MEDIA RELEASE, THE BRUNO MANSER FONDS, BASEL / SWITZERLAND

MEDIA RELEASE, THE BRUNO MANSER FONDS, BASEL / SWITZERLAND
>
> Certifiers issue ultimatum to Malaysian logging giant: forest
> certification will be revoked unless Samling resolves conflict with
> Penan
>
> Important campaign success for blockading Penan communities
>
> The Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) has threatened
> Samling, the Sarawak-based timber giant, to revoke its certification
> of 56'000 hectares of tropical forest in the Upper Baram region of
> Sarawak unless the company resolves a land conflict with blockading
> Penan communities by November 2007. According to an Associated Press
> (AP) article published today in various Malaysian media, MTCC's Chief
> Executive Officer Chew Lye Teng asked Samling to negotiate with the
> Penan community who defends one of Sarawak's last remaining tracts of
> primeval rainforest against the loggers. „If Samling fails to resolve
> the issue by November the council could revoke the company's
> certificate of sustainable management“, AP quotes Chew. According to
> the CEO, the council's order was based on a survey earlier this year
> by an independent inspection company.
>
> The Bruno Manser Fund welcomes MTCC's overdue clarification which has
> been made after two years of intensive campaigning by the Penan
> communities and supporting Malaysian and international NGOs. „MTCC
> has realized that its loss of credibility outweighs the gains from
> the cooperation with Samling“, BMF director Dr. Lukas Straumann said.
> „We now expect Samling to immediately stop the road construction to
> Long Lellang and cease all logging activities both in the contested
> Penan areas and the few remaining primeval forests of Sarawak.“
>
> The MTCC decision is an important campaign victory for Penan headman
> Saun Bujang of Long Benali whose community has maintained the blockade
> of a Samling logging road for more than three years. In July 2006, the
> blockade was dismantled by local police units and has since then
> several times been reerected by the Penan. In 2007, Malaysian security
> forces set up a permanent camp close to the blockade site within the
> MTCC-certified Samling concession. The local communities reported
> several incidents of intimidation by the police officers such as shots
> in the air and verbal threats. According to the community, the Samling
> road construction has almost reached their village in the last weeks.
>
> MTCC's ultimatum is the second major blow for Samling after the
> company lost its FSC certification of 570'000 hectares of tropical
> forest in Guyana in January 2007. It means a loss of face not only to
> the Malaysian multinational but also to its supporting banks Credit
> Suisse, HSBC and Macquarie Securities who sponsored the Samling public
> listing in Hong Kong earlier this year. HSBC had supported Samling in
> violation of its own published forest policy. Credit Suisse had
> reassured worried customers with letters saying that Samling
> operations were perfectly sustainable. Questioned by Swiss national
> television, Credit Suisse Chief Risk Officer Tobias Guldimann
> personally defended the Samling transaction as compatible with the
> bank's sustainability policies.
>
> For more information, please contact us:
>
> The Bruno Manser Fonds
> for the Peoples of the Rainforest
> Heuberg 25, 4051 Basel / Switzerland
> Tel. +41 61 261 94 74
> www.bmf.ch
> info@bmf.ch
>
> Attachments:
>
> 1) Portrait of Saun Bujang, headman of the Penan community of Long
> Benali (Picture copyright: BMF)
>
> 2) The first Penan blockade near Long Benali was dismantled in July
> 2006 by the Malaysian police (Picture copyright: BMF)
>
> 3) To prevent the Penan from successfully blocakding the logging road,
> Malaysian security forces set up a camp near within the MTCC-certified
> Samling concession (Picture copyright: Sahabat Alam Malaysia)
>
> 4) Site map of MTCC-certified concession and Penan blockade
>
> 5) PDF of the media release