KUALA LUMPUR: Environmental groups are calling on the Sarawak forestry department to conduct an impartial review of a timber conglomerate's certification and operations, citing alleged violations of forest certification standards.
The Borneo Project and Bruno Manser Fonds argue that the forest certification is being misused to greenwash the company's environmentally harmful timber production and mislead the international market.
In a 100-page report released today, it asserts that the local timber conglomerate has a history of conflicts over indigenous land rights in Sarawak and has contributed to significant environmental degradation.
"Despite this, its logging operations in the Malaysian state of Sarawak continue to be certified as 'sustainable' by Malaysian Timber Certification.
"This allows their products to be sold on the international markets under the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) green timber label," the report states.
The report also alleges legal threats made by the conglomerate against indigenous communities opposing logging activities or expressing dissatisfaction with the consultation process.
"When complaints against them were lodged by Indigenous communities in accordance with the MTCS grievance procedure, the complaints were routinely ignored.
"Instead of addressing community complaints against its logging operations, the conglomerate ignored them and later resorted to issuing legal threats against the communities and a supporting grassroots NGO."New Straits Times has contacted the company for further comment on the allegations made by the groups.
The groups also accuse the authorities of lacking effective monitoring and enforcement."The findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of the MTCC and the PEFC in guaranteeing standards and enforcing compliance.
"SIRIM, the crediting and auditing body, does not have a clear limit on how many issues of non-compliance lead to suspension or revocation of certificates."The MTCC has no mechanism to ensure their standards are enforced.
Trust in certification schemes has been seriously eroded, and the legitimacy of timber products carrying the MTCS and PEFC labels is questionable at best," it adds.
The same report also reveals the conglomerate's international buyers for the first time and traces its exports worldwide, unveiling its complex corporate structure, which conceals its questionable record on the ground from its buyers.
The structure reveals how their products can potentially enter the EU, US, and Australia markets through brands such as Masonite, Muji, Roland, and Daiken.
Therefore, the groups are also urging the European Union to prohibit the entry of the conglomerate's timber products into the EU common market under the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) until the issues outlined in the report are addressed.