Soon Li Tsin
Malaysiakini.com

MALAYSIA — Ten Kenyah natives have arrest warrants out for them from the Miri Magistrates Court for blockading Samling timber company from logging their communal lands in the remote Baram region of Sarawak.

Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia (Brimas) programme director Raymond Abin when contacted said he was unable to confirm any arrests, although the police in Marudi have been ordered to the blockade site.

“The protests are still taking place but I haven’t been able to contact them to see if any arrests have taken place,” he told Malaysiakini.

On May 19, indigenous Kenyahs from six longhouse communities - Long Moh, Long Je’eh, Long Bela’ong, Long Sawan, Long Silat and Long Mekabar - gathered at upper Sungai Moh to stage a non-violent protest against logging operations by Samling.

They’ve erected wooden barricades on the major logging roads used by Samling to carry out its logging activities within the communal lands and forest area where the Kenyahs of Kedaya Telang Usan in Baram inhabit.

The blockade - located about 300km southeast of Miri - aimed to discontinue timber extraction and transportation from their forest areas in the upper Sungai Sebua, Sungai Jekitan and Sungai Moh area.

According to Abin, Samling’s logging activities - legal and also purportedly illegal ones - have temporarily ceased for the last three weeks since the blockade was erected.

“Hundreds of timber logs that had been felled are stacked up along the sides of the logging road.

“The Kenyahs have stopped all the logging trucks and other logging machineries from entering and transporting timbers from the area,” he said in a statement.

Raymond indicated that the natives have written to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) requesting for an urgent physical inspection of all logs felled by Samling and want them to disallow further logging until the inspection was completed.

Fallen on deaf ears

He pointed out that the indigenous people have severely suffered the environmental impacts of logging activities ever since Samling started its logging operations in upper Baram area.

The company simply encroached into their communal land and forest areas to carry out logging activities, without any consultation and consideration for their source of livelihood.

“They resorted to this action after the company continued to ignore their demands and rights of access and benefits to their natural forest resources.

“Their numerous complaints to the authorities and the logging companies regarding their claims to the forest resources and the problems caused by logging have fallen on deaf ears,” he stated.

Billionaire owners

Abin said the Kenyah’s blockade was their way of getting company representatives and the government authorities to dialogue with them about the matter.

On May 29, SFC personnel attempted unsuccessfully to remove the wooden barricades after receiving complaints from Samling.

The SFC in response filed an action under the Sarawak Forestry Ordinance and arrest warrants were issued by the magistrate court.

The Samling group of companies and its subsidiary, Samling Strategic Corporation Sdn Bhd, control around 1.5 million hectares of forests in the state of Sarawak.

According to Forbes magazine in 1995, the Samling group controlled by Yaw Teck Seng and his family has a net worth estimated at US$1.6 billion.

Some securities analysts view the logging giant as the country’s largest and most aggressive fully integrated timber group.

By SARINA TALIP

Independent Australian producers Cathy Henkel and Jeff Canin maxed out seven credit cards to make their latest documentary The Burning Season.

The film centres on, about the deliberately lit fires that rage across Indonesia every year to clear land for crops.

The ABC, BBC and US network CBS had all pre-bought the film and the Hatchling Productions pair had also managed to secure funding from Australian film funding bodies as well as distribution through National Geographic.

But filming began in March last year while and the cash flow didn’t come through until December, when Henkel and Canin were at the Bali climate change Kyoto Summit and most of the filming had already finished.

“It’s quite a complex deal and it probably took all of last year to put together. However, the story began and I just had to go,” Henkel said.

“So it’s tricky and it’s a lot of risk that the independent producer has to take but we managed to do it and it’s now fully financed and this is not unusual.”

Life in the documentary business is tough but Henkel believes life without documentary would be a poorer place.

She and Canin were in Canberra this week on Monday to meet with politicians, including Greens senator Bob Brown and Environment Minister Peter Garrett, for a special screening of the film.

Henkel said she hoped the screening would emphasise the importance of documentary film in Australia.

“[With the formation] of the new agency Screen Australia we just want to ensure that documentary has a high profile and is recognised for its importance. Of course we need Australian documentary for our culture but we are also arguing that we have an innovative, growing viable business,” Henkel said.

The Burning Season tells the story of three people from different worlds, whose lives intersect in the lead-up to another burning season young Australian entrepreneur Dorjee Sun who wants to establish a cutting-edge carbon trading scheme that effectively re-values forests; an Indonesian farmer Achmadi who burns trees to clear land for growing palm oil; and Danish expatriate Lone Droscher Nielsen who cares for over 600 injured and orphaned orangutans.

