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Bruno Manser Fonds
Heuberg 25
4051 Basel
Switzerland
phone +41 61 261 94 74
fax +41 61 261 94 73
info@bmf.ch
updated 2001-01-31
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Tong Tana, December
1998
Journal of the Bruno Manser Fonds
on the subjects of rain forests, indigenous
rights and timber trade
Content
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Editorial
The crisis as a chance
For years we have been committed to protecting the last remaining
virgin forests and their inhabitants. We keep on struggling, the
world moves on, but we are hardly budging: to this day the Penan in
Sarawak have not been guaranteed a single square kilometer of their
native rainforest territory as their own &endash; and in 1997 alone
112,000 km2 (1/3 of it rainforest) have been destroyed
worldwide once more. Shall we, the BMF, dissolve our mini-office,
throw away our commitment for lack of finances and efficiency? Where
well-to-do gentlemen, sipping champagne at international conferences,
are not capable of making the necessary decisions, violated nature
herself has lent a hand: thanks to the catastrophic floods of 1989
the Thai government has prohibited commercial logging throughout the
country. The flooding Yangtze River in China had to cost the lives of
3000 people, to destroy 5 million dwellings, and suddenly it is
possible: China has put its last remaining virgin forests under
protection from one day to the next. The Southeast Asian currencies'
crash has slowed down the plundering of the forests due to the
decreasing demand for wood, but 30,000 km2 of forest
succumbed to man-made fires. Pictures
prove that development (e.g. roads) and the degradation of formerly
intact forests by the timber industry are mainly responsible for the
forest fires. How many people and animals have yet to die in forest
fires and floods in Asia, Africa and South America before all logging
licenses for virgin forests are withdrawn? At the end of the last
century Switzerland went through a similar experience. As tropical
countries have much more to lose in the form of cultures and
different ways of life, the BMF wishes those in power much courage
and luck for quick and heartfelt action, so that Sarawak may succeed
better than Switzerland in preserving its legacy for future
generations! We from the BMF have committed ourselves to giving the
Penan and their rainforest a voice as long as our breath and finances
hold out. The latter will not go far anymore without your help, our
deficit being SF 40,000 for the past two years. We would like to
thank everyone here for their contribution. Support our commitment
with deeds and money. Work towards having your community refrain from
using wood from virgin forests for public construction. Buy mainly
local products &endash; even Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir
issued this order. Do not buy foreign FSC products as long as logging
in virgin forests is not yet clearly excluded. Work towards having
the following regulations issued by the World Bank be realized on a
national level in your country:
- Road construction and commercial logging in virgin forest is
under no circumstances supported.
- The sustainable use of timber from natural secondary forests
is to be encouraged.
We wish the Penan plenty of food and forests, we wish you a happy
Christmas, and we wish Anwar Ibrahim, the imprisoned, mistreated
ex-finance minister a correct and fair trial.
The BMF-team
Enough food is all the Penan need for a happy party &endash; will
this boy end up begging in the city?
Photo: BMF, 1998
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News from Sarawak
Travel report
by Bruno Manser
The plan of bringing the Chief Minister of Sarawak and his wife
the white lamb «Gumperli» as a symbol of peace for the
festivities of the pilgrims to Mecca was thwarted. The
62nd birthday of the Chief Minister Taib Mahmud on May 21
presented itself as the second occasion for a positive dialogue.
However, the airlines flying into the country had received the order
«Top urgent: Bruno Manser not allowed to enter Kuching,»
and had to refuse my connecting flight from Singapore to Sarawak. A
visit to Western Malaysia was also refused by the authorities. Haji
Salim Bin Hashim, the Malaysian High Commissioner in Singapore, a
friendly man, wanted to negotiate between the Chief Minister and me.
