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 Group supports Penan protest against timber certBy - Malaysiakini 2005-02-19 | The Bruno Manser Fonds, an international foundation set up to help indigenous groups protect their rights and lands, has thrown its support towards a protest against government certified logging in one of Sarawak's last primeval forest. In a recent press release from its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, the foundation highlighted the protest - lodged by the Penans, one of Sarawak's numerous ethnic groups - against a Malaysian timber corporation for alleged sustainable logging of a contiguous primeval forest area. The protest is in the form of a letter to the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) president demanding the immediate withdrawal of the certificate granted to the corporation, Samling Group, for forest management. The letter, signed off with thumb-prints from a Penan headman representing 19 Penan leaders and 582 sedentary and semi-nomadic Penan from the remote area of Ulu Baram in Borneo, also called for the company to cease its destruction of their rainforest. "We have been living here in peace until the timber companies came to disturb our life and encroached into our forest. Many of us have suffered due to Samling's logging operations," headman Bilong Oyau wrote in the letter. Bilong cited river pollution, damage to sacred sites and extinction of animals as effects of logging and development activities by "people who deprive us of our livelihood and culture". "We cannot accept that Samling is now awarded with a certificate to continue offending our native customary rights," added Baling. No consultationThe protest comes following an earlier call - by indigenous groups and non-governmental organisations last year - who were critical of the government's move to establish MTCC. In its statement, the foundation submitted that MTCC did not consult the Penan prior to the certification of their forest. "Research by the Bruno Manser Fonds has revealed that about 80 percent of the certified concession area is traditional Penan territory. "Information obtained in 2001, by the earth imaging satellite Ikonos indicates that the forestry practised by Samling in this particular concession is anything but sustainable," foundation director Lukas Straumann said in the statement. He added that the severe forest destruction is visible even in low resolution and the Penan have complained that their drinking water supplies are substantially damaged as a result of the logging. While the Penan have for years resorted to non-violent blockades of the logging roads to defend themselves against their livelihood destruction, a lawsuit regarding their land rights was submitted to the court in 1988. Deny recognition"(The suit) was filed against Samling and the Sarawak government by four of the Penan villages concerned and is still pending. Since the onset of commercial logging with bulldozers, an estimated 90 percent of Sarawak's original primary forest has been cut," added the statement. The foundation has accused the granting of the MTCC timber certificate as an attempt by the Malaysian lumber industry to improve its negative image while increasing the net product of its wood exports. "It is especially intended for the lucrative European market. In the name of those Penan who are affected, the Bruno Manser Fonds urgently requests the international community to deny any recognition of the bogus MTCC certificate and to refuse to buy Malaysian tropical wood," urged Lukas. The foundation is named after a Swiss national who has gone missing since May 25, 2000 after periodically living with the Penan and promoting international activism on their rights for over 15 years. He has not been heard from since he departed again for Sarawak from Switzerland almost five years ago. Reference LinksAttached files
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