[Oz-envirolink] Good News: Leading British company to drop Sarawak timber

[Ruth Rosenhek]

BRUNO MANSER FONDS, Basel / Switzerland
MEDIA RELEASE / 12 December 2006

Leading British company to drop Sarawak timber

Campaign success for rainforest-dwelling Penan tribe - Jewson Ltd.: 
"No comment"

Jewson Ltd., Britain's leading building materials supplier, will stop 
purchasing and selling timber from the Malaysian state of Sarawak. 
This has been learnt by Bruno Manser Fonds from reliable sources. 
According to our informants, the Jewson management has decided to 
completely withdraw from Sarawak in response to an international 
campaign in support of the rainforest-dwelling Penan people. 
Seemingly, the exact timing of Jewson's withdrawal is still open. 
Jewson refused to officially confirm the news: "We have no comment to 
make", said Steve Millward, Jewson's Environment and Quality 
Director, when asked for a statement.

Earlier this year, 17 leaders of Penan communities in the Middle and 
Upper Baram river areas of Sarawak had written to Jewson's Managing 
Director Peter Hindle, arguing that the company's Malaysian supplier 
was extracting timber from Penan forests without their consent. The 
Penan headmen accused Hindle that by purchasing timber from the 
Malaysian Samling group, he and his company were making themselves 
"part of the crimes committed against us" by the loggers. Hindle 
never wrote back to the Penan, but Jewson started to look for 
alternative supplies after publication of their letter by "The Times".

The decision by the British company comes as a blow to the Malaysian 
timber industry in a critical moment. A few weeks ago, Malaysia 
officially started negotiations with the European Union on 
timber-trade issues. The Malaysian government sets its hopes on the 
national timber label MTCC. However, the label is boycotted by most 
Malaysian human-rights and social organisations because of its 
disregard for indigenous rights.

Jewson Ltd., who is part of the French Saint-Gobain group, was the 
first company to purchase a shipment of MTCC-certified plywood from 
Sarawak. Its Malaysian supplier Samling had been granted a 
certificate for Forest Management in early 2005 under controversial 
circumstances.

Bruno Manser Fonds welcomes Jewson's decision and asks the company to 
stop purchases of timber from the Penan rainforests with immediate 
effect.


For more information, please contact us:

Bruno Manser Fonds, Association for the Peoples of the Rainforest,
Heuberg 25, CH-4051 Basel
Tel. +41 61 261 94 74
E-mail: info at bmf.ch

-- 
Rainforest Information Centre
Box 368, Lismore 2480 NSW
(02) 66897519

http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/

ruthr at ozemail.com.au

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