“This is a character-based story so we’re following three characters and their journeys through last year the various struggles, obstacles and issues that they encountered. It’s not issue-based as such but the issues emerge from the characters,” Henkel said.

“It’s very fast-paced and a bit of a thriller: you don’t know what’s going to happen next. We also have Hugh Jackman narrating the film and that’s because we wanted a storyteller who would get across some of the tough concepts that people need to understand. They need to understand what Dorjee’s trying to do and they also need to know the global facts, such as 20 per cent of climate change comes from deforestation.”

She said it wasn’t a documentary in the style of Michael Moore.

“It’s not a polemic and it’s not propaganda either. It is a story but it asks the questions of the audience: Do you think carbon trading could save the forests of the world? Do you think Dorjee’s onto something? Is he a pioneer of something that could be replicated around the world or do you just think he’s a profiteer?”

She said documentary had the power to change people’s opinions.

“I can only speak for myself but my life has been changed by seeing documentary films and my attitudes are frequently changed by seeing films. So I do believe that they do change attitudes and that’s clearly why we do it. We hope that people will at least think about and discuss important issues that we raise. If it changes even one person, you’ve made an impact.”

Learn all about The Burning Season

thestar online, Malaysia

By EMBUN MAJID

ALOR STAR: Environmental groups are against the Kedah government’s plan to allow logging at the Pedu, Muda and Ahning dam catchment areas, claiming it will be detrimental to the environment.

Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Kedah branch chairman Phang Fatt Khow urged the Pakatan Rakyat state government to reconsider the move to protect water catchment areas as well the surrounding bio-diversity.

“We are against the state’s plan to allow logging because in the long run, it may jeopardise water supply for padi cultivation,” Phang said Thursday.

He however agreed that the state should receive compensation from the Federal Government if it had to sacrifice the logging contracts to protect the environment.

Consumers Association of Penang president S.M. Mohamed Idris also cautioned against allowing logging at catchment areas as it would cause problems such as water pollution, flooding or droughts.

Mentri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak said that the state government would scrap its logging plan if the Federal Government paid the state RM100mil annually as promised.

“We have to carry out logging because we need the money to run the state and conduct development for the people. But if we can have other revenue, then we won’t need to do it,” he told newsmen after visiting SK Suka Menanti here.

Azizan had on Wednesday, announced that the state government had approved logging activities at the dam catchment areas which would contribute about RM16bil in revenue for the state.

He had said the move was necessary to cover the high expenditure incurred by the state following the petrol price increase.

“We have been providing water to Penang and Perlis and we also produce rice for the whole nation and we protect the forest. Thus the Federal Government should compensate us,” he said.

When asked on protests from environmentalists, Azizan reiterated that the government was exercising its right to log to cover increased operating costs.

Benget Besalicto Tnb, Contributor, Sampit, Central Kalimantan

At least two regencies in Central Kalimantan are waiting for approval from the Jakarta-based forestry ministry to convert some of their forest into industrial plantations, the regents say.

The conversion — most of it from former industrial forest concessions — is meant to accommodate expansion plans from several palm oil companies, including Agro Indomas, Agro Bukit, Best Agro International Group, Wilmar Group and Sinar Mas Group, said the regent of Seruyan, Darwan Ali, last week.

“But we have had no words from the ministry so far,” he said.

Under current regulations, plantation businesses are under the authority of the agriculture ministry, while industrial wood-based forest businesses are managed by the forestry ministry. But any land conversion from forest into industry will also have to be approved by the forestry ministry.

Syarif Bastaman, a member of Agro Indomas’ board of directors, who is also a shareholder in the company, admitted his company had planned to invest more than Rp 7 trillion until 2012 to expand his company’s palm oil plantations.

“We’ve planned to invest up to Rp 7 trillion until 2012 here. If the forestry ministry approved it, we will soon realize our investment here.

“One of our projects is to develop the 22,000 hectare Agro Wanalestari plantation in Seruyan regency, which could employ more than 3,000 workers if realized. Currently, we’ve employed more than 5,000 workers in both Agro Indomas and Agro Bukit,” he said.

Agro Indomas and Agro Bukit are two sister companies under the Agro Group, which is owned by Carson Cumberbeth, a Sri Lankan company owned by business giant Hari Selvanatan.

“The protracted process resulted from the difference in land use maps between the regencies and the central government or ministries in Jakarta,” Syarif said.

Darwan said his administration had designed a new space arrangement. But all the areas it proposed for conversion are former forest concession areas, which required approval by the forestry ministry.

“But so far we haven’t got any response from the forestry ministry in Jakarta.”

