There are 20 posts filed in Malaysia (this is page 1 of 2).
Tomorrow is Malaysia Day, commemorating the establishment of the Malaysian federation on 16 September 1963. In conjunction with Malaysia Day, the film The Borneo Case will be screened in 30 cities worldwide.
In January 2017, the Kelantan state government in Malaysia signed a REDD deal with a company called Climate Protectors. The REDD project covers an area of 396,000 hectares, one-quarter of the state’s land area. Under the deal, Climate Protectors would run the project for 30 years, and receive 45% of the money from the sale of carbon credits.
The Borneo Case is a new film that documents the destruction of more than 90% of Sarawak’s forests and investigates where the profits from the destruction went. As the Bruno Manser Fund notes, “Vast illicit assets have been acquired by the former Chief Minister and current Governor of Sarawak, Abdul Taib Mahmud, and his closest family members.”
On 31 December 2015, Accreditation Services International terminated SGS Malaysia’s accreditation with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. REDD-Monitor wrote about this in February 2016: “Transparency and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil: Why was SGS Malaysia’s accreditation terminated?” Neither RSPO nor ASI were willing to explain why SGS Malaysia’s accreditation had been terminated.
In 2014, Papua New Guinea became the world’s largest exporter of tropical timber. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Eleven years ago, PNG formed the Coalition for Rainforest Nations and presented the idea of REDD to the UN climate meeting in Montreal.
On 31 December 2015, Accreditation Services International terminated SGS Malaysia’s RSPO accreditation. REDD-Monitor asked RSPO for further details about this. “We will not announce any further details,” Jan van Driel, RSPO Head of Certification, replied.
Under the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Peru aims to preserve 54 million hectares of forest. Under a 2014 REDD agreement with Norway and Germany, Peru pledged to reduce net deforestation to zero by 2021. Yet deforestation continues.
Shampoo, margarine, lipstick, ice cream, deodorant, detergents, crisps, chocolates, toothpaste, pizza dough, bread, biofuel, soap, instant noodles. The list of products containing palm oil is long.
Sarawak is the ground zero of deforestation. More than 95% of Sarawak’s intact forest has gone. In 2010, Sarawak accounted for 25% of tropical log exports, despite the fact that only 0.5% of the world’s tropical forests are in Sarawak.
“Checking deforestation requires respect for our basic rights, which are the rights of all peoples and all human beings. Deforestation is unleashed when our rights are not protected and our lands and forests are taken over by industrial interests without our consent.”
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a proposed international trade agreement, involving 12 countries and covering a range of topics including intellectual property, the environment and workers’ rights. The TPP has been negotiated in secret for almost four years.
At a meeting last month organised by the Forest Stewardship Council, HSBC’s Francis Sullivan said that if a company doesn’t pass the bank’s sustainability risk tests, then it won’t get a loan.
Last week, the pollution from fires in Sumatra set new records. The smoke in Singapore this year is worse than it was in 1997 and 2002, both years of major forest burning in Indonesia.
Norway is by far the biggest donor to REDD initiatives around the world, with two billion dollar deals, one in Brazil and one in Indonesia. But Norway’s Pension Fund invests way more in companies responsible for rainforest destruction.
In 2011, the 2,400 MW Bakun dam started operations in Sarawak, Malaysia. Transparency International described the US$2.2 billion project as a “monument to corruption”. The reservoir behind the dam flooded 70,000 hectares of forest. About 10,000 Indigenous People were forced into new houses that they had to pay for themselves.
