Claims that Sarawak practises sustainable forest management policy are only good on paper, a former deputy general manager of the state-owned Sarawak Forestry Corporation Sdn Bhd (SFC), Mengga Mikui, says.

"What the SFC officials and State Government about our sustainable forest management are far from truth," Mengga said in an interview.

"We never really practised sustainable forest management in the first place, despite the recommendations by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)," Mengga alleged.

NONE "I quit in 2009 because I was uncomfortable with what are going on there in SFC and Forest Department," he said.

"They (officials from SFC and FD) said I should be part of the team, otherwise, I have to leave. So, I chose to quit," Mengga (left) added.

Mengga said the SFC and State government were only good at telling the outside world that Sarawak practised sustainable forest management.

"That is not what is happening on the ground," he added.

The ITTO and FAO recommendations, he said, call for sustainable forest management.

"Our control is mainly on cutting limit, which is very simple. Whatever is not allowed below the cutting limit is not to be felled. Trees can only be felled above the cutting limit.

NONE "There are buffer zones, but they are not strictly followed and that is why we have soil erosion along the rivers," Mengga said, adding the massive logjams along Sungai Balleh-Sungai Balui-Sungai Rejang in October last year were due to the failure to follow the ITTO and FAO recommendations.

Mengga's revelation confirmed Sarawak Land Development Minister James Masing's observation after visiting Ulu Malatai in Ulu Balleh, Kapit Division, the starting point of the logjam, last year.

Masing described the destruction caused to a large area in the mountains of Ulu Malatai, due to uncontrolled logging, as resembling a war zone, where landslides and soil erosions had destroyed at least three hills in the area.

Thousands of logs and other debris jammed Sungai Balleh, Sungai Balui and Sungai Rejang, which environmentalists and Masing described as the worst ecological disaster in Sarawak.

Tonnes of fish, including Sarawak's most expensive fish, , which can fetch RM500 a kilo, were killed.