Environmentalists slams press for 'inaccurate coverage' on forest land sales
Environmental group Rimba Disclosure Project (RDP) has hit back at inaccurate coverage of its Feb 3 press statement, claiming the issue had been misrepresented by the media.
The statement in question highlighted 28 online listings in relation to the sale of allegedly forested land in Peninsular Malaysia and called for an investigation by the relevant authorities.
According to the group, a Sinar Harian article titled “RDP bongkar cubaan jual 43,539 hektar tanah hutan simpan” (RDP exposes attempt to sell 43,539 hectares of forest reserves) was a misinterpretation of its statement...
Rimba Disclosure Project says the media 'misrepresented' the issue.
Environmental group Rimba Disclosure Project (RDP) has hit back at inaccurate coverage of its Feb 3 press statement, claiming the issue had been misrepresented by the media.
The statement in question highlighted 28 online listings in relation to the sale of allegedly forested land in Peninsular Malaysia and called for an investigation by the relevant authorities.
According to the group, a Sinar Harian article titled “RDP bongkar cubaan jual 43,539 hektar tanah hutan simpan” (RDP exposes attempt to sell 43,539 hectares of forest reserves) was a misinterpretation of its statement.
The article claimed that the RDP allegedly identified 43,539 hectares of land in forest reserves comprising indigenous customary lands that have been put up through 28 listings on websites - including Facebook - in 2021.
Additionally, the RDP claimed that the Selangor Forestry Department’s response on the matter was also a misrepresentation of the group’s press statement.
“RDP’s data does not claim that 43,539ha of forest reserves are on sale, and as mentioned above, we specifically identified 3 potentially affected forest reserves, none of which are located in Selangor.
“The joint press statement does not claim that there are listings for forest reserves in Selangor,” the group added in a statement issued today.
RDP claimed that it had identified 43,539 hectares of allegedly forested land through 28 listings. However, only 2,689 hectares through four listings are purportedly within forest reserves.
The listings only affect the Tekam, Lebir and Nenggiri forest reserves in Pahang and Kelantan.
On Feb 3, the Rimba Disclosure Project had identified a total of 43,539ha of forested land for sale on the internet.
However, it did not say that the forested land identified in Selangor, totalling 264 acres, were within permanent forest reserves.
The Selangor land in question involved two plots, one involving 192ha in Pulau Indah, which it said was mangrove forest, based on a Google maps satellite imagery.
The other involved 72ha of land in Puncak Alam, which it said, according to Google maps, showed it was still a forested area.
However, RDP did identify land for sale outside of Selangor which it claimed were within a permanent forest reserve, particularly in Kelantan.
On Feb 6, the Selangor Forestry Department responded that the 264ha of forested land identified by the Rimba Disclosure Project as being sold on the internet are not gazetted as part of permanent forest reserves.
RDP in its statement cautioned the press from sensationalising its data and investigations in the future, which comes at the risk of misreporting and misinterpreting the issue.
“In any event, we are concerned by any misinterpretation, sensationalisation and/or subsequent misreporting of the joint press statement, our investigation and our data.
“In this instance, this has resulted in misinterpretations by the Selangor Forestry Department, and subsequent misreporting by other media outlets.
“While we appreciate media coverage of our investigations to raise awareness of deforestation, as well as the investigation taken by the Selangor Forestry Department, we encourage journalists and the relevant authorities to read and fully understand the joint press statement and the attached appendix, which provides detailed explanations of our data and methodologies, prior to taking action,” RDP added.
