If you would like to join this special purpose mailing list, and to engage
in this project, please send me a note (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us). Thanks.
--Gary ]
October 22, 1992
On October 20 and on October 22, 1992, Tourism Malaysia sponsored
two trade shows in Vancouver to promote Visit Malaysia Year 1994.
October 20 was for the general public and October 22 was for
travel agents. Also, a number of Vancouver based travel agents
are being hosted in Whistler this weekend at the expense of
Tourism Malaysia.
On October 20 our "information pickets" were present outside the
Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver where the presentations were
being made. We handed out a fact sheet and our banner (a 6' x 8'
photo of massive clearcut logging [courtesy of CIDA]) almost
caused several car accidents as people slowed down to have a look.
We did manage to persuade several people not to attend the event.
On October 22 our information pickets were also present. This
evening was for members of the tourism industry in Vancouver. Sue
Fox and I, of the WILD Campaign, attended the travel seminar.
During a question and answer session, Ramona directed a question
to the director of the Malaysian tourism centre concerning the
future of ecotourism past the year 2000 (REMEMBER THAT THIS WAS A
TOURISM SEMINAR--if I didn't frame my question around tourism I
would have been evicted). To say the very least, he was not
pleased with my questions. His partner tried to cover up by
quoting from the Fact Sheets Forestry and Environment prepared by
the Ministry of Primary Industries, Malaysia (which I picked up
during a breakfast meeting with the PM and Chief Minister of
Sarawak in Rio). I corrected his statistics on primary forest
cover and he stated that I was correct. To make a very long story
short, the representatives, including the State Minister for
Tourism, were unprepared and very easy targets. I think we were
successful in bringing to the attention of all of these corporate
folks that Sarawak is anything but the land of the head hunters
and the adventure land that the director was presenting.
Check your local newspapers for this travelling trade show. If we
continue to show up and raise the issue of the destruction of
Sarawak to this group of profiteers, word will get back to the
Prime Minister (as is the photo taken of me, I'm sure). When the
Minister of Primary Industries and Trade travelled to Europe
earlier this year on their mission to clear up the facts, met with
opposition and critisim by many European environmental groups (as
you all well know). The State Minister for Tourism, who stated
that they were doing these presentations to boost their failing
tourism industry ("for some reason people decided not to come to
Malaysia last year in as many numbers"), will not enjoy our
continued efforts to undermine her mission.
The following is our press release and our updated fact sheet.
Please, if anyone has any update statistics or additions
(objections) to the fact sheet, send them to me.
Stay tuned for information of our December 10, UN Human Rights
Day, protests
For the Earth, Ramona Tibando
(P.S. I have some quotes from that night but it is the type of
drivel you'd expect.)
NEWS RELEASE - OCTOBER 20, 1992
- WESTERN CANADA WILDERNESS COMMITTEE ASKS CANADIANS
TO BOYCOTT TRAVEL TO MALAYSIA -
The Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) will be mounting
information pickets during the evenings of October 20 and 22,
1992, at the "Fascinating Malaysia" banquets hosted by Tourism
Malaysia at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 655 Burrard Street, in
Vancouver. Tourism Malaysia bureaus have been billing Malaysia as
a "fascinating", wild holiday destination yet the logging
practices in that country are destroying the very features they
are promoting: their ancient rainforests and their indigenous
peoples.
International environmental and human rights organizations are
asking for a halt to the massive logging operations that are
decimating both the forests and the people who live within it.
Since 1987, the native people have been erecting blockades in
attempts to halt the logging of their traditional homelands and
negotiate a peaceful settlement of their land claims. The State
government of Sarawak has responded to their requests by removing
their blockades by the use of military force. It is estimated
that their homeland is currently being logged at a rate of 400,000
hectares a year (twice the logging rate of British Columbia--BC is
8 times larger than Sarawak)--the fastest rate of rainforest
destruction in the world--which will see the destruction of the
primary rainforest well before the end of this decade. The
logging is so rapid that even the pro-logging International
Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) has called Malaysia's forestry
a "sunset industry".
"Sarawak has not met even the minimum standards set by the
International Tropical Trade Organization set two years ago. The
rainforest homelands of the nomadic peoples are being degraded
with logging and logging roads to the point that the people cannot
survive. The only option left to us is to take the kind of
extreme action as has been necessary in places with similar levels
of human rights abuse, such as Indonesia and South Africa. Our
organization, with 15,000 members and an additional 40,000
supporters, is calling for Canadians to boycott travel to
Malaysia." says Adriane Carr, executive director of WCWC
international WILD Campaigns.
"It is up to the government of Canada to speak up; to raise its
voice on behalf of Canadians to demand an end to the genocide that
is facing the Penan people and other indigenous peoples of Sarawak
and the destruction of this rainforest which is one of the last
untouched rainforests on this globe. . . . What greater threat
can there be to human rights than the destruction of a people and
their environment," stated Svend Robinson, Member of Parliament
and representative of the Interparliamentary Human Rights
Committee of the Canadian Federal Government.
We are asking Canadians not to travel to Malaysia until there has
been a reversal by the Sarawak Government in its policies
regarding adequate protection of the ancient rainforest and
recognition of the rights of the indigenous people to their
traditional homelands.
