Malaysian Timber Tycoon Charged

IPOH: A timber tycoon and his son have been charged in a Sessions Court with criminal breach of trust amounting to over RM11mil.

Tan Boon Huat, 59, who is Perak Industrial Corporation Sdn Bhd's biggest shareholder and director allegedly committed the offence at the company premises in Jalan Ipoh, Sungai Siput (Utara) on Sept 28 2009.

His son Tan Kang Wei, 33, was charged with conspiring to commit the offence. Both faced a maximum of 20 years jail, caning and possible fine, upon conviction under the Penal Code.

Judge Madihah Harullah set bail at RM800,000 with one surety each and ordered their passports to be impounded.

DPP Syed Faisal Syed Amir prosecuted while Datuk Jerald Gomez appeared for both the accused.

Re-mention was fixed for Sept 27.

INTERPOL launches Project LEAF to combat illegal logging worldwide

LYON, France – To mark World Environment Day, 5 June, INTERPOL announces the launch of Project LEAF (Law Enforcement Assistance for Forests), an initiative dedicated to combating all aspects of forestry crime, including illegal logging and timber trafficking.
Project LEAF, a partnership between INTERPOL and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), is an innovative, international response representing the first time that organizations of this stature have joined forces against this organized, sophisticated and transnational crime.
The criminals responsible for illegal logging are destroying biodiversity, threatening the livelihoods of those reliant on forest resources and contributing directly to climate change. With corruption, violence and even murder tied to illegal logging this type of crime can also affect a country’s stability and security.
Nearly 1.6 billion people – more than a quarter of the world’s population – rely on forests for their fuel, food, and medicines. The poorer the people, the greater their dependency with more than 90 per cent of those living below the dollar-a-day poverty line either fully or partly dependent on forest products for their livelihoods. Collusive corruption and fraud in the forestry sector undermines the rule of law and confidence in government institutions significantly hampering efforts to tackle poverty amongst the world’s poorest people.
To be truly effective, actions against illegal logging must be coordinated, collaborative and transnational. Crackdowns in one country must be supported by others in order to prevent illegal loggers, who frequently have access to extensive international funding channels in addition to using illicit land, sea and air networks to switch countries and evade detection.
David Higgins, INTERPOL’s Environmental Crime Programme manager, said: “In 2010, INTERPOL received at its General Assembly in Qatar a unanimous mandate from its member countries to expand its response to environmental crime worldwide. Project LEAF represents INTERPOL’s commitment to this mandate and to ensuring the safety and security of communities.”
“The world is recognizing that illegal logging is neither simply a moral nor a national issue. The international legislation to protect forests and curtail illegal logging demonstrates this,” he continued. “Project LEAF will ensure these global laws are supported by global enforcement and that the criminals responsible are brought to justice – no matter their location, movements, or resources.”
INTERPOL and UNEP are uniquely placed to bring new tools and experiences to the global law enforcement fight against illegal loggers and ensure a truly international net closes around these criminals dedicated to environmental exploitation and destruction.
Project LEAF will conduct groundbreaking, intelligence-led law enforcement operations against those involved in illegal logging and will work to further the skills, capabilities, and capacities of law enforcement agencies to aid countries in sustainably managing their forest resources and contribute to the fight against climate change.
Since its foundation in 1923, INTERPOL has developed a network of 190 member countries, extensive criminal intelligence databases and dedicated international communications tools supported by a vast array of knowledge, experience and expertise from coordinating international investigations and operations.

WWF & Eyes on the Forest

“Civil Society has been collecting and analyzing data about Sumatra’s forest loss for over a decade but has lacked an easy way to share them with the public... Sumatra has one of the world’s fastest rates of deforestation driven by global commodities markets and driving global climate change. These maps provide the desperately needed transparency on conservation values and drivers of their loss. We hope they will shed light on what is really happening to our spectacular tropical island and help save it.”
— Nazir Foead, Conservation Director, WWF Indonesia
www.eyesontheforest.or.id

EU Flegt

Illegal Logging has a devastating impact on some of the world’s most valuable forests. It can have not only serious environmental, but also economic and social consequences. Europe’s response to the problem is reflected in the FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) Action Plan of the European Union. The EU FLEGT Action Plan provides a number of measures to exclude illegal timber from markets, to improve the supply of legal timber and to increase the demand for responsible wood products. We expect the risk management to be minimized due to the fact that we purchase only from suppliers with own forest concessions. Read more

TSL Timber Sdn Bhd

TSL TIMBER SDN BHD, established in 1994 by mr. Lau Tiam Siah is one of the leading sawmills in Malaysia, specialized in Meranti for the European, Middle-East and Malaysian timber market. With an annual turnover of approximately 7,000 tons of sawntimber TSL TIMBER is aware of the importance of sustainable forest management. That's why TSL TIMBER is fully committed to the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification ( PEFC ) Mr. Lau has been active more than 35 years in the Malaysian timber business. We sell our timber to either Malaysian timber exporters and producers or via Greenwood International, which is our European representative.

Seized timber to go under hammer

THE Johor Forestry Department will auction off 27 timber logs seized in the Sembrong dam forest in February as no one has come forward to claim the logs. The timber logs of the Meranti species, each measuring 4.8m long, were seized along with 50 logs of the acacia tree and 110 logs of the tual tree were illegally harvested. They are worth a total of RM23,000, but none has been claimed since February. Department director Yahaya Mohamood said a report on the illegally harvested timber would be forwarded to the Deputy Public Prosecutor's office to allow the department to claim possession of the logs  "Nobody has come to claim the timber after we sealed the area.
"But only 27 timber logs are in good condition. The others have decayed," he said. Yahaya said the department had intensified monitoring of the forest following cases of illegal lumbering activities. "So far, illegal lumbering in the forest area is under control. We hope nearby villagers will become our ears and eyes and help us to guard the forest, as it is too big for us to fully monitor at all times," he said.

Dry season brings Sarawak fear of forest fires

KUCHING: Drought is expected to hit Sarawak from this month until September with an average of 20% to 40% rainfall expected.Second Minister Resource Management and Environment Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said the average monthly rainfall deemed normal for the state was between 200mm to 300mm. “For Bintulu and Mukah, the hot and dry weather is forecast to be even more severe with average rainfall expected to be 40% to 60% below the normal amount. “This kind of weather could cause more forest fires especially in peat areas,” he told the State Legislative Assembly yesterday. To control smoke haze, he said the Government through the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB), the Department of Environment (DOE), and Meteorological Department would monitor the weather and the air quality. Furthermore, he said, enforcement would be tightened to catch people who carried out open burning.
Tengah said NREB had taken the initiative to review its environmental regulations and had introduced the Natural Resources and Environment (Audit) Rules, 2008. He said the audit was to check compliance with the rules and laws set by the board. “Soon, NREB would be enforcing the law given that it had already prepared the guidelines for the Environment Audit. “It would also carry out a roadshow to make stakeholders aware of the new rules. Earlier, he said one of the main causes of haze was open burning which normally occurred during the dry season when paddy farms are being prepared. Since last January till this month, there were 352 hotspots in the state compared to 2,504 in Sumatra and 934 in Kalimantan.