International Flagship Project Sunk By Sarawak Forestry Agency

MIRI / SARAWAK / MALAYSIA, 15 October 2024

International donors were stunned last Thursday when, minutes prior to the start of a project meeting in Miri, Malaysia, they learned that the Sarawak Forest Department had called off a flagship US$1.4 million project for which they had flown in from across the world.

Sarawak officials alerted the local press before the project donors had been informed, namely the Japanese government, the City of Basel (Switzerland) and the Swiss Bruno Manser Fonds.

Initially launched as the Baram Peace Park by local communities as an Indigenous community-led conservation effort, the project had been submitted to ITTO for funding by the Malaysian government as the “Upper Baram Forest Area” (UBFA). The project extended over 283,500 hectares of forest and agricultural lands in Sarawak's Upper Baram region.

A key element of the original project was to excise a core area of 79,000 hectares of primary forest from existing logging concessions for conservation. However, this vision was removed from the final government plans for the project.

After international funding was secured, the Sarawak forestry agency and ITTO shifted the focus to promoting forest exploitation under the guise of sustainable forest management.

When, at the end of 2023, two major logging concessions in the region expired, a new concession was secretly granted to Borneoland Timber Resources Sdn Bhd ("Borneoland"), a timber company run by a local logging baron with ties to Sarawak Premier Abang Johari. Borneoland immediately began an aggressive logging operation, causing serious conflicts at the community level. Furthermore, the concession does not appear to be certified, as is required for all long-term logging concessions in Sarawak.

Pressured by civil society organizations to release all details on Borneoland's operations, the Sarawak Forest Department cancelled the ITTO project.

During the project meeting, the Forest Department Sarawak confirmed that the concession, worth millions of dollars, had been granted to Borneoland without tender and without community consultation.

Celine Lim, managing director of SAVE Rivers, one of the NGOs supporting the project, said: “Despite promises of inclusivity, communities and civil society have consistently been left out of the loop, and our concerns have gone unanswered. We expected the project to prioritize the principles of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), sustainable land management and self-determination. These guiding values, reaffirmed in a declaration by participating communities last year, are essential. However, we were disappointed by the stance of the Sarawak Forest Department."

Lukas Straumann, Director of the Bruno Manser Fonds, said: “There is no sustainability without transparency. We regret that ITTO failed to act with sufficient independence from its executing agency, the Sarawak Forest Department. ITTO should have made it clear from the beginning that, in an internationally funded project, key principles such as transparency and adherence to FPIC standards are non-negotiable."

The development is a major blow to ITTO and its Malaysian executive director, Sheam Satkuru, who sought to bolster her credentials for a reelection for a second term next year with this flagship project.

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