Offences and enforcement
Criminalisation of illegal logging and related activities in Malaysia is comprehensive and, since an amendment in 1993, punishment for the offences is quite severe. Sections 15, 40, and 81–87 of the National Forestry Act 1984 (Malaysia) contain relevant forestry offences, including those relating to illegal logging (logging without license, logging outside licensed area, clearing forests without permission) (Chen 2004: 25). Moreover, the Act criminalises a range of damaging conduct in permanent reserved forests (section 81), unlawful possession of forest produce (section 84), and counterfeiting or defacing marks on trees and timber (section 86). The Act also sets out enforcement powers for police and the military (Part VIII, sections 88–101A). Additional offences are set out under relevant state forestry laws (Chen 2004: 27–28).
Operationally, law enforcement largely remains with the state governments. Sabah adopted new, comprehensive measures to suppress and prevent illegal logging in 2000 by creating a new Enforcement and Investigations Division, which is supported by a State Task Force on illegal felling, the District Forestry Officers, and a Monitoring Control Enforcement and Evaluation Unit (Chen 2004: 27–28).
Some basic statistics are available about prosecutions of offences under the National Forestry Act 1984 (Malaysia); a report published in 2001 found that, on average, 100 cases of forest offences in addition to 137 instances of illegal logging occur in Peninsular Malaysia annually, not including other parts of the country (Mohd 2001: 9–10). In comparison, the State of Sabah reported 372 forest offences in 2002 and 299 offences in 2003. About 40 to 50 percent of the offences involved illegal logging in forest reserves and on state land.
Some 20 percent of offences recorded in Sabah in 2002 and 2003 involved cases of illegal possession of logs (Chen 2004: 27–28, referring to unpublished information by the Sabah Forestry Department).
Cambodia
Large-scale logging operations only commenced in Cambodia in 1994. Previously, harvesting activities were, for the most part, modest and mostly carried out manually with axes and extracted using buffalos and elephants. During the Khmer Rouge regime, production levels increased as the exploitation of Cambodia’s forest resources was seen as an important way to raise revenue and purchase arms (Le Billon 2000: 789–791; Thomson
& Kanaan n.d.: 11). This deforestation led the United Nations to temporarily impose a ban on timber exports from Cambodia (Peters 1999: 106; Wolf 1996: 433–434). The Cambodian Government later lifted the export ban, but increasing deforestation led to a new import ban on all roundwood and sawnwood exports from 1 May 1995 (Wolf 1996: 435).
Illegal logging
Introduction of commercial logging concessions in Cambodia in 1994 led to an immediate increase in illegal logging, as activities that were formerly legal had suddenly become illegal.
Companies and others who had been granted concessions were found harvesting in areas not covered by the concessions or continuing to harvest even after concessions had expired (Amariei 2004: 8). Allegations of corruption soon became widespread, as underpaid government officials in the forestry administration and also in the police and military (who were influential in forest administration) were open to bribery in return for ignoring illegal logging (Peters 1999: 108). The increase in commercial logging also led to the creation of many sawmills around the country and their capacity greatly exceeded the harvesting authorised under the concession regime, leading to suggestions that many mills processed timber that had been logged illegally (Amariei 2004: 21). Effective control of logging activities was further hampered by the fact that some parts of the country remained under the control of the Khmer Rouge and were thus largely inaccessible to control and enforcement by government officials (Peters 1999: 106).
Growing evidence of illegal logging throughout Cambodia and the surrender of the Khmer Rouge led to changes in policy and legislation and eventually to a complete moratorium on logging activities. The changes appear to have significantly reduced the level of illegal activity, although there continue to be reports about logging in protected areas, other illicit harvesting, corruption and criticisms of the Cambodian Government for doing too little to preserve the country’s forests (Kettle 2005; Reuters 2006).
Policy and legislation
Cambodia is a signatory to all relevant international treaties, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, CITES, the Convention to Combat Desertification, the World Heritage Convention, the International Tropical Timber Agreement, and a range of regional and
subregional agreements. However, the practical importance of CITES is limited because despite serious reduction of Cambodia’s forest resources, the tree species do not face extinction as to affect trade (Peters 1999: 107).
Domestic policies to prevent and suppress illegal logging and protect Cambodia’s forest resources have been slowly forthcoming. Under the Khmer Rouge and during Cambodia’s transitional period no comprehensive policies and laws were in place. Only in 1994 did Cambodia introduce a concession system to allow commercial exploitation of its timber resources. Introduction of commercial logging brought with it the mechanisation of harvesting and the establishment of large numbers of sawmills, causing major encroachments on Cambodia’s forests at unsustainable levels. To raise revenue, the government was quick to issue 36 concessions (some of them secretly) between 1994 and 1997 covering 7 million hectares or 70 percent of Cambodia’s exploitable forests. By 1997, the official harvest of industrial roundwood reached 700,000 cubic metres annually (ITTO 2006: 130–131; Global Witness 2002: 3).
