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.
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...
Contrary to Dennis Ngau’s claims, local organizations highlight widespread opposition to logging in the Ulu Baram (Miri/Sarawak/Malaysia) On 8th March, Free Malaysia Today published a report quoting Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau as saying that logging poses no threat to Indigenous communities in the Baram. Ngau told FMT that, “After...
Penan from Ba Abang village set up a blockade against Malaysian logging company GT Interhill and demand a community-elected headman. Sarawak’s Middle Baram Penan have once again set up a blockade against logging. The protesters are demanding that the company “stop cutting down trees and destroying land without consent”, says...
Indigenous rainforest activists from Borneo bring Cecilia Vicuña’s ‘Brain Forest Quipu’ to life in a moving solidarity ritual at London’s Tate Modern. Woven with interviews from leading environmentalists from the UK and Malaysia, the ceremony forms the centrepiece of a new short film by award-winning, activist-filmmaker, Fergus Dingle. ‘One With the...
Indigenous delegates from Sarawak, Malaysia visit the United Kingdom this week to talk about Britain’s part in greenwashing timber from Borneo. The UK is the third largest importer of MTCS certified timber in the...
Timber giant Samling has stopped logging and withdrawn its machinery from a key conservation area! Throughout the Covid years we’ve been hard at work with local communities to #StopTheChop. These efforts have pressured Samling to withdraw from several sites on Indigenous territory in the upper Baram River Basin. This shows how our coalition of grassroots organizations with relatively...
FSC called to withdraw Sarawak timber giant Samling’s licence Originally published on TimberBiz A coalition of civil society organizations is calling on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to drop Sarawak timber giant Samling and withdraw its FSC Licence Agreement under a Policy for Association complaint. Source: Timberbiz The complaint names...
Coalition submits complaint to FSC during General Assembly, calling on the body to withdraw Samling’s certificates (BALI, INDONESIA / MIRI, MALAYSIA) This week, a coalition of civil society organizations are calling on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to drop Sarawak timber giant Samling and withdraw its FSC Licence Agreement under...
Samling withdraws from the Upper Baram Forest Area as Penan increase pressure with police report and blockade (BARAM / SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) Penan communities have filed a police report and erected blockades to stop logging in the area of the mountain of Batu Siman in Northern Sarawak. In May and...
