Minister Lim Clarifies Misunderstanding On Ramin-CITES Issue

Following the publication of a report on the alleged smuggling of timber from Indonesia into Malaysia by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Indonesian-based environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO)Telapak, the Malaysian Minister of Primary Industries, Dato' Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik met with the representatives of the EIA on 18 February 2004.The objective of the meeting was to clarify, among others, the hotly debated Ramin-CITES issue and to have an open discussion on matters that could help Malaysia and Indonesia put a stop to alleged cross-border smuggling of timber.

During the meeting, the Minister made it clear that it was never denied that there was smuggling of logs into Malaysia. In fact, during the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) interview of the Minister of Primary Industries on 5 February, 2004, following the adverse publicity due to the release of the EIA/Telapak report, the Minister admitted that" I am sure there are certain areas where there are still people involved in this illegal importation of logs." But he also reiterated that "We have gone all out to implement the ban that the Malaysian government has instituted".

The Minister commended the EIA on some of the findings, but cautioned that some conclusions or inferences in the report could have been made based on a misunderstanding of the functions of enforcement officials, the legal status of free commercial zones and the standing of Ramin vis-a-vis the CITES provisions.

During the course of the discussion, the following points were highlighted and stressed:

According to international law, the enforcement authority of a country does not have jurisdiction over the country's free commercial zones where goods are kept in warehouses waiting for transit to their final destination. As such, Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB) currently has no authority to inspect warehouses in free commercial zones to sniff out illegal timber products from Indonesia.
For the trade of Malaysian Ramin, exporters have to get the CITES Certificate of Origin from MTIB (for exports from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah) and the Sarawak Forestry Department (for exports from Sarawak). Investigations by MTIB revealed that, so far, at no point were CITES certificates issued by Malaysian authorities to accompany what were declared by Indonesian shippers as "tropical mixed hardwood".
When Indonesia first put up the proposal for the listing of Ramin in CITES Appendix III, Malaysia entered an official reservation which meant that Malaysia would enforce all CITES regulations on Ramin logs but not on processed products, which would have been extremely difficult to enforce given Ramin's colour and grain which make it indistinguishable from Malaysian Oak (Hevea brosiliensis) and a few other Malaysian species in terms of physical appearance.

Acknowledging the legal loophole afforded by free commercial zones, the Minister said that "we don’t have the legal instruments to do that" and stressed that it would take time to change the current law. Responding to the EIA proposal to ban the trading of Ramin for a year to allow for amendment of the law, the Ministry replied that doing so would penalize legitimate Malaysian Ramin traders. The Minister also reiterated that Malaysia would take action to address the issues highlighted in the EIA/Telapak report, besides taking stern action against anyone involved in smuggling timber.