A coalition of environmental, human rights and Indigenous groups has urged the European Union (EU) to classify Malaysia’s Sarawak state as “high risk” under its new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Jurist News reported.
Due to take effect on 30 December this year, the EUDR requires companies selling or exporting seven commodities in the EU (cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soyabean, cattle, rubber and timber) to ensure they are deforestation-free and legally sourced.
Companies that do not comply face significant fines (40% of their EU turnover), bans on non-compliant products, reputational damage and supply chain disruptions.
In addition to restricting imports of commodities linked to deforestation, the EUDR will require the EU to classify regions by risk levels – low, standard or high, the 24 September report said.
A high-risk classification for Sarawak would significantly increase scrutiny on imports of timber and palm oil from the region, increasing customs checks and requiring EU companies to conduct more rigorous due diligence, according to the coalition.
To meet the Sarawak state government’s target of establishing 1M ha of industrial timber plantations by 2025, over 400,000ha of naturally regenerating forest would need to be cleared, Jurist News wrote.
The state’s land laws were also undermining indigenous peoples’ rights, the coalition said.
“Sarawak’s current land code imposes insurmountable obstacles for indigenous communities to gain and maintain title to their ancestral lands,” Luciana Téllez Chávez, senior environment, and human rights researcher at international non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch, was quoted as saying.
“The EU anti-deforestation law should factor in Sarawak’s … track record in its benchmarking process.”
In addition, the state government has not released comprehensive data on indigenous land claims or disclosed where it has issued leases to logging and palm oil companies, according to the coalition.
This lack of transparency made it difficult for civil society groups to hold companies accountable for deforestation and rights violations, the coalition said.
The coalition’s key recommendations included incorporating the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into federal legislation and enacting laws to prevent strategic lawsuits against public participation, the report said.
At the time of the report, the Sarawak government had not commented on the proposals.
The EU is the third largest destination of Malaysian palm oil exports, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.
