HSBC appears to be violating its own forest sector guidelines by
arranging the stock exchange listing for Malaysian timber giant
Samling, a company notorious for destroying tropical forests and the
abuse of local communities, said Global Witness, Monday.
Global Witness found evidence that Samling Global was illegally
sourcing timber from a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary in the 1990s, and
has followed its activities ever since. Samling and its related
companies have caused controversy in Cambodia and Papua New Guinea, and
continue to do so in Guyana and Malaysia.
Samling is selling a 25.3% stake on the Hong Kong stock exchange, with
which it hopes to raise a reported $280 million for paying off debts
and expanding into new areas. HSBC, which announces its results today,
is joint arranger of the deal with Credit Suisse and Macquarie
Securities. Public trading in the shares begins on 7 March.
“While HSBC is planting trees to reward its retail customers for
requesting online statements, Samling is cutting them down. By helping
Samling to raise a war-chest for new logging projects, HSBC is turning
its own environmental commitments into meaningless greenwash,” said
Anthea Lawson, a campaigner at Global Witness.
HSBC’s 2004 “Forest Land and Forest Products Sector Guideline”1 says it
will not deal with commercial operations logging in primary tropical
moist forest, high conservation value forest, or logging in violation
of local or national laws.
Logging untouched tropical forest is precisely what Samling and its
related companies have done for years in Cambodia, Malaysia, Guyana and
Papua New Guinea. In the Malaysian province of Sarawak, Samling is one
of the companies logging the last remaining areas of primary forest.
The local Penan people face an on-going battle to prevent the
destruction of the forest and their livelihoods. In addition, 210,000
hectares of a concession in Guyana logged by Samling subsidiary Barama
is high conservation value forest.2 Global Witness also has evidence
that Samling and its related companies have violated laws in Cambodia,
Guyana and Papua New Guinea.
HSBC’s guideline also says that the bank prefers to deal with customers
who operate managed forests that are certified by the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC), or equivalent, or who are ‘following a
credible path towards achieving compliance within a maximum of five
years’.
Global Witness notes, however, that in January 2007 Barama had its FSC
certification withdrawn after an independent audit found ‘systematic
major nonconformities’.2 Barama had failed to conduct appropriate
environmental impact assessments and did not have a forest management
plan for the certified area. In addition the company is logging in
Amerindian lands without the free and informed consent of local
populations.
Only last month HSBC donated $8 million for research into the long-term
effects of climate change on forests. But equally important is effect
of industrial-scale logging on forests and, therefore, on climate
change. According to last year’s Stern Review, emissions from
deforestation contribute more than 18% of global emissions, a greater
share than the global transport sector. 3
“HSBC’s association with Samling makes a mockery of its forest policy
and commitments on climate change. HSBC must terminate its relationship
with Samling with immediate effect, and consider carefully what to do
with the profits raised from this listing,” said Anthea Lawson.
Ends
Contact:
Anthea Lawson on +44 (0)20 7561 6397 or +44 (0) 7809 616 545 or
alawson@globalwitness.org
Notes to editors:
1. The guideline can be found at:
http://a248.e.akamai.net/7/248
www.img.ghq.hsbc.com/public
forest_land_and_forest_product
2. ASI-Accreditation Services International GmbH, ‘FSC Annual
Surveillance of SGS for 2006 – Forest Management Audit to Barama Co Ltd
(BCL) Guyana’ November 2006,
http://www.accreditation
Forest%20Management%20Audit-Guyana-SGS-2006-Final.pdf
3. It has been identified as having particular environmental,
socio-economic, biodiversity or landscape value
3. This figure includes all causes of deforestation.
4. Some of HSBC’s environmental commitments and claims:
· Has guidelines for doing business with companies in the
forestry sector
· Has signed the voluntary Equator Principles which set social
and environmental standards for project finance; was involved in
redrafting them in 2006
· Became carbon neutral in October 2005
· Was voted Sustainable Bank of the Year by the Financial Times
in 2006
· Gave an $8 million grant to the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute in February 2007 to investigate the long-term effects of
climate change on forests
5. Global Witness campaigns to achieve real change by highlighting the
links between the exploitation of natural resources, conflict and
corruption. Through a combination of covert investigations and targeted
advocacy, Global Witness has changed the way the world thinks about the
extraction and trading of natural resources, and the devastating impact
their unsustainable exploitation can have upon development, human
rights and stability. Global Witness was co-nominated for the 2003
Nobel Peace Prize for its leading work on ‘conflict diamonds’ and
awarded the Gleitsman Foundation prize for international activism in
2005. For more information visit www.globalwitness.org.
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