Efforts to Address Illegal Logging Issue Essay Example for Free

Efforts to Address flagitious Logging Issue EssayThe Malaysian organisations response to culpable logs in the country has been to implement log-tracking systems, to ban log imports from Indonesia and to increase law enforcement activities. The suppose Forestry Departments have been setting up State Security and Protection Units within their organizations. They have also asked for assistance from the police and military to curb illegal activities. Punishment for illegal logging or importing banned timber can be quite severe.For example, penalties for cases that go to court in Sarawak can result in payments of up to ten times the note value of seized timber, plus a US$15,000 fine, plus a jail sentence of up to five years. Numerous offenses have been prosecuted. For example, in Peninsular Malaysia, some 324 forestry offenses were put down involving illegal logging, improper logging licensees, felling immature trees and encroachments. However, environmental NGOs claim that th ere are many more violations that are undetected.The Malaysian government views the management of its forests as within the purview of its own sovereignty. Government and industry officials are confident that little illegal forest activity occurs in Malaysia and that its enforcement mechanisms are highly effective. When the illegal logging issue recently arose in the context of negotiations toward an economic partnership agreement with Japan, Malaysian representatives were adamant that matters of illegal logging are strictly dealt with. On concerns about Malaysian imports from Indonesia, they contended that imports from Indonesia carry the relevant certificates. The Japanese negotiators indicated that proof of legality for Malaysian wood products entering Japan would be a prerequisite to furthering negotiations on the economic agreement.Unlike any other Asian country, Malaysia has had a fairly comprehensive log tracking system for several years, which has limited the ability of manu facturing plants to bribe and consume logs from unspecified sources. On the Peninsula, every cut tree on PFE land is tracked from the stump to the processing plant. The stump is left with a elastic tag which includes an I.D. number corresponding to the tags on all the logs cut from theindividual tree. Before the logs leave the forest, an officer checks the tag numbers in the Tree Tagging and feeling Production Control Book. The logging company needs to fill in a Forest Harvesting Control and Monitoring Form for to each one stand to be checked regularly by a state official. Each month, the Forest Range Officer in charge completes a periodical Forest Harvesting Process Report to ensure the licensee only harvests trees according to the permit.51See EIA/Telepak. Profiting from Plunder How Malaysia Smuggles Endangered Wood. 2004. and The Star Online. Big Seizure of Illegal Logs in National Park. 2003. 52EIA. Environmentalists Accuse Singapore of Illegal Trade in Endangered Timber an d Harmful Chemicals at UN Conference US Sanctions manageable as Trade Threatens Biodiversity, Human Health. 2004. 53Environmental and social NGOs reject the Malaysian Timber Certification Councils Scheme 54Nikkan Mojkuzai Shimbun. Japan come to About Illegal Logging, Japan-Malaysia FTA Negotiations Forest Products for a Subcommittee. July 23, 2004.Page 86