The Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB) and Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) have rejected claims made in Greenpeace‘s “Missing Links” report after conducting a series of investigations.
A MTIB enforcement team carried out checks and interviews in June and July following the allegations of illegally imported Indonesian timber being landed at Sritama Jetty and the subsequent delivery of the wood to Victory Enterprise Sdn Bhd.
MTIB said no timber was imported to Sritama on the dates mentioned by Greenpeace and that no wood had been shipped in since July 2004.
The last timber consignment had been an illegally imported cargo of large scantlings and squares in June 2004 which was confiscated following an earlier MITB investigation. MITB says a photo in Greenpeace’s report was similar to the confiscated timber.
MITB’s investigation of Victory found that the company did not export any MTCC-certified products prior to December 12 and does not have a business relationship with Sritama. However, 556m3 of low quality wood bought from a local trader in October 2004 may have originated from Indonesia.
MTCC’s surveillance visit on Victory, conducted by independent assessor Global Forestry Services (GFS) on June 8, concluded that all the company’s exports of MTCC-certified timber could be accounted for by purchases from MTCC-certified sawmills and existing stocks found on its premises. GFS said there was no possibility of mixing MTCC-certified wood with the low-quality sawn timber bought from the local trader in October 2004.