Darwan was speaking after attending fire awareness training held by Agro Indomas, in cooperation with the ministry of forestry, the Indonesian Palm Oil Council, WWF Indonesia, Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) and Care International.

Kotawaringin Timur Regent Wahyudi K. Anwar shared Darwan’s view, saying the new investments, if realized, will certainly boost local economies in the regencies.

Local government data shows that there are about 1.5 million hectares of former industrial forest concession areas that can be converted into plantations and industrial forests in the province.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Kenyahs blockade a logging road on the Upper Moh River. The banner says, “Samling, do not rob the wealth from the poor people’s land and give it to the rich in the city.” (Photo courtesy Borneo Resources Institute)

MIRI, Sarawak, Malaysia, June 17, 2008 (ENS) - A month-long blockade of logging roads by indigenous people in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia set to protest illegal logging on their communal lands is about to be broken up by police.

More than 100 indigenous Kenyah people gathered at the blockade site on the upper Moh River on the island of Borneo claim that the blockade is their only way of calling on representatives of the Samling Timber Company and government authorities to have a consultation and meet with them to listen to their problems and demands.

Otherwise, they say, the Samling Timber Company will continue to ignore their demands and plights.

According to the Borneo Resources Institute in Miri, which issued a statement today on behalf of the Kenyah peoples, ever since Samling started its logging operations in the upper Baram area, the indigenous communities have suffered the environmental impacts of logging.

They say the company simply encroached into their communal land and forest areas to carry out logging activities, without any consultation and consideration for their source of livelihood.

The Kenyahs have forwarded some “reasonable demands for social benefits and development of the community as they are the rights stakeholders that should be fairly benefit from forest resources in their area,” the Borneo Resources Institute says.

Kenyah people with logs felled by Samling Timber Company on traditional lands. (Photo courtesy Borneo Resources Institute)

The Kenyah say they resorted to the blockade action after the company and the state forest agency ignored their demands and their rights of access and claims to the benefits of their natural forest resources.

Since the blockade was erected, Samling’s logging activities have ceased. Hundreds of timber logs that had been felled are stacked up along the sides of the logging road because the Kenyahs have stopped all the logging trucks and other logging machines from entering the area and transporting timber from the area.
Kenyah people with logs felled by Samling Timber Company on traditional lands. (Photo courtesy Borneo Resources Institute)

The Kenyahs have written a letter to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, a state government agency, requesting that the agency carry out an urgent physical inspection of all logs that have been illegally felled by Samling in the area.

They also called upon the Sarawak Forestry Corporation to stop Samling from carrying out its operation until all inspection of timber logs has been completed.

Their request has been ignored.

Believing that they have no other alternative and being compelled to bring attention to their plight, the indigenous Kenyahs of Kedaya Telang Usan area in Baram Region have resorted to staging this protest, which is still continuing.

On May 29, upon receiving complaints from the Samling Timber Company, a group of personnel from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, went to the blockade site to remove the wooden barricades, but they were restrained from dismantling the blockade.

As a result, the Sarawak Forestry Corporation filed a court action requesting a Warrant of Arrest, which has been granted by the Magistrate Court in Miri.

Police personnel from the Marudi Police Station were ordered to the blockade site to enforce the Warrant of Arrest on June 14. So far, no arrests have taken place.

Source: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2008/2008-06-17-02.asp

By Trish Crawford
Source: theStar.com
Canada

Do you care about orangutans?

LUSH Cosmetics, which provides handmade, natural products made from fruits and vegetables, is protecting Sumatra’s rain forest, and the orangutan’s habitat, by producing soaps without palm oil.

Soon, you’ll be able to learn all about how the company sources its ingredients when you click on an item for sale on its website lush.ca.

Mark Wolverton, Vancouver-based president and CEO of LUSH North America, says he and his team of buyers travel the world armed with cameras to investigate and document the way ingredients are made. No products using child labour. No products produced in a conflict zone.

“We’re unique. The niche we have is the front edge of handmade, natural, environmental, quality, treat-yourself-stuff.

Although organic, natural or environmentally friendly cosmetics are less than 5 per cent of the Canadian market, it is an area that is fast-growing and shows much promise for future growth.

Wolverton, whose company has been in Canada for a decade, says his market of ethically minded 20- to 45-year-olds do the research.

“In this day of information, people are far more educated about making choices.”

LUSH sell its creams and lip balms in recyclable containers with little or no packaging and uses its profits (it is a private company so no numbers divulged) to lobby for change in the environmental field. Sumatra’s rain forest are one such project.

“People come to us because they want to support the environment,” says Wolverton, adding that it also means “delivering a good, quality product that is not BS.”

