Malaysia, RI should join in tackling wood theft

Julian Newman and Hapsoro, Jakarta

You could be forgiven for never having heard of ramin. This blond tropical timber is only found in the swamp forests of Indonesia and Malaysia, and as its use is limited to a relatively small number of products, such as picture frames and pool cues, it is nowhere near as well known as more familiar timbers like teak and mahogany.

Yet ramin is now at the center of an increasingly acrimonious dispute at the meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, currently being held in Kuala Lumpur, involving Malaysia, Indonesia and the non-governmental organizations Telapak and the Environmental Investigation Agency. At stake in this row are the future success of emerging international efforts to control the vast global trade in illegal timber and the survival of Indonesia's dwindling forests.

So why all the fuss about ramin? In April 2001 the Indonesian government placed the species on Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the international mechanism regulating cross-border trade in flora and fauna. This move effectively banned the export of Indonesian ramin, except for that from one certified concession in Sumatra.

Through this action the Indonesian government sought the assistance of the international community to help curb the rampant illegal logging sweeping the country. Fetching up to $1,000 per cubic metre once processed and shipped to consumer markets, ramin has been ruthlessly targeted by illegal loggers, particularly in protected areas such as Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan.

Since the CITES listing came into force in August 2001 EIA/Telapak have been monitoring the effectiveness of the trade controls, and have discovered serial rule-breaking and ramin laundering by neighboring Malaysia, which threatens to undermine attempts to preserve ramin trees in Indonesia.

EIA/Telapak's latest report on the illegal ramin trade, entitled Profiting from Plunder, was launched at a press conference in Jakarta earlier this month. It details how Indonesian ramin continues to find its way onto world markets, courtesy of smuggling and laundering syndicates centered on Malaysia.

Posing as timber buyers EIA/Telapak investigators gained access to the port of Pasir Gudang, in Johor Baru, Malaysia. Here we observed larges amount of sawn ramin timber stacked up to dry prior to export. The Malaysian shipping agent involved in the operation said all the ramin had been smuggled from Indonesia and was awaiting shipment to China.

He added that the ramin was "CITES-free" and that Malaysian Certificates of Origin were issued for the timber to obscure its origin. A port official stated that 4,500 cubic metres of illegal Indonesian ramin pass through the port each month en route to China. This volume exceeds the total domestic production of ramin in Malaysia.

In the Malaysian state of Sarawak EIA/Telapak found evidence of further ramin laundering. One local timber dealer revealed that around 40 per cent of ramin products exported from Sarawak were derived from illegal Indonesian timber, and told how official papers to sanitize the stolen timber were easy to obtain from the local authorities.

The release of our findings prompted a storm of criticism from Malaysia. First on the attack was the counselor for the economy and information at the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, who was quoted in the Jakarta Post as doubting the validity of the EIA/Telapak report and threatening legal action against us. Such comments are presumptuous, as it would be impossible for the Malaysian authorities to have conducted a thorough investigation into our findings in the two days between the launch of the report and his response.

Next on the attack was the Malaysian Timber Council (MTC), the chief apologist for the excesses of Malaysia's voracious logging and wood-processing industry. In its response the MTC spoke of "grossly overstated claims" by EIA/Telapak, and described our report as "libelous and mischievous".

Yet it fails to undermine the solid evidence gathered by EIA/Telapak. In explaining the laundering operation based in Pasir Gudang the MTC claims that as the timber is in transit it is not officially entering Malaysia and so is not the country's responsibility, yet the shipping agent in the port offered to supply Malaysian Certificates of Origin. It seems the concept of transit in Malaysia is a movable feast.

Finally, Lim Yeng Kaik, Malaysia's outspoken Primary Industries Minister weighed in claiming that EIA/Telapak have "taken things out of context and at times falsified information to make themselves heroes at our expense." Again specific examples of such falsified information were conspicuously absent from his diatribe.

Such a response by the Malaysian government and industry is disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. It is always easy to shoot the messenger than act on bad tidings. Yet there is evidence that Malaysia has acted on EIA/Telapak information in the past.

In May 2002 we exposed the large-scale smuggling of logs from Sumatra to ports in West Malaysia, despite the existence of a log export ban. This revelation prompted Malaysia to impose an import ban on Indonesia logs the following month.

In 2003, when EIA/Telapak documented how log smuggling was still continuing despite the ban, Malaysia tightened its rules. To give due credit Malaysia has also made several seizures on illegal Indonesian ramin. It is to be hoped that having vented its spleen Malaysia will now conduct a full investigation into our findings and tackle ramin smuggling.

Recently Indonesia has sought to make political capital out of the exposure of Malaysia's role in laundering illegal timber. While this is partly understandable, it is also a ploy to deflect attention from Indonesia's abject failure to tackle illegal logging and enforce its own forestry laws.

The illegal ramin trail starts in Indonesia. EIA/Telapak have learned that all the illegal ramin flowing through Pasir Gudang is controlled by one man -- known as "Jambi Lee". He orchestrates ramin logging in an area around the Riau-Jambi border, owns a fleet of 60 wooden ships to carry his contraband cargo to Malaysia, and enjoys the protection of the local authorities. EIA/Telapak have passed this information to the relevant authorities in Indonesia and will be watching closely for evidence of action.

Finally, EIA/Telapak investigations show how well organized syndicates operating across international boundaries run the global trade in illegal timber. The only solution is for countries to work together to improve enforcement. Serious ministerial talks between Indonesia and Malaysia would be a good place to start.

Julian Newman is a Senior Investigator at the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based NGO. Hapsoro is the Director of Telapak, a Bogor-based NGO.