What should become of the US$ 10,000 which Erika and Jürg Binz
(Ebipharm, Kirchlindach) had so generously donated as starting
capital for a mobile dental clinic for the Penan and the Kelabit? As
there was no answer for weeks, the money was deposited in a bank in
Singapore and the Chief Minister was given a complete dossier of the
«Secours dentaire international». The total costs of the
project, which was welcomed by the Penan, would amount to approx. CHF
200,000 for 2 years. With the Chief Minister's blessing it could be
realized. We are anxiously waiting for a reply! I also wanted to
bring concrete help for Maleng, my best Penan friend: two years ago
he had lost a leg in the jungle when felling a Nyiwung palm. James
Ritchie, press officer of the Chief Minister, promised to take care
of obtaining an artificial limb. We have just received the news that
Dr. Judson Sakai of Ba Kelalan has procured the prosthesis. We thank
all who have shown goodwill for their contributions.
Maleng
Photo: BMF 1997
Penan reject German forestry project
The German organization for technical cooperation (Gesellschaft
für technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ) has signed a contract with
Samling Co. and the Forestry Department of Sarawak for the
sustainable use of a 1,680 km2 lumbering concession
(FOMISS project). It mainly consists of untouched virgin forest in
native Penan territory which now, with help from the Germans, shall
be exploited with bulldozers and chain saws within 10 years. Under
the threat that the jungle has to give up its wood one way or
another, the Penan are forced to agree with the project. Although a
moratorium of three years for completing an inventory has been agreed
upon, Samling has continued logging in several places. A concerned
Penan stated, «We have been trying to save our jungle for so
many years, how many of us have been arrested!1 Some have even paid
with their lives!2 Our forest provides us with everything which we
need for living. We are used to living with our own problems at the
foot of the mountain &endash; if only you would not disturb us! Don't
force us to have to beg for food from you down in the valley! We
reject the German project as it would restrict our living
space.» The responsible German federal ministry (BMZ) requires
that tropical forestry projects be carried out in appropriate areas.
Primary forests should only be included for the purpose of protecting
them or for special investigations.3 In total contradiction to this,
the GTZ encourages the development of virgin forest. Should German
taxpayers' money be misused for development which takes from the
Penan exactly what they would never give up: the trees in their
forest!?
Write your opinion to the minister:
Mrs Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, BMZ
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 40
53113 Bonn, Germany
Fax ++49(228)535 33 25.
Request the German government not to support, under any
circumstances, roadbuilding and/or commercial logging in virgin
forests. Request that German development aid projects should only
encourage sustainable forestry practices in secondary forests and
degraded areas &endash; in clear agreement with the local population.
The GTZ could very well offer aid in Sarawak. The BMF has
suggested during two personal meetings and also in written form that
the GTZ use their unquestioned technical knowledge on
«reduced-impact logging» in secondary forests and to
respect the traditional landrights of the indigenous people. Samling
Co. is Sarawak's largest lumbering company and has received about
15,000 km2 of forest as a gift. Most of the forests
bordering onto the FOMISS area have already been selectively logged
downvalley and are almost asking for sustainable management. FOMISS
should realize its long-term project there. The GTZ has yet to return
a constructive answer to this suggestion.
«Timber mining», Ravenscourt Co. (license 0294) is
building a new road at the Tabun river in order to exploit the
remaining primary forest. The erosion damage is polluting the
waters, reducing fish stock, making it impossible for the Penan to
produce their staple food, sago, which requires clean water. In
the background the Batu Lawi.
Photo: BMF
Three villains
Three lumbering companies are destroying the land where the Penan
live. Their names are Ravenscourt, Lee Ling Timber (formerly LTL) and
WTK Co., the oldest logging company in Sarawak, with headquarters in
Miri. It is allowed to plunder 4,000 km2 of forest which
it had received as a gift, whereas the native population not only
remains emptyhanded, but is also being intimidated: during a meeting
with the nomads of the Magoh area who threatenend to blockade an
approach road, the Chinese WTK forestry boss Pusui shot a salvo of 20
shots from two meters' distance directly over the heads of Lakei Suti
and his friends. Lee Ling Timber paid various settled Penan headmen a
regular monthly income as well as MY 25,000 per year to distribute.
