An international group of environmentalists today announced efforts to lobby multinational companies involved in logging, including Malaysia's Rimbunan Hijau, to be more 'responsible' in their operations.

"We will campaign in different countries and target companies that convert land to plantations and for logging purposes that have a negative impact on the environment and indigenous people," said Papua New Guinean Adelbert Gangai at the end of a three-day conference in Kuala Lumpur.

According to Gangai, those companies include Rimbunan Hijau, a major Malaysian timber company owned by Sarawakian timber and media tycoon Tiong Hiew King.

Tiong owns the Chinese-language Sin Chew Jit Poh and a number of newspapers in Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea and Cambodia.

"Rimbunan Hijau has 50 subsidiaries and they are in places like Russia, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands," Gangai told reporters during a press conference.

Over the past decade, environmentalists have criticised Rimbunan Hijau for its logging activities in Sarawak and overseas.

Gangai added that logging and development also affected the ecology of these countries and blamed the World Trade Organisation and the Asian Development Bank for funding such programmes.

The conference entitled 'The Ring of Fire' included delegates from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Malaysia, Chile, the United States. It was organised by Pacific Environment, a non-governmental organisation from the US.

Underhanded tactics

Harriet Swift, an Australian environmentalist, added that the companies would be told not to use underhanded tactics in timber production.

"They would be told not to log illegally and not to use unsustainable methods. We will be setting up a mechanism where we can monitor them through our local partners," said Swift.

Meanwhile, Malaysian delegate Thomas Jalong from Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) told reporters that logging activities in Sarawak was increasing.

"The state government is also initiating laws that facilitate logging and large-scale development. We need to start looking at other friends or partners and to network to tackle these problems, both internationally and locally," Jalong said.

According to Jalong, natives in Sarawak are now required to have permits in order to collect products from the forests for domestic purposes.

The Sarawak state assembly is also mulling the Land Surveyors Bill 2000 which states that all land surveyors must be licensed through the government.

This bill would effectively rule out all efforts made by the locals to map out their own lands.

In a separate statement, SAM said the bill would have devastating effects for the indigenous people of Sarawak.

"The new bill will have a devastating impact on the ability of the native people to defend their Native Customary Rights," said SAM.

"Under the guise of a procedural surveying law, the government is adopting a very regressive policy to suit their own vested interests and denying indigenous people their rights," the statement said.