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.
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),...
(BASEL, SWITZERLAND) On Tuesday, Malaysian activists gathered in Basel, Switzerland, for a Rainforest Tribunal investigating deforestation in Borneo’s remote interior. Members of the Penan, Kelabit, Kenyah, Tering, and Kayan Indigenous communities of Sarawak, as well as international scholars, served as witnesses testifying on rainforest destruction and loss of Indigenous livelihoods...
The Penan of Ba Jawi reject logging and forest certification and want to continue their lives as nomads (BA JAWI / BARAM / SARAWAK) In a letter to Samling sent today, the remote Penan community of Ba Jawi in the upper reaches of the Baram river adamantly reject logging: “As...
Amid new official reports that confirm community claims, civil society calls for SIRIM to cancel timber giant Samling’s MTCS certificate for the Gerenai Forest Management Unit in Baram (MIRI / BARAM / SARAWAK) This week, five civil society and community organisations called on SIRIM QAS International Sdn to revoke the...
SAVE Rivers shocked as timber company uses its chairman’s name on webpage about community engagement in apparent attempt to enhance its image (MIRI / BARAM / SARAWAK) Local civil society organization SAVE Rivers was shocked to see their chairman’s name on Samling’s website in a description apparently intended to strengthen...
The Penan villages of Long Lamai and Ba Lai refuse to participate in the ongoing forest certification process and ask timber giant Samling to respect their territories (LONG LAMAI & BA LAI / BARAM / SARAWAK) The Penan communities of Long Lamai and Ba Lai have expressed their complete rejection...
While international experts and civil society discuss best practices for impact assessments at the ongoing IAIA conference in Kuching, FSC launches investigation into Samling’s “unacceptable activities” in Sarawak (KUCHING, MALAYSIA / BONN, GERMANY) This week, the Forest Stewardship Council FSC officially accepted a complaint against Malaysian timber giant Samling filed...
In response to the recent statements made by Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau, who claimed that logging posed no threat to the indigenous community in Baram, the organisations emphasize that such claims are unfounded. Logging has significantly altered the environmental balance of the virgin forest and led to damage to...
