Laws of the Jungle

SINCE 1993, when the National Forestry Act was amended to tighten the screws on illegal logging, the buzz of outlaw chainsaws scything down Malaysia’s jungles has quieted considerably. The number of forest crimes plummeted in the late half of the decade and was probably kept low by the Asian financial crisis of 1997, which sank the prices of tropical hardwoods into the new century. Demand has recovered, however, particularly in fast-growing China. And as with any other illegal traffic supplying to ravenous markets, from drugs to endangered animal species, the more the countries clamp down on the timber trade, the greater the incentives for loggers to risk ducking the law. Not surprisingly, trails have started to appear in the greenery, leading to bald patches in once verdant terrain.

There are other signs, particularly in Borneo, one of the last major tracts left of the planet’s primeval rainforests. In June, Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said gangsters were behind the illicit tree-cutting in the state, against which enforcement was unable to cope. In Sabah, murmurs of chugging machinery deep in the interior perhaps prompted the prime minister on Friday to once again call for a halt to the issuing of logging licences. Timber marauding, usually disguised as the clearing of land for development or agriculture, goes on in the peninsula, too. Protected forests are probably under equal threat from revenue- hungry local authorities as from illegal loggers, especially when, as a seizure in June from the Sungai Menyala Reserve in Negri Sembilan showed, 30 logs can fetch RM500,000. Such lucre can send even the best intentioned governments to the ropes. Indonesia’s notoriety in the plundering of its forest resources sometimes rubs off on Malaysia. Cambodia, whose illegal logging was once curbed by aid agreements, appears to be backsliding.

Of course, subduing the vile commerce in “old growth” flora does not depend on the originating countries alone. The importers, usually the developed nations, should have procurement and certification policies that only accept legally felled wood. The rich world’s governments should ensure that timber companies operate by the same strict rules overseas as they do at home. International co-operation plays a part, but the burden lies heavier on the source countries, for the simple reason that they have more to lose – in legitimate incomes, environmental quality, and the fallout from criminal money-making, such as corruption. Nearly 15 years on, it may be time to re-apply and reassert the Forestry Act, especially in the extremities of Sabah and Sarawak.

(c) 2007 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.