Guest guest Posted February 20, 2004 Report Share Posted February 20, 2004 ***************************Advertisement*************************** TechCentral http://star-techcentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my) URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2004/2/20/features/7357470 & sec=f\ eatures ________________________ Friday February 20, 2004 Timber certification rejected By TAN CHENG LI OVER 250 indigenous communities have signed a petition rejecting the timber certification scheme designed by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC). These communities were unaware of the certification scheme and did not support it as it did not take indigenous rights into account, Adrian Lasimbang, secretary-general of the Indigenous People's Network of Malaysia, told a press conference on the sidelines of the global biodiversity meet in Kuala Lumpur. Over the past two months, 59 orang asli villages in Peninsular Malaysia, 80 native villages in Sabah and 114 longhouse communities in Sarawak have signed the petition. Lasimbang said indigenous groups pulled out from talks on the MTCC scheme in 2001 as their views were ignored. “We felt our presence there was just to endorse the scheme.” The MTCC was set up in 1998 to develop a certification scheme to ensure that Malaysian timber originated from sustainably-managed forests. Under globally-agreed criteria, timber certification schemes must address the concerns of stakeholders such as environment societies, social groups and local communities. In the MTCC scheme, however, Lasimbang said the indigenous community was represented by the Department of Orang Asli Affairs, Sarawak Dayak National Union, Sarawak Council for Tradition, Sabah Indigenous Iranun Association, Sabah Tidung Association and the Sabah Kedayan Association. “While these organisations may be indigenous-based, we feel that they do not represent the indigenous communities that are facing the direct impact of logging in their forest homelands. Some of these communities are coastal dwellers, not forest dwellers,” said Lasimbang. He said the MTCC failed to recognise and protect indigenous rights over traditional lands. Citing an example, he said their rights over the land would be extinguished should the site be declared as a forest management unit (FMU) for logging. Currently, there are 10 FMUs in Sabah, each about 100,000ha. “If the MTCC is genuinely concerned about guaranteeing the social and cultural sustainability of indigenous communities, it should halt all logging in traditional lands until at least the highest standards of timber certification are in place,” said Lasimbang, who is also a resource person with the Sabah-based Partners of Communities Organisation (Pacos). He said an acceptable certification scheme should comply with these conditions: recognition of their rights to traditional land, compliance with the criteria of the globally-accepted Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme, participation of credible indigenous people as assessors, and consent from local communities before logging was allowed in their ancestral land. MTCC in a press statement, insisted that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local communities had participated in the certification scheme, with involvement from 58 groups representing various stakeholders in the first national consultation in 1999. It said a number of social and environment groups withdrew from the consultations in 2001 as they were dissatisfied with MTCC's response to their demands. MTCC said some of these demands were beyond its jurisdiction, while others could be included in the certification standard only after negotiations with other stakeholders. It said a national-level meeting held in October 2001 saw the participation of 71 organisations, including 22 environment and social NGOs. Earlier this week, Greenpeace International had urged governments in Europe to support an international system for timber certification, claiming that the MTCC scheme was questionable and had little or no involvement of indigenous people. <p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2003 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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