Indonesia, Malaysia to cooperate, take on western greens
Indonesia, Malaysia to cooperate, take on western greens
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Indonesia and Malaysia, the two world's largest timber producers, pledged yesterday to cooperate closely to counter rising anti-tropical timber pressure in the West and fight for better prices overseas.
"We should not allow ourselves to be led by the West and should never forget that our collective goal is for our business to be more competitive in the world market," Indonesia's Minister of Forestry Djamaloedin Soeryohadikoesoemo said at a regional timber products meeting here.
The two countries, which share 80 percent of the 68 million cubic metres of tropical timber traded worldwide, are known to be keen competitors in the international market, sometimes undercutting each other.
Malaysia and Indonesia, hosts to a large part of the world's lushest tropical rainforests, have been attacked by western ecologists and non-governmental organizations for resorting to indiscriminate logging that contributed to the destruction of the world's resource.
Analysts said both producers could form a very powerful cartel overseas if they adopted a single marketing approach.
"It's time we cooperate to get better prices and stop undercutting each other in the world market," said Malaysia's Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik, opening a biennial conference of the ASEAN panel products federation.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), groups Malaysia and Indonesia, with Brunei, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Lim said Malaysia was working towards embarking on a hi-tech information-gathering exercise adopted by Indonesia aimed at initiating a proper forest inventory through the use of remote sensing, aerial photography and computer-assisted data systems.
Fight
"We can fight the anti tropical timber campaign more effectively if we have proper facts at our finger tips. We have to tell the world that we practice selective logging through sustainable forest management policies," Lim asserted.
Malaysia had hired public relations consultants to counter attacks by western environmentalists in the international market, "but such a move was found to be inadequate in this uphill battle," Lim said.
"We have to tell the world that it is our sovereign right to harvest our own natural resources," he said.
Djamaloedin said ASEAN countries, endowed with so much of the world's remaining biological diversity, should adopt the region's own strict and uniform green standards.
"We should do it on our own terms, in our own way, without being led by the West," he said.
Indonesia's timber tycoon, Mohammad (Bob) Hasan, said because of the different setups of the forest industry in producer countries, it would be impossible to adopt a single concerted approach.
"But we must try to find ways within our own systems, through our own national timber associations, to place greater pressure on our forestry operators to sustainably manage our forests," said Hasan, the outgoing chairman of the ASEAN panel products federation. Malaysia's Chai Fook Loong is the new chairman.