Reforms starting in 1998 led to a temporary freeze of new concessions being granted (Peters 1999: 103). By 2001, the official roundwood harvest had dropped to 123,000 cubic metres. On 1 January 2002 a complete moratorium on logging took effect and most previously issued commercial concessions were cancelled. This was followed by introduction of tougher requirements for new concessions. Cambodian Forest authorities further closed 2,000 illegal sawmills and small wood-processing plants (ITTO 2006:
130–131).
The protection of forests and the conditions of logging activities are now comprehensively legislated in the Law on Forestry 2002 (Cambodia) and the Law on Environmental Protection and Natural Resource Management 1996 (Cambodia). The Law on Forestry 2002:
defines the framework for management, harvesting, use, development and conservation of the forests in the Kingdom of Cambodia. The objective of this law is to ensure the sustainable management of these forests for their social, economic and environmental benefits, including conservation of biological diversity and cultural heritage (Article 1).
To that end, the Act regulates administration and management of Cambodia’s forests (Articles 6–9), including management of production forests and granting of logging concessions (Articles 13–19), and the requirements for permits and authorities to harvest, transport, process, and trade forest products and by-products (Articles 24–27).
Amidst allegations of bribery and interest groups as well as the police and military influencing the administration, the former Department of Forestry and Wildlife has been restructured to the Forestry Administration (Amariei 2004: 26).
To distinguish illicitly sourced timber from legal logs, the Act sets out a comprehensive regime of applying different marks to both types of timber (Articles 65–67). Strict regulations apply to the way in which harvesting is carried out and limitations are placed on the type of machinery used to harvest, gather and transport logs (Article 70). Furthermore, the Act sets out the rights of local communities for traditional use and the management of community and private forests (Articles 40–47). The Act is supported by a National Forest Sector Policy (Article 8), a National Forest Management Plan (Article 9) and a Code of Practice for Forest Management (ITTO 2006: 131).
Cambodia’s Law on Environmental Protection and Natural Resource Management 1996 sets out more general goals of environmental protection and sustainable development.
While the Act establishes general mechanisms for natural resource management, monitoring and environmental protection, it contains no specific provisions relating to forest resources and logging.
Implementation of Cambodia’s new policies and laws is still in its infancy, and medium and long-term outcomes cannot yet be assessed (ITTO 2006: 133). Some analysts have pointed to potential weaknesses in the new system, such as definitional uncertainties and inconsistencies between different laws (Amariei 2004: 21). However, the crackdown on illegal logging and the moratorium on harvesting have had a considerable impact and there have been numerous prosecutions showing increased efforts to suppress incidents of illegal logging (Global Witness 2002: 3; Kettle 2005; Reuters 2006).
Despite Cambodia’s recent radical upgrade of forestry policies and laws, some concerns remain over the administration and enforcement of the new regime. The principal problem lies in the lack of resources to thoroughly manage, implement and enforce the legal requirements at national and local levels. Moreover, many government officers are paid very low salaries, sometimes below subsistence levels, and are thus vulnerable to corruption (Global Witness 2004). There have also been reports of revenues leaking or being diverted.
Other problems include the diversity of agencies involved in environmental protection and forestry management, and these agencies are often competing for resources rather than collaborating (Amariei 2004: 12–13). A further effect of the crackdown on illegal logging has been that individuals and organisations involved in illegal logging have become more sophisticated in hiding their activities (Global Witness 2002: 3). NGOs have also reported that government officials often fail to report and investigate instances of illegal logging or simply lack the capacity to exercise their duties (Global Witness 2002: 6).
Offences and enforcement
The Law on Forestry 2002 (Cambodia) contains an extensive range of criminal offences relating to illegal logging including:
harvesting of immature trees, rare species, trees used for customary resin extraction
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and trees that yield high-value resin (Article 29)
harvesting and other activities without a permit (Article 39)
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use of unregistered or unidentified machinery, vehicles, and chainsaws (Article 70)
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unlawful issuing of permits to harvest forest products and by-products in protection
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forests (Articles 28, 38)
activities that damage forests, such as poisoning or uprooting trees, removing boundary
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posts, etc. (Article 32).
Penalties and enforcement of these offences are set out in Articles 76–89 in the Law on Forestry 2002. As previously mentioned, enforcement is frequently hampered by lack of resources. Allegations of corruption in the forestry sector are also widespread. There have also been some reports of misuse of concessions and illegal activities in the unorganised forestry sector (Amariei 2004: 17).