feature The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has made big strides in creating an international eco-timber certification system in recent years. It has 10 principles that are meant to hold true anywhere in the world but local regions or countries are required to adapt them to better match the local situation.

But these national principles must be consistent with the 10 principles, and all stakeholders must have a role in creating the regional or national standards.

The Malaysian government established the National Timber Certification Council (NTCC) in Oct 1998.

Dr Freezailah Che Yeom, former Malaysian executive director of the ITTO (International Tropical Timber Organisation) in Yokohama, was appointed chairperson of the board of trustees of the NTCC, recently renamed MTCC - the Malaysian Timber Certification Council.

NTCC had initially wanted nothing to do with the FSC. The ministry of International Trade and Industry, in a report issued late Nov 1999, called the FSC a US-backed plot to impose foreign values on Malaysia.

Two years later, the NTCC changed its mind and decided to develop an FSC compatible Malaysian Criteria and Indicators (McandI).

The reason for the change came about when timber companies realised that the Western market demand for a credible green label could not be ignored.

The timber industry in Malaysia is running out of profitable wood to cut, and is turning to the idea of creating furniture for the Western market, instead of just selling raw logs.

Selling wood products in Europe especially is likely to get increasingly difficult without FSC certification.

A workshop conducted in Dec 2000 was attended by various stakeholders, including Malaysian NGOs working on indigenous issues (as distinguished from other social and conservation NGOs such as World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia (WWF-M), Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) and the Yellow Union of Woodworkers).

The workshop helped form a working group composed of three chambers to look into the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainable forest management.

Real objective

However, the real objective seems to be furthering high timber industry profit margins instead of being sincere about sustainability.

The government and the corporate-dominated workshop actually compartmentalised the concept. A fourth chamber for the foresters was pushed ahead after a long debate.

Today, Primary Industries Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik argues that MCandI for sustainable forest management developed by NTCC is as good a standard as the FSC's, and that it should already be accepted as the FSC's national standard for Malaysia.

However, Malaysia and the FSC appear to be on a collision course, because these standards do not appear to be consistent with the FSC's 10 principles.

At the opening of the international conference on forestry and forest product research in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 1 this year, Lim expressed disappointment that the government's effort to promote the Malaysian National Certification process was being hampered by the non-cooperation of the FSC itself and other developing nations.

"All this indicates that the FSC does not want to lose its monopoly in certification," said Lim ( New Straits Times , Oct 2d, 2001).

NGOs involved with indigenous issues had earlier expressed concern during the NTCC meeting to formalise the MCandI in Oct 1999.

Their concern was that the welfare of indigenous communities was not safeguarded in Malaysia, since legislation failed to provide due recognition to the customary rights of the local people. The NTCC however, regards the present state law as sufficient.

But this is clearly not the case, because current Malaysian law requires the setting up of a Forest Management Unit (FMU) for each forest concession.

When an FMU is given for a particular area, logging becomes the only land use allowed there. So under the current rules it is impossible to reconcile logging and indigenous land use, because the two activities are legally mutually exclusive.

In essence, the government legally wipes out all indigenous land claims, and then says there are no longer any land claims to hold back timber certification.

Practically all native forests in Sarawak, except those set aside for conservation purposes, have been given as concessions to logging companies.

According to Forests Monitor, at least 80 percent of all of Sarawak's total land area has been given as concessions.

Numerous disputes

There have been numerous disputes between the indigenous community claims and the concession holders.

Certification through the MCandI would only further justify the extinguishing of indigenous rights over their ancestral domains. Many people absolutely depend on these lands for their livelihoods as well as their cultural and spiritual wellbeing.

Many NGOs questioned the process used in the Dec 2000 NTCC workshop. These NGOs criticised the process, saying it gave little or no opportunity for sincere dialogue and discussion.

They requested transparency and accountability for better communication, information and the participation of community people.

In the first quarter of 2001 these NGOs held four community consultations in the three regions of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. Recommendations and demands from these consultations have been compiled.

These call for particular attention to FSC principles 2 and 3 that concern ownership, tenures and rights of indigenous people. These two FSC principles would be very good if they were actually applied, but the NTCC seems to have no intention of following them.

Independent facilitation

Disappointed with the lack of a positive response from NTCC, 13 Malaysian NGOs withdrew from the NTCC process in July this year.

Elected members from the group resigned from the various chambers that formed the National Steering Committee (NSC) for timber certification.

In a statement issued on July 30, the group called for independent facilitation instead of having Freezailah as the chairperson to the NSC as well as the board of trustees of the NTCC.

The statement demanded that the process of developing Malaysian forest management standards must honestly involve forest communities and indigenous landowners. The establishment of FMUs should be in compliance with the FSC's principles and criteria.

Certification should not threaten or diminish, either directly or indirectly, the customary land rights, tenure and resources of local communities.

The statement also said that there should be an agreement between the villagers and concession holders based on community protocol with clear boundary demarcation.

The NGOs felt that their objections were ignored and many problems remain unresolved. And to continue participating in the process could be misconstrued as giving consent and approval to the McandI.

An ultimatum

Instead of seeking further dialogue, Freezailah served an ultimatum in his letter to the signatories of the NGO statement.

He said if the group did not indicate their wish to rejoin the process by Sept 21, 2001, they would be considered out. On Sept 15, the NGOs met and decided that they will rejoin the NSC if and when the problems raised are seriously dealt with.

In a new statement issued on Sept 25, this group of 14 NGOs called for a moratorium on further logging in primary forest areas and in areas where indigenous peoples are asserting their native rights.

In the short run, it looks like MCandI will not be able to achieve a credible standard in accordance with FSC principles and criteria.

The political will among the key Malaysian timber product players to be sincere and serious about timber certification, has yet to be found.

Meanwhile, in the failed Malaysia-German Technical Cooperation Project (Fomiss) area of Ulu Baram in Sarawak, the Samling logging company is resuming conventional logging that threatens the ancestral domains of the Penan people.

Will the primary industries minister, the timber business sector and professional forester, ever understand the connection between indigenous issues and certification? One can only wonder.