In return they promised not to undertake anything against the
lumbering activities. Many Penan have refused to accept their share,
but are too tired after the many arrests to continue carrying on
non-violent resistance. The company Ravenscourt is ravaging in the
region of Ulu Limbang, which had already been proposed as a national
park in 1984 due to its high species diversity. To date, this nature
preserve has not yet been established (Pulong Tau National Park,
1,640 km2). Bulldozers are already churning up the ground
at the foot of Gunung Murud, the highest mountain in Sarawak (2,560
m) and at the foot of Batu Lawi, the most beautiful legendary jagged
cliff rising out of the land &endash; both are home to the Penan
nomads as well as the clouded leopard. The companies pollute the
«Baa Pina Uwut», the «river of the many sago
palms», one of the last remaining clear streams in the actual
heart of Penan country. The immediate future will show whether these
companies will change from villains into rescuers &endash; by
stopping the exploitation of the virgin forest within their
concession. Will Ravenscourt dare to take the first step?
The headman of the Ulu Limbang nomads declares, «Until this
day we have neither been respected by the timber companies nor by
the government. We expect our Chief Minister Taib Mahmud to act
like a true father towards us. We expect him to withdraw the
logging concessions and to protect our remaining virgin forests so
that we can continue to live as Penan in the forest.»
Photos: BMF, 1998
Settlement project for nomadic Penan has
failed
Sarawak's Minister for the Environment and «timber king»
Datuk James Wong had invited the nomadic Penan to settle in their
homelands, which became his 3,100 km2 large concession
area, given to him by the Chief Minister. For this purpose he had a
longhouse built for them in Long Napir in the 1980's. Today the
building is empty but for a few families &endash; for you cannot eat
a house: the immediate vicinity has been logged in the meantime, and
the Penan cannot find enough food there anymore. Many families have
therefore moved upstream step by step into untouched regions,
building new settlements near the river where they can find a
livelihood as farmers and hunters. In the meantime Datuk James Wong
has sold his company LTL to the enterprise Lee Ling Timber Co. The
failure of his policy has caused the pressure on the remaining intact
rainforests &endash; which have become so decimated that they cannot
support too many returnees apart from the nomads &endash; to
increase.
Bakun Dam
According to reports in the «Borneo Post» (27 and
29/8/98) the construction of the Bakun Dam should be completed by
2006. The former prestige project was nevertheless redimensioned to
half the originally planned capacity. The electricity is intended for
Sarawak alone, as the underwater cable to Western Malaysia turned out
to be too expensive. The cheap electricity &endash; which has no use
at present &endash; should draw investors, especially in the
wood-processing sectors such as the paper industry. High hopes have
also been set in the palmoil and the aluminum industries. The
resettlement of the 10,000 people is proceeding slowly but according
to plan. The economic crisis is a hard blow, however, for the local
population: now, when they have to depend on their gardens and plots
of land more than ever, they are losing them. Many have fallen into
debt in order to participate in the building of the dam in some form.
The economic stagnation has ruined them. The admonishments of the
responsables, still heard this summer, warning the afflicted to use
the compensation money wisely, to invest it collectively in finance
institutes and share funds sound strange in the face of harsh
economic reality: the man in the street is not allowed to gamble, he
has to help pay the gambling debts of the powerful.
Part, Ulu Tutoh/Ulu Limbang
Part, Ulu Tutoh/Ulu Limbang
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Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and the
Orangutans
90% of the Lanjak Entimau nature preserve in Western Sarawak
consists of dipterocarp primary forest and has been put under
protection especially as a habitat for approx. 1000 orangutans living
in the wild. On the occasion of the «Great Apes of the
World» conference, attended by 150 scientists from around the
world in July 1998 in Kuching, Sarawak, the Chief Minister Taib
Mahmud declared that a «peat swamp forest» would be set
aside as an orangutan nature preserve. This would be a contribution
to the scientists' efforts in stopping the orangutans from becoming
extinct. Dr. Gary Shapiro, head of the International Orangutan
Foundation and organizer of the conference was extremely pleased by
this surprising offer. The Chief Minister had, however, not made any
specifications as to when, where and how large the preserve would be.
The BMF looks forward to the efficient realization of the announced
preserve, congratulates the government and hopes that, after the
orangutans, the Penans' land claims will now be heard by the Chief
Minister.
Orangutans threatened
The number of orangutans living in the wild in Borneo and Sumatra
has decreased by 50% during the past 10 years to an estimated 20,000.
