Malaysian National Seminar on Social Forestry
On the 29 November 2011 EFI’s EU FLEGT Asia participated in a Malaysian National Seminar on Social Forestry, entitled ‘Raising Quality of Life of Communities and Sustainable Forest Management’ in Lawas, Sarawak. The event, organised by the Malaysian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Sarawak Forests Department and the Sabah Forestry Department, aimed to support Social Forestry efforts in the country to improve the quality of life of communities working towards SFM. The event brought together international speakers and concluded with an active dialogue on social forestry and the role indigenous peoples play in it.
Strengthening of TLAS Linkages in Peninsular Malaysia
A Consultation on Mechanisms to Strengthen Coordination for the Implementation of Malaysia’s Timber Legality Assurance System (MYTLAS) was organised by the Protem Secretariat for the Malaysia - EU FLEGT VPA and held in Kuala Lumpur on 17 January. A total of 66 participants attended from a range of Ministries, the Forestry Departments of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, Labour Departments, Occupational Safety and Health Institutes and Customs, as well as the Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB), the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) and the Malaysian Timber Council (MTC). Following several presentations the group discussed progress with the system and made the following recommendations:
- That Malaysia should move ahead with the implementation of the system in order to be seen to support the trade of legally sourced timber and timber products.
- That the MYTLAS should be treated as a living document which could be improved through experience of implementation, increased resources and potentially, the application of new technologies.
- That the system/process be designed to accept inputs from stakeholders from time to time.
For the first paragraph, it post either a contradiction or a work out solution being made to my previous post. What I understood was that Sarawak state authorities has an opinion that VPA has put in non certification requirements such as prohibition of logging at Native Customary Rights (NCR) area and human right protection and also questioning the Malaysian authorities credibility when issuing the timber licenses to local player.
And in this post they are working towards striving to support social forestry efforts in the country to improve the communities life quality towards Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). SFM post more stringent requirements than achieving legality. It means not only prohibiting illegal logging in NCR areas, only ensure the current communities livelihood are sustain and protected.
I wonder what the active dialogue has been concluded with between the international speakers and the indigenous people (representative) and would it be recognize, as they did not highlighted the dialogue has included the government or state authority involvement.
And well said in the second paragraph, I am looking forward for the implementation of TLAS system in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak. Sabah has already establish their own TLAS system for the Forest Management Units [SFMLA], will be soon to cover stateland and alienated land (Form IIB) Specifically in Peninsular Malaysia, TLAS implementation should focus on the areas that are non PEFC/MTCS certified, which is the non Permanent Forest Estate (PFE) and alienated land. Treating MYTLAS as living document, I like that idea.
Just an opinion
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