Nature Alert: M'sian lumber firm pays fine to Guyana

Thursday 15 November 2007

M'sian lumber firm pays fine to Guyana

M'sian lumber firm pays fine to Guyana - Malaysiakini.com
Nov 15, 07 11:11am

A Malaysian lumber company Wednesday said it agreed to pay Guyana US$470,000 in fines for allegedly under-reporting the number of logs it harvested from the Amazon jungle. Barama Company Limited (BCL) said it would immediately pay the compensatory fines in good faith, without prejudice and without admission to liability.

Last month, when the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) announced the penalties, BCL threatened to fire workers and cut production while it appealed to the GFC to hire internationally-recognized experts to investigate the charges. On Wednesday, however, the company admitted breaches by several low-level staffers harvesting in areas where permits were still being processed.

"The company takes the allegations very seriously and is committed to engage with the Guyana Forestry Commission to a comprehensive review of the timber operation procedures and improve the processes going forward," said BCL Chief Executive Officer Peter Ho.

The company admitted to a number of anomalies, including unintentional mixing of tree tags and harvesting in areas where permits were still being processed, but it denied under-declaring all the logs harvested to the GFC.

The GFC said its probe found that BCL declared less logs than it harvested in July from privately-owned Guyanese companies. Malaysian-owned BCL has been operating in the northwestern Amazon jungle of the impoverished South American country for almost 30 years. - AFP

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.