On June 21, Sahabat Alam Malaysia held a press conference to announce the shocking news that three licences for large plantations of oil palm and pulp and paper have been given within the Bakun water catchment area between 1999 and 2002. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports for the projects were approved by the Natural Resources and Environmental Board (NREB) of Sarawak between 2000 and 2003.

The three projects concerned are the Shin Yang Forest Plantation in Murum (155,930 ha), the Bahau-Linau Forest Plantation (108,235 ha) and the Merirai-Balui Forest Plantation (55,860 ha), which are owned by a Rimbunan Hijau-affiliated company.

The approval for the projects will not only adversely affect the Bakun hydroelectric project which is now costing over RM8 billion already, but the approvals are also in fact in conflict with the promise made by the state and federal governments in the 1990s, which was to gazette the Bakun water catchment area. In fact, the Sarawak state government even published a seven-page advertisement to pledge this on Aug 12, 1996.

We feel extremely anxious that although three months have passed since the announcement, the federal and state governments have yet to give their appropriate responses on the matter.

We believe that one of the reasons approvals for such projects could actually be given is due to the fact that the Natural Resources and Environment Ordinance in Sarawak does not demand mandatory public participation in the EIA process in the state, unless a project proponent so desires. This stance is very different from the Environmental Quality Act which is in force at the federal level.

Such differences not only result in the lack of legal uniformity in this country, but the Sarawak law in this case has clearly ignored principles of openness and transparency. In Sarawak, the public not only has no opportunity to give their comments and critiques on an EIA report, they in fact sometimes lack the very information on projects which could affect their lives and health. This situation has caused the quality of the EIA reports in Sarawak to be extremely poor and many claims made by different parties can sometimes create even more confusion.

For example, the Associated Press on June 21 reported that the representative from Jaya Tiasa, a company affiliated to Rimbunan Hijau Forest Corp stated that "our plantations are definitely not within some catchment area." However, reports from the project EIA admitted otherwise.

On Aug 14, the project proponent of the Shin Yang Forest Plantation stated to the media that "the company is aware of the existence of the Penans and the 'temuda' (farms) within the licensed land but only two settlements, Long Jaik and Long Liam, were identified as stated in the relevant EIA report." However, the EIA report for the Shin Yang Forest Plantation clearly claims that there is no village within their project site when there are at least seven Penan villages in the area.

We thus would like to request that the Sarawak state government to make the appropriate amendments on the Natural Resources and Environment Ordinance in Sarawak so that such incidences will no longer continue. At the same time, we also call on to the Finance Ministry, as the owner of the Bakun hydroelectric project, to come forward and explain to the public as to why the promises of the authorities to gazette the Bakun water catchment area in the 1990s have not been fulfilled.

The writer is president, Sahabat Alam Malaysia.