KL under fire at environment talks<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Malaysia, which is hosting thousands of delegates to a major
\ninternational conference on the environment, has found itself the
\ntarget of strong criticism over illegal logging.<\/p>\n
The conservation group Greenpeace, in a document made
\navailable on the sidelines of the conference on Wednesday,
\naccused Malaysia of \"destructive forestry and corrupt land rights
\npolicies\" often backed by \"political nepotism\".<\/p>\n
And the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
\nannounced that it would on Thursday release a report providing
\nevidence of complicity by Malaysian officials in the illegal
\ntrade in ramin, an endangered Indonesian tree species.<\/p>\n
The EIA said a coalition of United States environmental groups
\nwill present a letter to the conference urging Washington to
\nimpose trade sanctions on Malaysia unless the government \"takes
\nimmediate measures to stop the trade in ramin\".<\/p>\n
It says the report to be issued on Thursday, Profiting from
\nPlunder, is the culmination of two years of investigations and
\nresearch by EIA and Indonesia non-governmental organization
\nTelapak, its partner.<\/p>\n
The report details how timber is allegedly smuggled from
\nIndonesia into Malaysia where it is made into furniture for
\nexport with false documentation.<\/p>\n
But the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta doubted the validity of
\nEIA-Telapak report and asked for evidence on illegal logging and
\nthe involvement of Malaysian citizens.<\/p>\n
Malaysia had imposed a ban on the importation of logs and
\nsquare logs from Indonesia in 2002 at the request of Indonesia,
\nwhich had also banned the export of logs.<\/p>\n
The report may gain maximum exposure at the conference of
\nparties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which
\nhas drawn some 2,000 government officials, scientists and
\nactivists to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
The CBD aims to protect the diversity of life on earth, where
\nthousands of animal and plant species face extinction, mainly
\nfrom human economic development.<\/p>\n
Malaysia's environment minister Law Hieng Ding took over the
\npresidency at the start of the conference on Monday from Hans
\nHoogeven of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
The Greenpeace document noted that the Malaysian government is
\nhighly sensitive to criticism of its forestry and land rights
\npolicies.<\/p>\n
\"Perhaps much of this has to do with the fact that many, if
\nnot most, of Malaysia's listed and unlisted logging and timber
\ngroups are connected to the government or otherwise owned by
\npoliticians or their families,\" it said.<\/p>\n
Greenpeace said Malaysia was a signatory to the Cancun
\nDeclaration which promotes biodiversity conservation but its
\nnatural resources policies contravene the declaration.<\/p>\n
\"To feed logs to its unsustainable timber industry, Malaysia
\nhas already sacrificed most of its ancient rain forests for
\nlogging.\"<\/p>\n
The organization said Malaysia is particularly important in
\nglobal conservation efforts as the tropical Southeast Asian
\nnation ranks 14th on the list of the 17 \"mega-diverse\" countries
\ncontaining around 70 percent of earth's biodiversity.<\/p>\n
Its forests support a huge variety of wildlife, including
\ntiger, elephant, orangutan and rhino.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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