The reason is the destruction of their habitat by commercial logging,
clearcutting and man-made fires for clearing land for oil palm
plantations and huge development projects. The environmental
investigation association (eia), London/Washington, scolds the
corrupt regime of Suharto in its report «The Politics of
Extinction» because it has permitted the timber and plantation
industries almost unlimited access to the remaining intact forested
areas. The driving force behind the environmental catastrophe,
however, originates from our industrialized countries, as the
following examples show:
- The American company Goldman Sachs financed Indonesia's
largest timber company, Barito Pacific with USD 500 million. The
company is logging an area of 50,000 km2 (Switzerland =
41,300 km2).
- Japan's Marubeni Corporation, the largest buyer of wood from
Sarawak on a global scale, with a share in the Reebok shoes and
Blizzard ski markets, is participating in the financing of huge
cellulose and paper factories in Indonesia together with the
Mitsubishi bank, Finland's Enso enterprise, Sweden's Cellmark,
Germany's Export Kredit and many others.
- Germany, being the main European importer of palmoil (1997:
288,000 tons/ EU total: 878,000 t), is mainly responsible for the
fires set by palmoil companies for gaining land. The worldwide
demand in palmoil has increased by 32% in the past 5 years!
European, Japanese and American companies, banks and development
aid organizations are financing industrial projects in rainforest
regions; they are creating the rising demand for cheap tropical wood,
cheap palmoil, cheap cellulose and cheap paper, making huge profits
&endash; as long as we buy their products.
The eia, which has presented a scheme for protecting the
orangutans, rightly demands that every investment and financial aid
concerning projects in Indonesia should be made dependent on adhering
to strict environmental, social and economic conditions (eia, 69 Old
Street, London EC1V 9HX, UK).
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Sarawak: landrights of the indigenous
peoples threatened
The government of Sarawak intends to change the status of 2,984
km2 of land in the Baram area. The land will obtain the
status of «protected forest». This mainly concerns Penan
communities, but Kenyah, Kayan and Kelabit also live in the proposed
area. The organization BRIMAS in Sarawak is very concerned about the
change in status as the indigenous people thus lose the rights to
their land, guaranteed by law. Furthermore, BRIMAS criticizes the
fact that the government's explanations were not clear to the people
involved and that precise details on the expanse and the borders of
the area are missing. The status «protected forest» also
contradicts reality, logging being carried out throughout the entire
proposed area. The area also extends into the region that FOMISS (see
article on GTZ) plans to exploit with its methods of «reduced
impact». We can expect that after the change in status the
decades-long protests against the doings of the lumbering companies
will be combatted heavily. BRIMAS adds that the status of
«protected forest» has already often been recalled by the
government, especially in the Baram area, but also in the rest of
Sarawak. The areas were then usually handed over to the plantation
companies.
Commentary of the BMF: The status of «protected
forest» has until now always meant «protected for
lumbering». In the absence of a legal paper the indigenous
people could not present any facts to support their land claims.
Their claims are clearly legitimate, historically seen. Since the
beginning of the 1980's the native people of the Baram and Limbang
regions have submitted over 50 petitions for the acknowledgement of
their traditional landrights according to regulations &endash; to
date not a single one of these petitions has been accepted!
Positive signals from the World Bank?
The president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, met in mid July
with the general managers of Samling and WTK as well as the managers
of the Sarawak Timber Association and the Malaysian Timber Board for
an exchange of ideas. They spoke about the business practices of
international timber companies in various countries in Asia, Africa
and Latin America. Furthermore, questions of protecting biodiversity
were discussed. The World Bank emphasized its interest in supporting
Sarawak within the frame of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
An ITTO project in Penan country?
The Sarawak Timber Association is preparing a project to be
financed by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO).
The project area includes the Magoh and Pulong Tau regions in the
northeast of Sarawak, the heartland of the Penan. The aims of this
project comprise sustainable use of the forest and the preservation
of biodiversity in primary forests. The ITTO is already in charge of
a big project in Lanjak Entimau in the western region bordering
Indonesia.
