Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 4 • Number 3 • 20th February 2004

Report Reveals Illegal Timber Trading Practices in Malaysia

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The Sierra Club, the Defenders of Wildlife, Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace and other environmental groups have called on the US administration to impose trade sanctions under the US Pelly amendment against Malaysia, unless the country takes steps to stop illegal timber trade. The Pelly amendment allows the US to impose sanctions on nations whose actions diminish the effectiveness of an international conservation programme. A recently released report by the non-profit environmental group Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and its Indonesian partner organisation Telapak revealed that Malaysian exports of ramin tree sums-up to more than twice the amount of what the country was able to produce annually. The groups claim that Malaysia illegally imports the tree from Indonesia and then re-exports it, with severe consequences for biodiversity. “Every shipment of illegal Indonesian ramin sold by Malaysia is moving the orang-utans and other species a step closer to extinction”, said EIA Director Allan Thorton. The EIA report is accompanied by a video on which Malaysian businessmen explain how they obtain government issued documents to export ramin to China, Taiwan and other destinations, where it is mainly used for the furniture industry.

Under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the Indonesian government had to ban all cutting and export of the tree in 2001 while Malaysia can still trade ramin with a CITES permit. Despite the ban, the timber is harvested illegally in Indonesia, smuggled to and “washed” in Malaysia before being exported. Indonesian Forestry Minister Muhammad Prakosa noted this as “unfair practice” and called on the European Union to ban Malaysian ramin trade. Malaysia, on the other hand, points to its ban of ramin imports from Indonesia in 2003 to prevent illegal logging. The countries have so far not been able to cooperate on the issue — blaming each other for not enforcing their laws.

The EIA/Telapak report “Profiting from Plunder: How Malaysia Smuggles Endangered Wood“.