Activists at a UN environmental conference accused host-country Malaysia of turning a blind eye to large-scale smuggling of illegal timber from Indonesia, provoking strong denials from the government.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and several US NGOs have called on the United States to impose trade sanctions against Malaysia over the alleged smuggling of ramin hardwood, EIA president Allan Thornton ( photo, left ) said.

The wood is an endangered species found only in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Thornton said an EIA report entitled "Profiting from Plunder" showed how ramin was smuggled from Indonesia into Malaysia to be made into furniture for export with false documentation.

The report, a culmination of two years of investigations by the EIA and its Indonesian partner Telapak, also detailed how local officials allegedly facilitated the illegal trade, he told a news conference.

"Sanctions are always a last resort but we want all trade in ramin to be suspended for the time being until the Malaysia government has shown concrete evidence that they have cracked down on the illegal trade," Thornton said.

World's biggest exporter

The report alleged Malaysia - the world's biggest exporter of tropical timber - was increasingly relying on imports of illegally logged Indonesian wood for its one-billion-dollar furniture industry as its own forests were dwindling.

But illegal logging is destroying forests in Indonesia, home to 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests, at a frightening rate, it said.

Some 70 percent of its frontier forest was already lost and an area larger than Taiwan being destroyed each year, it added.

The report was distributed on the sidelines of a conference of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which has drawn some 2,000 government officials, scientists and activists to Kuala Lumpur.

'Onus is on Indonesia'

But Malaysian officials hit back at the allegations, saying at the news conference that the government had taken the necessary measures to curb the smuggling of illegal timber from Indonesia.

"We have strengthened our laws and enforced the laws," said Malaysia's primary industry deputy secretary general Suboh Mohamad Yassin.

"As far as Malaysia is concerned, illegal logging is not an issue... the onus is on Indonesia to upgrade their laws."

Suboh said there had been 122 arrests in connection with the illegal trade, with 12 cases involving ramin, and offenders faced a mandatory jail sentence.

The Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) said in a statement it also "rejects the generalisations and grossly overstated claims" made in the EIA report.

The government did not condone any illegal trade in timber nor had set itself up for wholesale laundering of ramin, it said.

Although Indonesia banned export of ramin in August 2001 under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), to which Malaysia is also a signatory, the council said global trade in ramin was still permitted with Cites documents.

It said charges that customs officials and those in the Malaysian Timber Industry Board were facilitating illegal trade of Indonesian ramin were "serious and irresponsible."

"It is libelous and mischievous to even suggest that Malaysia is undermining Cites," it said.

Singapore also implicated

Malaysian NGOs also protested the call for trade sanctions by the United States, which is not a party to the CBD, saying it was "outrageous" and would not resolve the problem.

The EIA and Telapak issued a statement to counter what they called the Malaysian Timber Council's "desperate denials and denigrations", but later sought to ease the tension, saying at the news conference they were not out to tarnish Malaysia's image but wanted it to face up to the truth.

Thornton stressed the EIA was not singling out Malaysia as it had also released a report last year on Singapore's role as another major hub in the illegal ramin trade and could seek sanctions against the island-state.

Togu Manurung from Forest Watch Indonesia blamed illegal logging, which leads to some 3.5 billion dollars in revenue losses annually for the Indonesian government, on corruption and weak law enforcement.

"We are in a crisis, and radical and urgent measures are needed because we are running out of time... we need Malaysia's help," he told the news conference.

He said that some 40 percent of Indonesia's forest cover has been lost in past 50 years. - APF