Rural Sarawak communities lodge complaint against logging firm

 

Penan communities in rural Sarawak have lodged formal complaints against timber giant Samling Group over two of its logging concessions.

The villagers have demanded to see the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) reports for both licences.

A forest where a logging concession is in force is formally called a forest management unit (FMU).

Last week, the Gerenai Community Rights Action Committee reported Samling to the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) for an alleged lack of transparency over the Gerenai FMU.

Malaysiakini sighted the May 11 letter.

“Our request to receive copies of the 2018 SIA as well as the two EIAs for the Gerenai FMU were never acknowledged.

“Without relevant impact reports, communities can’t make informed decisions about FMU proposals,” the letter stated.

The committee - which represents villages in the Baram area - also urged for any agreements between the logging firm and village heads to be shared with the rest of the community.

It said that only engaging village heads, who receive salaries from the Sarawak government, was not enough.

“Samling has not properly or openly consulted communities within the Gerenai FMU [...]

“The Penan community of Ba Jawi, visible on Samling’s map of the area, has been completely neglected throughout the engagement process,” it wrote.

The committee stressed that local Penan and Kenyah communities relied on the patch of the forest included in the Gerenai FMU for hunting and fishing.

Logging the area also threatened to reverse local forest conservation efforts like the Ba’i Keremun Jamok communal forest.

“The Kenyah Jamok and Penan communities have strongly defended their forest against logging.

“And have been working together with the Sarawak Forest Development to establish the Baram Peace Park or Upper Baram Forest Area [...] the Gerenai FMU overlaps with the proposed park and collides with conservation efforts,” it added.

Ravenscourt FMU

Meanwhile, nine Penan villages in Upper Limbang have also lodged a formal complaint against Samling to the MTCC over its Ravenscourt FMU.

The nine are: Long Adang, Long Gita, Ba Nyakit, Long Peresek, Long Keneng, Long Rayah, Long Sebayang, Long Tegan and Long Tevenga.

Calling themselves the Keruan group, they similarly noted the firm’s alleged lack of transparency and failure to obtain “free, prior and informed consent” from local communities.

Malaysiakini sighted the May 10 letter.

“The SIA of the Sarawak Forestry Corporation for Ravenscourt and the EIA reports on Ravenscourt approved by the National Resources and Environment Board are not available to the public or local communities.

“All these documents are essential for the communities to determine whether their headmen fairly represented them and will enable them to follow up and monitor the project,” they said.

Keruan alleged that the Long Tevenga, Long Peresek and Long Gita villages were not informed that their territories were located in the Ravenscourt FMU until July 2020.

It stressed that engaging only those local leaders who were employed by the state government was not enough.

“Engaging with a few select people from the community is not the same thing as consulting the community about what the community really wants.

“In Sarawak, headmen are appointed and paid by the state, rather than elected by the people, which results in pressure and incentives to agree with government-approved projects such as logging,” they said.

Keruan further stressed that the local Penan depend on the forest for hunting, fishing and gathering materials. They thus opposed logging in their native customary land.

Commenting on these complaints, Swiss-based environmental NGO Bruno Manser Fund raised concern over how the logging concessions were issued.

Jettie Word, who focuses on Sarawak rainforests and runs the NGO’s Borneo Project, said communities need access to information before making any decisions.

“Certification without full access to information is simply unacceptable.

“How can communities make informed decisions when they are not given the basic facts about planned logging operations on their lands?” she questioned.

Malaysiakini is contacting Samling for comment over these two complaints.

In October last year, the firm engaged with the Gerenai Community Rights Action Committee and 15 villages within the Gerenai FMU at a seminar about the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme.

However, some attendees later said their key concerns about transparency and informed consent were not addressed.

Samling previously refuted “false allegations” that it was awarded the concessions without prior knowledge of local communities.

“At the outset of operations, Samling had engaged with the local community leaders who had been duly appointed by the Sarawak state government and registered with the district office.

“These local community leaders were and remain fully supportive of Samling’s plans and operations. These local community leaders had full authority to represent and act for the communities,” it said.

As for the Gerenai FMU, it said 38 percent of its workforce were from communities living within the forest area.

Its subsidiary, Samling Plywood (Miri) Sdn Bhd, was previously awarded the Gerenai FMU concession from 2018 to 2027.

This spans 148,305ha and includes the Nakan-Kalulong Forest Reserve, Tapang-Balong Protected Forest, the proposed Ang Moh Protected Forest, the proposed Mujan Julan National Park and state land. Almost half (48 percent) of the FMU is in the Heart of Borneo Corridor.

As for the Ravenscourt FMU, Syarikat Samling Timber Sdn Bhd was issued a licence to log it from 2016 to 2026.

The FMU spans 117,941ha and includes the Limbang Protected Forest as well as the Trusan-Kelalan Protected Forest.  - Mkini