Malaysia and Indonesia have both acted to curb illegal logging in Indonesian forests.
Following pledges made by primary industries minister Dato’ Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik on his recent tour of Europe, the Malaysian government has imposed a total ban on the import of logs from Indonesia with immediate effect.
The move has been made to assure buyers that all timber and timber products exported from Malaysia are from legal and sustainable sources and to ensure that efforts to implement a national timber certification scheme under the Malaysian Timber Certification Council are not jeopardised.
The Malaysian government says its reputation has been tarnished because of allegations of involvement with trade in illegal timber from Indonesia. As of now all logs from Indonesia entering Malaysia will be confiscated.
Meanwhile Indonesia has imposed a permanent ban on log exports to protect its forests. This supercedes the temporary ban on log and wood chip exports imposed in October 2001.
Forestry minister Muhammad Prakosa said this week that a sizeable percentage of the country’s forests had been lost to illegal logging over the past five years.