For more information contact: Adriane Carr, Executive Director,
WILD Campaign; Sue Fox, or Ramona Tibando; Western Canada
Wilderness Committee, 20 Water Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1A4\Ph:
604-683-8220/669-9453/Fax: 604-683-8229/669- 9455/E-mail APC:WEB
wc2wild
------------
THE GLOBAL FIGHT TO SAVE THE TROPICAL RAINFORESTS OF SARAWAK, MALAYSIA
WESTERN CANADA WILDERNESS COMMITTEE is asking the Malaysian and
Sarawak governments to:
recognize the customary land rights of the Penan people, based on
their traditional usage of land.
set aside an ecologically and culturally adequate homeland for
the Penan's sustainable use as a precedent for other indigenous
peoples of Sarawak.
ensure that the area of primary rainforest set aside is large
enough so that the natural ecosystems are self-sustaining.
WCWC is calling upon the Canadian Government to:
uphold the recent policy statement made by our Prime Minister,
Brian Mulroney, that all foreign aid must be linked to the human
rights records of applicant countries.
immediately suspend all bilateral aid to Malaysia in recognition
of the human rights abuses in Sarawak.
WCWC is asking all concerned Canadians to:
boycott travel to Malaysia as a personal expression of concern
regarding the treatment of Sarawak's indigenous peoples and
natural ecosystems.
Basic Statistics
* Sarawak comprises 48,250 sq. mi. (77,682 sq. km). It is
Malaysia's largest state (38% of the total area of Malaysia).
* Sarawak state has complete authority over forest resources.
Rights to Sarawak's extensive offshore oil fields rest with the
federal government. About 95% of the total oil revenues of Sarawak
flow to the federal government.
* Timber, after oil, is Sarawak's largest export. About 5% of the
Sarawak workforce is involved in logging.
* The Chief Minister of Sarawak is also the Minister of Forests.
He personally decides who is granted timber concessions. The
current Chief Minister and his uncle, the former Chief Minister,
currently control over 50% of the timber concessions in the state.
The Chief Minister, since he came to office in 1978, has amassed a
personal fortune (primarily from timber concessions) of an
estimated $4 billion US.
Global Significance of the Sarawak Issue
* Sarawak is part of the oldest, biologically-richest rainforest
on Earth - perhaps the world's oldest terrestrial ecosystem.
* The genetic repository of Sarawak dates back as much as 160 to
180 million years--much older than the Amazon Rainforest.
* Sarawak's rainforest has one of the world's highest rates of
endemism.
* Dependent upon Sarawak's remnant rainforest is one of the
world's last tribes of hunter-gatherer peoples--the Penan.
* Despite ecological and cultural richness, this area is being
logged at the fastest rate of logging in the world.
* Virtually every major conservation group in the world as well as
many grass-roots groups are involved in this issue. It is fair to
say that no tropical rainforest/indigenous rights issue has had a
higher global profile.
Peoples of the Sarawak Rainforest
* Sarawak's population is approximately 1,700,000 and about one
half of this population is indigenous, comprising 26 tribal
groups.
* Tribes such as the Iban, Kenyah, Kelabit and the semi-settled
Penan still depend on the forest for foods, medicines, building
materials and sustenance.
* Because of their still traditional lifestyle and their total
dependence upon the primary rainforest, the Penan have been much
more significantly impacted by logging activities than other
indigenous peoples.
* The government has actively pursued the "civilization" of the
Penan as a policy of modernization and integration of tribal
peoples. Of the 9,500 Penan in Sarawak today, about 9,000 have
been relocated into government resettlement camps. Even the
government admits that these Penan are only semi-settled in these
camps.
How much rainforest is left?
* Large-scale logging in Sarawak began in the 1950s and 1960s when
Japan made a strong entry into the local market for mixed light
hardwood (1952).
* Between 1963 and 1985 over 30% of the total forest area of
Sarawak was logged.
* In 1975 Sarawak's annual allowable cut (AAC) was 2.5 million m3.
* In 1990 the ITTO (International Tropical Trade Organization)
conducted a study of Sarawak forestry operations and recommended,
based on 1988 AAC figures of 12 million m3, that the cut should be
reduced to 9 million m3 in order to "sustain" the forest for
timber harvesting. At an AAC of 12 million m3 the ITTO estimated
that all intact primary rainforests will be logged in Sarawak by
the year 2000.
* The World Bank (1991) report on the Malaysian Forestry
Sub-Sector estimates logging rates at that time as four times the
sustainable yield.
* In 1990 Sarawak's AAC was 18.8 million cubic meters (remember:
the ITTO recommended a drop to 9 million m3!)
* The Sarawak State Government announced that its target harvest
for 1992 is 16.2 million cubic metres. The rate of cut since
January of 1992 has been 1.6 million m3 per month.
Impacts of Logging on the Forest and the Forest Peoples
* Although the government states that Sarawak's forests are being
selectively logged (about 29 out of 440 trees per hectare actually
being cut), many of the remaining trees and forest canopy are
damaged.
