KL lashes out at Jakarta, activists over illegal timber
KL lashes out at Jakarta, activists over illegal timber
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia on Friday slammed Jakarta for trying to undermine its wood exports and accused U.S. activists of tarnishing its image in a report alleging large-scale smuggling of Indonesian illegal timber.
The report -- released this month and a focus of major United Nations environment talks here -- was based on "half-truths and ill-conceived, sweeping conclusions that were taken out of context," Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik charged.
"I wish to point out that the allegation of large-scale laundering of Indonesian logs and timber and more so with government's complicity is totally unfounded," Lim told a news conference.
"We believe this was done with malicious intent to put Malaysia in the bad light," he added.
The study, Profiting from Plunder, was compiled by the independent Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and its Indonesian partner Telapak, who said it was based on two years of investigation.
The EIA said it showed how endangered ramin wood was smuggled from Indonesia into Malaysia with false documentation to be made into furniture for export.
It alleged that local officials were facilitating the illegal trade and urged the United States to impose trade sanctions on Malaysia.
Indonesia meanwhile, called on the European Union (EU) to boycott Malaysian wood products, saying the country was the largest recipient of illegally-logged Indonesian timber.
"They smuggle the wood, then 'wash' it in Malaysia and export it everywhere. This is an unfair practice," forestry minister M. Prakosa told reporters in Jakarta.
Ramin is a light-colored tropical hardwood native to the peatswamp forests in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Indonesia banned the export of ramin in August 2001 under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) but Malaysia can trade in ramin with a CITES permit.
Malaysian minister Lim said Indonesia's call for a boycott as well as the distribution of the report at the conference of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) indicated "malicious intention" to pressure Malaysia to ban ramin trade.
Ramin production in Malaysia is sustainable managed and there was "no danger of ramin becoming extinct," he said.
A ban would undermine Malaysia's 1.5-billion-dollar furniture industry and its timber exports because it is difficult to tell ramin apart from at least five other wood species. One of them, rubberwood, is used in 80 percent of Malaysian furniture, he said.
Malaysia and Indonesia are the world's top two exporters of tropical timber and last year exported timber and timber-related products worth 16.5 billion ringgit (US$4.34 billion).
"I don't think the U.S. administration will be so stupid as to approve the sanctions because the allegations are not real. It is ill-intentioned to pick on us at this time," Lim told a news conference.
"Can you blame me for suspecting there is an ulterior motive whether by Indonesia or other exporting countries?"
Malaysia has banned the import of logs from Indonesia to help it battle illegal logging but Lim said Jakarta lacked the will to resolve the problem and has lax law enforcement.
"I am angry and running out of patience of trying to work with Indonesia. They are not doing anything and their agency is pointing their finger at us," he said.
Lim told AFP that Jakarta recently agreed to Malaysia's request to revive bilateral forestry talks which was abandoned five years ago but no date has been set.
"Of course, we acknowledged that some problems still exist, considering the long as well as porous borders and coastlines between Malaysia and Indonesia, which we believe have constrained effective enforcement work," the minister said.
There had been 122 arrests involving illegal timber trade, including 12 cases involving ramin, and offenders faced a mandatory jail sentence, he said.
Lim will meet the EIA next Wednesday to clear the air.
Indonesia is home to 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests but an area larger than Taiwan is being destroyed each year through illegal logging, the EIA report said.