Environmentalists staged a demonstration outside the Malaysian embassy in Bangkok, urging the government to take a firm stance against the laundering and trade of Ramin timber species.

Activists from the Greenpeace organisation, who chained themselves to the embassy gates yesterday, also called on the government to actively support the proposal by the Indonesian government to place Ramin on the stricter listing in the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (Cites)

The demonstration also saw the presence of an inflatable orang utan, with a banner attached to it that read, 'Malaysia: Don't steal my forest'.

The13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species is currently being held in Bangkok. Governments are expected to vote on the future of a number of species including Ramin. Cites was established to regulate and control trade in endangered species.

In the midst of the meeting today, Greenpeace revealed new evidence of criminal smuggling of Ramin timber from Indonesia to Malaysia and Singapore

In the months leading up to the meeting, Greenpeace's flagship, the Rainbow Warrior was in the region conducting research on the illegal timber trade.

Preliminary findings from that exercise revealed new evidence that Ramin timber from Indonesia are still making coming to Malaysian and Singaporean ports.

Working with Indonesian non-government organisation Telapak, they found key logging camps, sawmills and ports in Riau province where illegal Ramin is smuggled out of Indonesia. They also found five ports along the Straits of Malacca which are known to openly import illegal Ramin from Indonesia.

Malaysia imposed a ban on Indonesian logs on June 25, 2002 and prohibited import of square logs on June1, the following year.

Loss of key habitat

Telapak Campaigns Director Arbi Valentinus revealed that illegal flitches (squared-off logs) are still going into Malaysia despite this ban and this allegedly took place just in front of the customs of Malaysia.

"If this continues, the lowland forests in Sumatra will be gone by next year," he said.

Increasingly concerned over the activities of the Malaysian government and Malaysian companies, Greenpeace Forest Campaigner Tim Birch said Ramin habitat was also key habitat for many different species including orang utan.

He added that even though orang utan are not being traded, they risk going extinct over the next 5-8 years "because their habitat is being traded away".

"It's about 10 times faster than the Amazon, the destruction (of the rainforest in Indonesia)," said Chief Mate of the Rainbow Warrior Pete Sanderson.

Ramin is currently listed under Cites Appendix III by Indonesia in an effort to enlist international cooperation to control trade from their country. The Indonesian government is now appealing to list Ramin under Cites Appendix II which will strictly require the exporter and re-exporter to adhere to Cites permits and certifications.

Government uninterested

Meanwhile, Birch also expressed disappointment with the manner the Malaysian government was addressing the issue.

"They would want to delay the implementation of the Cites Appendix II listing for one year, which effectively means that they could stockpile Ramin for one year. Given the severity of the crisis in Indonesia, we do not think that the time period of one year is acceptable.

"They also want to have an annotation to the Appendix II listing which would mean that the Appendix II listing would not cover finished product which will be a huge loophole," he added.

Questioned on what they would want to see the Malaysian government do, he said: "We want them to agree to the Appendix II listing without any compromise deal."

"That would mean implementation within a 60-day period (as requested by the Indonesian government) and no annotation. Agreeing that all (Ramin) products such as sawn timber, logs and finished products would actually be covered by the Appendix II listing," he added.

CINDY CHEN is a malaysiakini stringer.