Timber giant Samling is logging some of the last intact forests in Sarawak against the wishes of local Indigenous communities. The #StopTheChop campaign is calling on Samling to stop logging without consent. It also calls on the MTCC and PEFC — the national and international timber certificationlabels — to enforce their own standards.
#StopTheChop is a rainforest protection campaign spearheaded by local communities and civil society in the Baram region, Sarawak. Indigenous communities in the area rely heavily on the forests for their physical and cultural survival. It is a biodiversity hotspot and critical wildlife corridor, with some of the largest areas of unprotected primary forest left in Malaysian Borneo. The region includes the Baram Peace Park (UBFA).
Communities have been fighting logging for decades, but started organizing under the #StopTheChop campaign in 2020 when reports from multiple communities revealed that timber giant Samling was logging without properly obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of local communities, as is required by the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS). Our local partner SAVE Rivers published these reports on its website, and in response Samling has slapped them with a massive defamation lawsuit designed to silence and bankrupt them.
In the face of such threats, more communities continue to join the #StopTheChop campaign in solidarity.
Malaysian Borneo’s last primary rainforests under threat despite international conservation promises A new logging operation in Sarawak’s Upper Baram region poses an immediate threat to the Malaysian state’s last primary rainforests in the Heart of Borneo. Community sources say operators linked to Malaysian tycoon Hii King Chiong (“Hii”) have started...
Report via RimbaWatch Executive Summary This supplement report supports the general findings of the original State of the Malaysian Rainforest 2023 Study. This report uses three baselines to predict a future reduction in forest cover; using the Vancutsem et al., 2021, Official Data, 2020 and Gaveau, 2022 forest cover statistics...
Timber giant Shin Yang begins questionable Social Impact Assessment process for carbon project as questions about Sarawak’s carbon initiatives are put to Sarawak’s parliament (BARAM & KUCHING / SARAWAK) Critical questions were put to the Sarawak State Assembly yesterday about the state’s carbon market initiatives. At the same time, timber...
After various complaints from civil society, the Dutch government asks PEFC International to demonstrate accountability and prove that the Malaysian timber certification scheme is compliant (THE HAGUE / NETHERLANDS) The Dutch government expects PEFC International to conduct an investigation into the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) following growing concerns about...
Certification body SIRIM uses Penan rejection of logging as a reason to reinstate certificate – Penan ask Samling representatives and SIRIM auditors to leave (LIMBANG / SARAWAK) During the January audit of timber giant Samling’s Ravenscourt Forest Management Unit (FMU) in Northern Sarawak, the local semi-nomadic Penan communities boycotted the...
Penan communities are dismayed that Samling’s forest certificate was reinstated even though serious problems remain unresolved. They demand a no-logging zone in their territories. (LIMBANG / SARAWAK) This week some of the last nomadic Penan communities submitted documentation to timber giant Samling to assert their ancestral land rights. The Penan...
Our new report is titled “Lost in Certification: How forest certification greenwashes Samling’s dirty timber and fools the international market”. It is a comprehensive analysis of the most recent land conflicts in the Baram region of Sarawak. It looks at the most shocking community claims against logging company Samling and...
Analysis reveals critical cracks in logging operations managed by timber giant Samling and certified by MTCS, a program endorsed by PEFC (Berkeley, US / Basel, Switzerland) A groundbreaking 100-page report released today by The Borneo Project and Bruno Manser Fonds reveals critical cracks in Malaysia’s government-endorsed Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS)....
Samling bows to intense international pressure, withdrawing defamation suit against Indigenous CSO SAVE Rivers — communities celebrate victory of their #StopTheChop and #StopTheSLAPP campaigns (MIRI / SARAWAK) This morning — two years after Samling filed a defamation lawsuit against Indigenous grassroots organization SAVE Rivers — the logging company has dropped...
Certification body SIRIM quietly withdraws forest certificate for logging concession in Northern Sarawak, after Samling failed to address non-conformities found in audit, while SIRIM itself is under investigation for Samling case (LIMBANG / SARAWAK) Malaysian logging company Samling has lost its forest certificate for the Ravenscourt Forest Management Unit (FMU),...