Photo: Bruno Manser
Malaysian logging companies go
international
As a result of the dwindling timber resources within Malaysia, 30
Malaysian logging companies are or have been participating in deals
to get access to at least 222,000 km2 of virgin forest in
23 countries all around the world. This means they are aiming to buy
the right to log a surface equivalent to Great Britain (without
Northern Ireland). Malaysian presence already controls 50% or more of
the total concession areas in French Guyana, Papua New Guinea, the
Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Malaysian logging companies are present
in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, West Papua; in the Cameroons,
the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Liberia,
Madagascar, Malawi and Zimbabwe; in Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, and
Surinam; in Czechia, oriental Russia and in New Zealand (plantation).
The report «High stakes, the need to control transnational
logging companies», 1998, 58 pages, by Forest Monitor Ltd. and
the World Rainforest Movement, brings some transparency into
transnational timber politics. It shows how host countries make
little profit by offering their forests for exploitation. In many
cases they are paid taxes amounting to less than 1% of the value of
the timber exploited and exported by foreign companies. On the other
side, the local populations whose economies and cultures depend fully
on intact forests irrevocably lose their livelihoods. The report can
be ordered from the
Forest Monitor Ltd.
114 Broad Street, Ely
CB7 4BE, London UK
email: fmonitor@gn.apc.org
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Ownership and Sharing among the Penan
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News around the wood
Well done!
In Switzerland a total of 218 communities
with a total of about 2,300,000 inhabitants (approx. 30% of the Swiss
population) have pledged to refrain from using wood from primary
forests for public construction (as of Nov. 98). The joining cantons
are Appenzell AR, Baselland, Basel-Stadt, Solothurn and Schwyz.
Photo: B. Manser
Shame!
The Swiss «eco»-company Precious Woods admits to
«silly error» The organisation Pro Regenwald, based in
Munich, found out that Precious Woods (PW) delivered
non-FSC-certified acaricuara wood to the Baltic seaside city of
Rostock , a breach of contract. The share of non-certified wood
comprised 40%! Daniel Heuer, secretary of PW swore, «There was
absolutely no intention to cheat &endash; we just happened to make a
silly error.» The damage to the image of PW in Germany is
considerable, however. The head of the state's Department of the
Environment and Nature (StAUN) in Rostock, Hans Joachim Meyer, says,
«I feel taken advantage of.» His authorities would never
have accepted a delivery of plundered timber (Rostock is a member of
the Climate Alliance).
Commentary of the BMF: Originally Precious Woods wanted to
reforest degraded areas in Costa Rica. This sounded good and
Switzerland also participated in the project with SF 3 million in tax
money, although environmental organizations criticized reforestation
using teak trees foreign to the habitat. PW did not want to wait 25
years until the plantation was ready for harvesting and bought 800
km2 of virgin forest in Brazil for immediate profit. This
is not acceptable to the BMF, although PW declared that the
Forest-Stewardship-Council (FSC) had certified their forestry
practices as sustainable. (The BMF strongly criticizes the fact that
the FSC even certifies wood from virgin forests. This paves the way
towards plundering the last remaining virgin forests under a green
umbrella!) Now it has been shown that PW also trades in non-certified
wood. Slogans such as «Buy these shares and protect the
rainforest!» were used as bait to catch potential investors. The
question is, how long will these shareholders tolerate such business
practices in PW. The most recent events in any case do not instill
much trust and one dares not think what will happen if PW buys
additional thousands of square kilometers of rainforest. The fact
that this Swiss company is registered in the taxfree British Virgin
Islands and makes business in the Third World without paying taxes in
Costa Rica or customs in Brazil, although an annual rise in value of
11&endash;16% is projected, also sheds a bad light on PW's sense of
social responsibility. The total profit is distributed among the
shareholders; the local population only has the option of working as
plantation workers or lumberjacks. PW calls this «development
aid in the best sense of the word» and adheres to the opinion
that the poverty of the local people &endash; and not the industry
which enabled the poor to penetrate into the degraded forests in the
first place &endash; was to blame for the destruction of the virgin
forests. For the BMF, however, «development aid and protection
of the rainforest» means something else, i.e. the protection of
the traditional economic basis of the local population. After all,
these indigenous peoples have been capable of managing the
rainforests in a sustainable way for centuries by restricting
themselves to using the secondary products (fruit, rubber, medicinal
herbs, etc.) and leaving the trees standing. Only this way no money
flows into the pockets of would-be rescuers of the forest.