* The trees which are removed as the most commercially valuable
are also of great ecological and cultural value-
-the major fruit bearers which supply food for monkeys, hornbills
and wild pigs--the major protein sources for the Penan and other
Dayak peoples.
* The "holes" in the forest caused by logging create pockets of
second-growth which greatly inhibit travel and hunting by
blowpipes.
* Increased stream turbidity is attributed to logging: 40 to 60%
of the rivers in Sarawak are now degraded by heavy siltation.
Fish cannot survive because of siltation, the toxic latexes from
the detritus of bark and lianas in the water and loss of their
major food source-fruit dropping into rivers from trees above.
* In 30 years of intensive logging, the nomadic Penan people have
been pushed to the upper reaches of 3 watersheds (the Baram,
Limbang and Belaga).
Current Crisis: A Humanitarian Issue Requiring Immediate
Action
* Disregarded in their initial petitions and pleas to both the
state and federal governments, for the past 6 years, the Penan,
Kayan, Kenyan, Kelabit and Iban people have been peacefully
blockading logging roads in order to protect their homelands and
way of life. These peaceful protests have met with arrests,
imprisonment, and many cases of brutality.
* On February 5, 1992, the Sarawak State Government arrested
Anderson Mutang Urud and held him in custody for 28
days--eventually charging him under the Societies Act for
operating an unregistered society (SIPA - the Sarawak Indigenous
Peoples Alliance).
* In February of 1992, the government assisted in the dismantling
of the military dismantled the long standing blockade of 500 or
more Dayak tribes protecting one of the last remaining large
tracts of pristine rainforest in their homeland.
Common Arguments by Malaysian Officials and WCWC's Responses
What is being said:
We must bring the Penan out of the jungle and
into the mainstream of development.
It is our moral obligation. Environmentalists
want to sequester the Penan as living museums.
Response: This statement ignores the fact that the Penan
have been choosing technologies from
the outside world for over a century yet have
chosen to save their forests and way of
life. NGOs word-wide support the Penan's right
to choose their own way of life and the Penan
call for a United Nations Biosphere Reserve and
for forestry reserves which protect a full range
of lifestyle options.
What is being said:
The Penan and other natives are being
manipulated in their protests by outsiders.
Response: The Penan and other Dayak peoples had been
independently protesting logging in their
homelands through political channels prior to
any foreign NGOs hearing of this issue.
What is being said:
There are only about 300 Nomadic Penan--not
enough to worry about.
Response: The 9,000 "semi-settled" Penan and 220,000
other native people of Sarawak also
depend on the forest for foods, medicines,
building materials and sustenance. The nomadic
Penan are the symbol in a much wider cause--the
rights of people to choose a sustainable lifestyle
(especially indigenous
people still occupying their traditional
homelands) and the need, if we are truly
committed to occupying this planet in an
ecologically sustainable way, to set aside from
industrial development large areas of
primary ecosystems as genetic reservoirs and
ecological controls.
What is being said:
We must log Sarawak's forest to develop the
state of Sarawak and our nation.
Response: Very little of Sarawak's vast timber resource
wealth returns to the local people. The
Chief Minister of Sarawak has amassed a personal
fortune estimated at $4 billion (US)
while most native villages go without basic
services and the World Bank is asked to
build roads.
What is being said:
The native people themselves, not commercial
logging operations, are destroying the
forest through slash and burn rice cultivation.
Response: In 1985 in Sarawak, shifting agriculture
destroyed at most 18,000 hectares of primary
forest (compared to industrial logging of 270,000
hectares in the same year). Most destructive
slash and burn activities are not the result of
traditional methods by traditional swidden
agriculturalists but the recent attempts of
displaced/relocated peoples to provide a
livelihood for themselves on an inadequately
small land base.
What is being said:
The Federal Government has no authority of
influence over State Forestry Practices
according to the Malaysian Constitution.
Response: This argument ignores the fact that 95% of
Sarawak's oil revenues flow to the Federal
Government. An "oil revenue for protected
forest" swap by the Federal Government is
entirely feasible.
What is being said:
Too many people (government estimate of 50,000)
depend on logging-related jobs, therefore we cannot
stop logging.
Response: Even the ITTO predicted that at the 1988 rate of
cut (13 million m3) the intact,
primary forests would be gone within about 10
years. The current rate of cut based on
satellite data suggests a much reduced time frame
for jobs. With over 85% of Sarawak's logs being
exported raw (i.e., with no secondary processing)
the jobs argument become even weaker.
What is being said:
The outside world has to right to interfere in
our sovereign and domestic affairs.
Response: The nomadic Penan and other native groups most
affected by the logging have no representation in
government and are asking the world directly for help.
With the Malaysian government promoting world trade
links and tourism, governments, companies and individuals
can choose to set the ground rules they require before
deciding to invest.
WESTERN CANADA WILDERNESS COMMITTEE is a non-profit society
dedicated to the protection of Earth's remaining wilderness. WCWC
is working to protect and achieve ecologically sustainable
communities. Ecotourism can be a means of ecologically
sustainable development which protects both traditional indigenous
lifestyles and wild ecosystems.