Indigenous groups today took opportunity of the media attention surrounding the UN convention on biodiversity in Kuala Lumpur to publicise their opposition to Malaysia's timber certification scheme, which they claimed failed to meet minimum standards of sustainable logging.

Critical of the government's decision to establish the Malaysian Timber Certification Council, the Network of Indigenous Peoples and NGOs on Forest Issues (Joango Hutan) said the council is only concerned about timber production, despite that its mandate is to ensure sustainable logging, with the involvement of forest dwelling communities.

"MTCC does not recognise our rights to our traditional lands, how then can we expect MTCC to protect our rights?" said Joango Hutan spokesperson Adrian Lasimbang at a press conference held at the sidelines of the biodiversity meeting.

MTCC was set up in 1999 as an independent body to facilitate two nationwide consultations with various stakeholders involved in the forestry profession, including the orang asal communities, to develop forest management standards for the timber certification scheme.

With this certificate, consuming countries that demand sustainable timber products would be willing to purchase the timber at a higher price.

Indigenous position 'ignored'

However, prior to the second consultation in 2001, groups under Joango Hutan pulled out of the certification scheme on grounds that their proposals have been ignored, and that their presence was merely there for endorsement.

Lasimbang, who is also secretary of the Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia, said the credibility of the MTCC certification scheme is being challenged by them and other environmental groups because it has failed to meet a number of minimum standards.

The most important of this would be recognising the right of indigenous communities to have prior informed consent over any proposal to log in their traditional territories.

The MTCC should also include "credible indigenous peoples" in its team of assessors and certifiers, and fully adopt the criteria of sustainability set out by the Forestry Stewardship Council - an independent international labelling scheme - without subjecting those higher standards to national legislation, said Lasimbang.

This position, he said, was endorsed by 59 asal villages in the peninsular, 80 villages in Sabah, and 114 longhouses in Sarawak.

'Don't fault us'

Yesterday, the MTCC commented on environmental group Greenpeace's denouncement of the former as 'sustainable certification imposters'.

The certification council said their standards were determined through multi-stakeholder consultations, and to now say that the standards were set without proper consultation is incorrect.

If indigenous groups impose a policy of self-exclusion by refusing to participate in the stakeholder process, then these same groups cannot default MTCC for failing to include them when developing certification standards, said MTCC senior manager Harnarinder Singh when contacted.

Each stakeholder, including registered indigenous groups, was invited to the process, irrespective if other organisations now claim that these groups do not dwell in forested areas, he said.

Harnarinder also added that to recognise indigenous claims over traditional land would require an overhaul of state laws, which at the moment do not acknowledge native customary rights over their land.

Since the council can only operate within existing legislation, it would be unfair to place the onus of such demands onto the council, he said.