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

By Cassie Johnson

Kylie’s love of nature and environmental awareness came alive in first grade. Her teacher, Mrs. Rappleye, taught an extensive lesson on the Red Wood Forest and all the important creatures within. The classroom was transformed into a living forest from the netting on the ceiling to the bark covering the floor, it was an amazing year. That following summer our family traveled to Costa Rica. We steered away from the zip-line rides and ATV activities; instead we concentrated on exploration of the rainforest wild life.

Knowledge is a powerful thing. There is no turning back for Kylie now. She understands that our world and its creatures are in need of help, and she knows she can make a difference.

Kylie celebrated her 9th birthday much like her 8th, a philanthropic rainforest / orangutan themed party. Along with a swimsuit and towel, she asks her guests to each bring a handmade birthday card (jungle themed) and in lieu of a gift, make a donation to save endangered orangutans through “Orangutan Outreach”. (Last year, at her 8th birthday guests donated and adopted six and a half acres of the Costa Rican rainforest).

All twenty-five children participated and were excited to help, as most had heard about the killing of orangutans and the rainforests disappearing to the plantations of palm oil trees.

Kylie raised $500.00!!!!!!!!!!! Kylie describes her birthday as “the best party ever!” We call it the gift that keeps giving. She gets so much joy, deciding on an organization to support, reading the orangutan stories, laughing at all the creative cards her friends made, and counting up the piles of checks and cash. Then there is the writing of her story for websites and our local paper, and a certificate of giving we frame on her bedroom wall.

The gift of empowerment and confidence Kylie receives from these birthdays can not even come close to the short-lived joy of material birthday gifts. We are so proud of Kylie and hope she inspires other children and families to discover the joy of giving in the pursuit of raising global environmental consciousness.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

We couldn’t agree more! Thanks so much, Kylie! You have joined the ranks of a growing number of young supporters who are doing their part to help save the orangutans…. The world needs more kids like you, Isabella Velez and Lainie Hampton! And stay tuned for more from Girl Scouts Rhiannon Tomtishen and Mady Vorva.

By Juan Fernandez, Senior Orangutan Keeper at the San Diego Zoo

Last month I had the opportunity to attend the New Living Expo in San Francisco. On behalf of the San Diego Zoo, I accepted an invitation by the director of Orangutan Outreach, Richard Zimmerman, and his wife, Robin, to help raise awareness and funds directly contributing to orangutan conservation. Armed with some show-and- tell items, information pamphlets, and 50 plush orangutan toys, we had no idea what to expect from the thousands of anticipated guests visiting that weekend.

We were very excited about this pilot program and we wanted to get people excited about conservation. To get their attention, we decorated an elaborate booth filled with cute orangutan photos and canvas art pieces made by our resident Bornean orangutan, Janey. People were naturally drawn to our booth. Once they approached, we talked about the palm oil industry and its direct effect on the ecology of many animals in Indonesia, specifically Bornean and Sumatran orangutans.

The large corporate logging industries are destroying the forests in Indonesia at a fast rate. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) reports, between the years 2000 and 2005, Indonesia had the second-most cleared tropical rain forest in the world. This diverse ecosystem is home to the only great ape that occurs outside of Africa, the orangutan. Other species include the Sumatran tiger, pygmy rhino, clouded leopards, and pygmy forest elephants.

Unfortunately, Indonesian rain forest is prime land for the world’s second-most produced crop oil in the world. The African oil palm Elaeis guineensis was introduced to Southeast Asia in the early 1600s. Roughly 90 percent of the palm oil produced comes from the Indonesian region. The problem comes into focus once we begin to see how unaware consumers contribute to this issue. Most Americans have no idea how many products in their home actually contain palm oil and palm-based products: detergents, soaps, cosmetics, and household products contain palm oil. One out of every five food items we buy at the grocery store, especially baked goods, contain palm oil. Other wording that is used in conjunction with palm oil is palmate, palm kernel, and even vegetable oil. There is little accountability from the large companies on where their palm oil is coming from. It’s cheap to produce, has a favorable taste for food items, and it’s a great preservative in many products.

Secondarily, the boom in biofuel as an alternative source of energy is using palm oil to run its machines. This low emission alternative comes with a high price as forests around the world are being destroyed at an alarming rate.

By becoming conscious consumers, we can have a huge positive impact on what goes on halfway around the world. Raising awareness and being able to pass this on was the message to the hundreds of people that came by our conservation booth. It was exhilarating and exhausting, but I enjoyed every second! On behalf of Orangutan Outreach, we collected over $2,000 in cash donations and another $2,000 in online adoptions. One hundred percent of the contributions went directly to benefit over 650 orphaned orangutans that lost their mothers due to the palm oil industry in Borneo.

