Nature Alert: Four forestry officers arrested over corruption

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Four forestry officers arrested over corruption

2009/10/14 New Straits Times Malaysia

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), with the help of the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, has apprehended four forestry officers suspected of being involved in corruption this year, its deputy minister Tan Sri Joseph Kurup said.

Kurup also said that the ministry detected a rise in illegal logging activities from 2006 to 2008 and had worked together with the MACC to beef up its anti-corruption capabilities in the forestry sector.

Kurup told a press conference after closing the a seminar on anti-corruption in the forestry sector here today that in 2006, the number of illegal logging activities detected was 34 and 38 in 2007.

There were 21 cases detected so far this year, he said.

"During the period, 23 people were arrested, among them forestry officers," he said.

Saying that the ministry would continue to monitor the activities, Kurup said many of them occurred in Pahang.

- Bernama

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/20091014194531/Article/index_html

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.