More on deforestation in Sarawak.
Taken from a comment on the Aliran website:
While Sean’s warning about Google Earth’s images is useful, what it means in practice is that the extent of deforestation it shows is an under-estimate of the actual situation on the ground. For Sarawak, it is mostly about five years out of date. Continue reading »
What happens when the Auditor General comes up with a report critical of areas under your ministry’s jurisdiction? Why, you ask for it to be amended, of course!
That’s what Sarawak State Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management Awang Tengah Ali Hassan reportedly did when he asked the Auditor General to amend its Annual Report for 2008. Awang Tengah was unhappy about the bit that cited Sarawak along with Kelantan, Pahang and Johor as having poor forest management that led to river pollution, erosion, landslides and destruction of flora and fauna, according to the Malaysian Mirror.
Here’s one such excerpt from the Auditor’s Report that might help to explain the fuss: the report noted that in Nov 2007 and March 2008, the Sarawak Minister of Planning and Resource Management had fixed six million hectares as the target for permanent forest reserves. But the report added that the Ministry did not say when this announcement would come into effect.
Penan forest inhabitants are battling to save their ancestral lands from the might of plantation and timber companies, who have already stripped most of the primary rainforests in Sarawak.
Whatever happened to the much touted “sustainable forest management”? How were primary rainforests flattened for acacia tree and oil palm plantations, dealing a devastating blow to biodiversity?
Look at the greed of these logging and plantation firms. And when it comes to the interests of these giant firms vs those of ordinary people (like the Penan, in this case) – you know whose side the politicians will be on, as usual.
