13) We have reason to believe the unfounded allegations are politically motivated and not driven by any love for the environment. lt distorts with the motive of derailing Sabah’s efforts and frustrating the momentum of forest management reform The public should discard the reports as malicious and harmful to Sabah.

(NOTE : Datuk Sam Mannan, Sabah Forestry Department)