MTCC withdraws Samling's forest certificate in Sarawak
The Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) has withdrawn one of Samling's certificates for the Ravenscourt Forest Management Unit (FMU) in Sarawak.
UK-based The Borneo Project claimed that Sirim Bhd, which conducted the assessment, withdrew the certificate after Samling failed to prove effective corrective actions for issues found through previous audits...
The Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) has withdrawn one of Samling's certificates for the Ravenscourt Forest Management Unit (FMU) in Sarawak.
The Borneo Project claimed that Sirim Bhd, which conducted the assessment, withdrew the certificate after Samling failed to prove effective corrective actions for issues found through previous audits.
"These issues concerned non-compliance with the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) standard. Sirim suspended the certificate on March 28 and withdrew it on July 11," the UK-based group said.
The MTCS is a voluntary scheme that provides independent assessment for forest management and chain of custody certification to ensure the sustainable exploitation of Malaysian forests.
This scheme is endorsed by the Geneva-based Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) - the largest forest certification system in the world used by 55 countries.
According to the Ravenscourt FMU public summary for the MTCS, the logging area covers 117,941ha of which 70 percent is within the Limbang Protected Forest and 21 percent is inside the Trusan-Kelalan Protected Forest.
The FMU shares a common boundary with the Pulong Tau National Park, Sabah and Kalimantan, Indonesia. Within the Ravenscourt FMU boundaries is the entirety of Ba'kelalan.
The Ravenscourt FMU does not appear on the MTCC's list of certified natural forests. The first phase of the Ravenscourt FMU was supposed to begin in 2016 and expire in 2025. According to The Borneo Project, there are no logging activities taking place within the area.
Penan grassroots organisation Keruan said the Sarawak government should now cancel Samling's logging concession in the area after the MTCC withdrew certification.
"The Penan will consider any logs extracted from the area to be illegally logged," Keruan head Komeok Joe was cited as saying by The Borneo Project.
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