Nature Alert: Speaker : Malaysia not to protect officials involved in illegal logging

Saturday, 10 May 2008

Speaker : Malaysia not to protect officials involved in illegal logging

05/06/08 14:45

Speaker : Malaysia not to protect officials involved in illegal logging

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Malaysia will not protect any of its officials who proves to be involved in illegal logging activities in Indonesia, House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Agung Laksono said following a meeting with visiting Malaysian Foreign Affairs Minister Rais Yatim at the Parliament building here on Monday.

"They (Malaysia) promised not to protect any of their officials involved (in illegal logging)," Laksono said as quoted in the DPR website on Tuesday.The Indonesian House leader at the meeting with Yatim said there was suspicion some Malaysian high ranking officials were behind illegal logging cases.

They were suspected of accommodating logs cut illegally from forests in Indonesia.The Malaysian foreign minister, according to Agung Laksono, assured him that the Malaysian government would not protect illegal loggers or prevent any investigation into officials if they were involved.

However, the minister did not mention any names. Lasksono quoted Yatim as saying Malaysia was ready to cooperate with Indonesia in dealing with activities that damaged Indonesia`s forests"They want to cooperate" the House Speaker said.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Forestry Minister MS Kaban last month said the Indonesian government would soon lodge a protest against Malaysia for accepting illegal logs smuggled on a large scale from West Kalimantan.

Minister Kaban made the statement in Muara Sungai Pawan, West Kalimantan, on Thursday when inspecting 12,000 cubic meters of logs that had been seized by the police and 19 boats detained for transporting the illegal logs.The forestry ministry believed the seized logs were about to be smuggled to Kuching, Malaysia.Minister Yatim, who was only recently appointed Malaysian foreign minister to replace Syed Hamid Albar, had come to Jakarta mainly to introduce himself. (*)
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Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.