AN environmental activist has poured cold water on the Sarawak government’s suggestion for tribal communities in the interior to be its eyes and ears on illegal logging, saying the groups are unable and unwilling to do so.

Peter Kallang, chairman of Save Rivers, said Deputy Chief Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan’s proposition showed how disconnected the state leaders are from the rural indigenous population living deep in Sarawak’s forested areas.

For one, it is hard to tell whether a timber operation is legal or not.

“How would they know when they have no access to information?” Kallang asked.

“They won’t know if the timber companies are felling trees in areas they had been given concession or are harvesting timber outside their concession.

“They have never been informed of which companies had been given what concession areas.”

Unless the government is more transparent about timber operations and makes the information easily accessible, it is hard for people to know and to take action.

Awang Tengah, who is also the state’s second minister for natural resources, said ethnic communities in the state’s interior should be actively involved in the fight against illegal logging by providing information if they came across such activities in their areas.

Promising to keep informants’ identities secret, he said their information could lead to quick action by the Forestry Department and other relevant enforcement agencies.

But Kallang said Awang Tengah does not seem to be aware of what the communities face.

Kallang added that many locals have also given up hope in the authorities.

He said past experiences have made them feel that informing the department of suspected illegal logging was an exercise in futility.

“They have found that complaining to the department is a waste of time. Most of the time no action is taken, unless there’s a clear case of timber companies encroaching onto their land,” Kallang said.

Going to the department to lodge a report costs them time and, more importantly, money, of which they have very little.

The third and most important reason is alleged intimidation and threats by timber companies against whistle-blowers, Kallang said, citing anecdotal accounts.

“So, who’s willing to be a whistle-blower?”

Kallang claimed “a lot of people are being threatened by timber companies”.

The Save Rivers chairman pointed to himself and three of its leaders who are facing a RM5 million defamation suit from Samling Group, one of the state’s largest timber companies, as an example.

Samling had alleged the company’s reputation had been maliciously damaged by Save Rivers’ online posts between June 2020 and March 2021.

The articles alleged the company failed to consult indigenous communities in and around two concessional forests and had further logged in areas that were part of indigenous land. – February 24, 2022.