SARAWAK’s Assistant Environment Minister Len Talif Salleh today said the new anti-deforestation drive by the Swiss forest conservancy group, the Bruno Manser Fund, in the state is part of its campaign to seek international funding.

“Why are they only now claiming that a nearby oil palm plantation is threatening the Mulu national park?” he asked, in reference to the 4,400ha oil palm plantation near to the popular tourist and Unesco world heritage site.

Len said the plantation had been there “for years”.

“It had been there for a long time. Why now? All of a sudden, it’s an issue.”

BMF said in a statement on February 14 that the Mulu national park would be “adversely affected by oil palm development nearby as it would damage the wildlife corridor between the national park and the primary forests of Brunei”.

Len said BMF’s narrative and claims on the threat posed to Mulu by the plantation were “technically not correct”, denying another BMF claim that logging and land clearing activities had started.

“You must understand the background of BMF. The more they spin the issue, the better it is for them.

“I’m not going to help them raise their agenda (of getting more funding),” Len told journalists at a job training and career fair media conference in Kuching today.

On protests by indigenous natives from Batu Bungan, Long Terawan, and Kg Melinau saying they were not consulted on the plantation being given land concessions there, Len said they they could have approached the Forestry Department, the Natural Resources and Environment Board, or the Land and Survey Department if they really wanted to resolve whatever land problems they had.

BMF has nonetheless called for a moratorium on logging and land clearing activities in the plantation, calling it “deforestation”.

“This is a clear case of an environmental disaster. The credibility of the Malaysian authorities and the country’s palm oil industry are at stake,” BMF executive director Lukas Straumann said in the February 14 statement, alluding to Malaysia’s promise to the international community that it will stop deforestation for new oil palm plantations.

“The organisation is calling for both the federal government and the Sarawak state government to put a stop to the deforestation,” Straumann said.

Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok yesterday said she is counting on the Sarawak government “to take the appropriate measures to resolve the matter in the interest of the state, the indigenous people, and our national sustainability agenda”.

She said she is leaving the matter to the state as land is a state matter.

Kok said she will address the country’s current policy relating to the expansion of oil palm plantations next week at the 133rd meeting of menteris besar and chief ministers, with a view that recommendations could be adopted nationwide by the state authorities.

She said her ministry will continue to engage with all state governments and agencies to “collectively formulate through a consultative process, national policies that promote the sustainability of our oil palm cultivation , the preservation of our natural forests and wildlife conservation”.

“These measures are also extremely important to help the nation and palm oil industry address and overcome the intense anti-palm oil campaign that currently threatens our key Western hemisphere markets and the livelihood of our small holders,” Kok said. – February 22, 2019.