Preserve our forests

READING your report “Malaysian timber exporters see strong demand from India” (The Star, Nov 17) brings up several issues that will have long-term impact on our country as an environmentally friendly place, and a country which heeds the call to preserve our forests, and do our part to control and push back global warming.

With this in mind, some statements made by the company are a cause for concern.

It was quoted that last year, Malaysia exported timber and timber products to India worth US$362.8mil, a robust 17.1% jump compared with the previous year. This raises the question that if this company is to continue to be a growing concern, will it be necessary to increase our timber felling operations? Even at a rate of a 10% increase per year, can our diminishing forests withstand the onslaught?

We are not talking of only this company that is destroying forever our pristine jungles, but also the “needs” of our palm oil industries and farms.

I do not believe even for a second that sustainable forest management schemes work. Can anyone believe that it is possible to replace a 100-year-old tree that can be felled in a matter of minutes?

More worrisome is another statement that “India’s ban on most domestic logging plus the rising prosperity of the middle-class Indians continue to fuel demand for timber and wood-based products, making it the second-largest importer of tropical logs in the world after China.”

My question is, if India sees fit to ban most of its domestic logging to protect its forests, and gets Malaysia to exploit its own for the sake of the Indian middle class, are we not stupid to do that?

Does Malaysia want to see its beloved country being reduced to wasteland in 20 years’ time in return for short-term profits of a few companies and state governments? And China, which preserves its forests as heritage sites, is an even more voracious consumer of our timber.

The Government seeks to push Malaysia into becoming a high-income country by promulgating various policies in its annual budgets. If we look at most developed countries with high incomes and good quality of life, they have balanced development, and care for their natural assets, guarding them from greedy businessmen and parochial politicians.

Do we have the political mettle to do it?

TAM YENG SIANG,

Petaling Jaya.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/18/focus/5128639&sec=focus

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.