Samling Global Under Pressure Over Land Claims

Samling Global Under Pressure Over Native Land Claims

The Malaysian timber giant's tropical forest logging is meeting with increasing resistance

MIRI (MALAYSIA) / HONG KONG. Timber giant, Samling Global, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange (HK 3938), is meeting with increasing resistance from native communities over its tropical forest logging operations in Sarawak, East Malaysia. Last week, indigenous Penan communities filed two new collective lawsuits (Panai Irang and others vs. Samling Plywood, Samling Reforestation and others; Pada Jutang and others vs. Samling Plywood and others), challenging two of Samling's logging and planted forest licenses in Sarawak's Middle Baram region.

The Penan plaintiffs are suing the Sarawak state government, Samling and other timber licence holders over logging and planted forest licences which they say were issued by the Sarawak authorities in an "oppressive, arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional" manner. The plaintiffs are demanding land titles, the nullification of various logging and plantation licences and compensation for damage.

The new cases cast further doubt on the legality of Samling's logging operations in its Sarawak heartland, and it is almost certain that they will occupy the local courts for years to come. Earlier cases filed by the Penan against Samling in 1998 (Kelesau Naan and others vs. Samling Plywood (Baramas), Syarikat Samling Timber and others) and 2007 (Belare Jabu and others vs. Merawa and others) are still awaiting trial, with the defendants attempting to delay justice and to prevent the cases from coming to trial. One of the lead plaintiffs, headman Kelesau Naan of Long Kerong, disappeared in late 2007, under mysterious circumstances, and was later found dead.

While Samling presents itself on its website as a caring "custodian of the forest" that "recognizes the importance of working with other forest residents to create mutually beneficial and harmonious relationships", the reality is different. In August 2009, Samling operations in Sarawak were hindered for more than a month by two Penan logging-road blockades in the Apo Tutoh region. In November 2009, seventeen Penan communities of the Upper Baram region proclaimed the "Penan Peace Park", a tropical forest reserve of 163,000 hectares in size, in an area that is fully concessioned to Samling and earmarked for logging.

It is interesting to note that recent resistance to Samling's operations is no longer limited to the Penan communities who have traditionally opposed logging on their native lands. On 23 November, a group of Kenyah natives from Lio Mato in the Upper Baram region erected a blockade against Samling, because the company had failed to deliver 400 logs of timber that had been promised to the villagers to build longhouses. The villagers complained that Samling had polluted their rivers and deprived them of their fish supplies. Another Kenyah blockade against Samling came to an end after a local court issued arrest warrants in May 2008.

ENDS

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