Juan Fernandez is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read Juan’s original post on the San Diego Zoo blog

Watch the San Diego Zoo’s orangutans and siamangs daily on their Ape Cam!!!!

Photo of Janey the Artiste — Check out her myspace page.

By NEAL PEIRCE
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5823936.html

At 30-plus years of age, the environmental movement is spinning its wheels, awash in good proposals it can’t get passed. It’s focused on litigation and playing within the system instead of moving courageously to build broad, potent political alliances that might have the breadth and the moxie to save a dangerously imperiled planet.

The allegation isn’t mine; it comes instead from James Gustave “Gus” Speth, by life record the epitome of mainstream environmentalism — chairman of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality during the Carter administration, founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the World Resources Institute, and dean of environmental studies at Yale.

Mainstream environmentalism, Speth notes, has had its successes. Building on the landmark statutes pushed through in the early 1970s, air quality has improved, water is cleaner and dangerous toxic emissions have been curbed.

But a nation fully protected? Hardly. Just check the record, suggests Speth in his new book, The Bridge at the Edge of the World (Yale University Press). A third of our rivers and half our lakes are too polluted to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s basic standard. Thirty-seven percent of estuaries are in “poor” condition. Beach closings have reached all-time highs. Two-thirds of Americans live in counties that register pollution levels over EPA’s fairly basic standard.

Wilderness areas have been set aside. But since 1982, we Americans have also paved or built on 35 million once-rural acres, the size of New York State. Since the 1970s, our miles of paved roads are up 53 percent, vehicle miles up 177 percent.

And just check the world scene, impacted so hugely by U.S. consumption and policies. Development and agriculture have destroyed half the world’s tropical and temperate forests, triggering landslides, flooding and soil depletion. Species are disappearing at about 1,000 times the normal rate, threatening the biodiversity that may be critical to mankind’s survival.

Twenty percent of coral reefs are gone, many more threatened. Soil erosion, salinization, devegetation — and eventual desertification — are proceeding at alarming rates. Freshwater supplies are increasingly threatened. Mercury, lead and arsenic are among the hundreds of millions of tons of yearly hazardous waste emissions. At current levels of economic expansion, according to the Global Footprint Network, humanity’s demand on nature will be twice the biosphere’s productive capacity, threatening “large-scale ecosystem collapse” by mid-century.

And then there’s climate change, the hugest challenge of all, directly triggered by the burning of fossil fuels. It’s impacting polar ice caps, melting glaciers, bringing about both heavy storms and severe droughts, imperiling shorelines. It’s also the culprit in loss of tens of millions of acres of forest in the American West as warming permits bark beetles to move northward attacking pine, fir and spruce.

So who’s to blame? Mostly, argues Speth, the wealthy, industrial countries “and especially … the United States, the principal footdragger” in the push for global restraints.

And why? It’s the basic capitalist system, says Speth. To survive, corporations must produce profits, which means they need to keep introducing smart new products or strategies for fear of being outstripped by competitors. So they keep expanding across cities, nations, the globe — today there are 63,000 multinational firms with 91 million employees.

By the way they are constituted, corporations feel obliged to retain profits for shareholders and executives. Conversely, to hold down costs, they “externalize” — throw off to others — their environmental and social impacts. So a mining company naturally tries to send polluting chemicals downstream, a utility to burn coal and let someone else worry about global warming or a big box merchandiser to get state governments to cover its employee health costs.

Plus, with their money supplies and armies of lobbyists, corporations can fight environmental regulations or help install government officials friendly to them. Worldwide, Speth reports, businesses get $850 billion of public subsidies yearly for agriculture, energy, transportation and more — about 2.5 percent of the global economy.

The pillar of modern capitalism? It’s consumerism — the selfish urge for “more-more-more” we all experience to some degree. So since 1972, the average size of our homes has increased 50 percent, electricity consumption per person is up 70 percent, municipal wastes per person 33 percent. McMansions, SUVs, gadgets beyond count — we love to consume. Result: corporations profit and the demand on global resources soars.

The environmental movement, Speth suggests, hasn’t wanted to offend consumers by suggesting lifestyle choices. It’s often held back fire on corporations, hoping they’ll voluntarily turn “greener.” But it will have to risk more confrontation, openly advocate less consumptive lifestyles, and mobilize youth, unions, alarmed citizens here and around the world in its causes. Because “right now, we’re headed toward a ruined planet.”

Peirce is a syndicated columnist who specializes in city and state affairs. (nrp@citistates.com)

Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5823936.html