MIRI: Timber giant Samling Group has denied allegations by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that it was involved in deforestation.
Its chief operating officer James Ho Yam Kuan said the company complied with the state government policy on sustainable forest management units (FMUs) by 2022 and has two certified natural forest FMUs in Lawas; Ravenscourt and Ulu Trusan.
“Our logs are verified legal source using the Sarawak Timber Legality Verification System (STLVS).
“We always follow the rules and regulations,” he told reporters during the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) media trip to its factory yesterday.
He said NGOs had been very active in observing their areas and making allegations against the company.
“They (NGO) have been very active in our area; they have made a lot of allegations which, we are able to say that what they say is not exactly true. Although, they use satellite to observe our areas, a lot of the time the interpretation can be wrong and may not be true.
“Whereby, their observations and findings do not involve us nor been done by us which could have caused misunderstandings on what we are doing.”
Ho reiterated that the NGOs had never reached out to the company for explanations.
“We always try to invite them to come and see for themselves, to not make any unnecessary allegations.
“But they have their own agenda whereas, their ultimate aim is to stop us from cutting down trees,” said Ho, adding that the company had never bullied anyone, especially the natives residing in their area of operations.
The logging activities only involved harvesting trees that were getting old, and, “If we don’t harvest it, it would be rotten and die, which would be a waste.”
“And in a hectare, we would only harvest six trees, not more than that, which is different from reforestation whereby, we can take down everything and plant it back.
“But if it is natural timber, we only take the bigger trees and exclude the small trees enabling it to grow by itself, so after 25 to 30 years, they grow to a large size…what we call self-generation of the forest,” Ho explained.
As such, the company has been providing significant assistance to the villages ̶ 172 in total have benefited from its community initiatives for the past 30 years without fail.
“However, they (NGOs) failed to acknowledge this as their aim differs from ours, and their intention is to make sure that we sustain our forest and stop us from logging, which is unfair.
“We spend a lot of money every year just to help the native people in our area. Always remember that, so what you hear, what you read, all of these are not correct.”
Meanwhile, Ho stressed that the company never entered any area without consent.
Regarding native customary rights (NCR) land complaints in Baram, Ho pointed out that when it came to logging, the company had no interest because the land had no trees.
“We have law on NCR land, under the land code, any land that hasn’t been cleared before 1958 will no longer belong to them. It is before that they have huge area of land surrounding the villages, but now a lot of them claim more.
“That’s not right because we have the law and we have to follow the law, but in everything else, they want to smear us and claim as much land as possible,” he said.
He stressed that if the company were to enter an area, it would make an agreement with the villagers as well as accommodate requests such as building roads and providing water supply if the rivers were polluted due to logging.