This Penan &endash; like many other natives &endash; depend fully
on intact virgin forests to survive.
Photo: BMF 1998
Books
«Borneo Log: The Struggle for
Sarawak's Forests»
A personal account and environmental study by the American
professor moving between indigenous peoples, Sarawak timber camps and
Japanese interests. The following are some samples:
1995, 245 pages, by William W. Bevis
University of Washington Press
ISBN 0-295-97416-8
- Borneo is a dream ... of beautiful people who put a hand into
yours as if placing the world's last butterfly fallen and dazed,
on a leaf.
- It was the policy of the white Rajas not to develop the
country. They wished that the local people should plant their own
rubber gardens, work their own timber, mine their own gold ... The
result was that nobody was rich and nobody was poor.
- Suddenly the forest was declared property of those who had
never seen it, who did not know it, who did not love it. But they
were powerful people, and they intended to be rich.
- Existing customary rights can be extinguished by the
government.
- The Constitution says native customary use establishes
ownership. Therefore all timber licenses on customary lands are
illegal.
- Spokesman of Samling Co.: «The natives do not have any
right to the land. We operate entirely within the laws of Sarawak.
We take no responsibility for those laws.»
- While looking at the mile-long rafts of logs the American
author asks: «Are the buffalo being slaughtered
again?»
- The tree produced three logs, graded at ten hoppus a ton, sold
for US$ 2,000.&endash;, shipped by a Japanese agent to a plywood
mill east of Yokohama ... The construction of the Shinjuku
Building used 470,000 m2 of plywood = 5,000 trees =
2000&endash;3000 acres of hillforest in Sarawak, belonging to one
longhouse or another.
- Japan uses 7 times more timber per capita than Europe and
imports one third of the world's production of tropical timber ...
Buy it, use it, throw it away, buy another.
- Most of Sarawak's timber is directed to the Japanese market.
Therefore, the Japanese should be held responsible for the
destruction of Sarawak.
- Of all causes of forest destruction, the timber trade is the
easiest to regulate. Although many of the problems of the Earth
cannot be solved, this one can be!
- A world moratorium on tropical cutting would simply force a
shift in construction techniques, a shift which all know is coming
anyway in five to twenty years. It would force the shift before
the rainforests are gone, instead of after.
Nomads of the Dawn
The most beautiful photo book about the Penan and their life in
the rainforest of Borneo. A work of heart, in which the indigenous
peoples themselves have a voice.
1995, 144 pages, by Wade Davis and Ian Mackenzie
Pomegranate Artbooks, Box 6099, Rohnert Park, CA 94927 USA
ISBN 0-87654-357-3
Poem
From Paul McMahon (12 years)
International School of Prague
You tell a man
he has no rights
and that his land is yours.
You tell a woman
she has no place
whatever she endures
You take their land
you come and take
their place.
When they fight back
you say they have no case.
Photos: R. Habegger
Published by
Bruno-Manser-Fonds (BMF)
Association for the peoples of the rain forest
Heuberg 25, CH-4051 Basel, Switzerland
Telephone 41 61/261 94 74
Fax 41 61/261 94 73
E-mail: info@bmf.ch
Web: http://www.bmf.ch/
- Donations:
- Switzerland/Liechtenstein: Coop Bank, CH-4002 Basel, Acct No.
421329.29.00.00-5
- France: La Poste, Strasbourg, Acct No. CCP 2.604.59T
- Germany: Deutsche Bank, Lörrach (BLZ 683 700 34), Acct
No. 1678556
- Editor: Roger Graf, John Künzli
- Authors: Bruno Manser, John Künzli, Roger Graf, Paul
McMahon
- Photos: Isabel Kürsteiner, John Künzli, Ruedi
Habegger, Bruno Manser, BMF
- Drawings: Bruno Manser
- Translations:
- Robert Gogel (French),
- Barbara Jäckli (English),
- Bruno Manser, John Künzli (German)
- Edition: 5700 (3500 German, 1500 French, 700 English)
Appears trimesterially
Voluntary contributions are very welcome and very needed &endash;
thank you!
Printed by Gremper AG, Basel
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