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Malaysia
Malaysia's Forestry Sector Expands In the 1980s and 1990s, Malaysia was the world's largest exporter of tropical timber. The ITTO declared in the 1990s that Sarawak's log harvest was several times the sustainable level. The forests remaining in Malaysia are now of relatively low production value and Malaysia's forestry companies have rapidly expanded overseas seeking new timber. While they are experienced in clear cutting tropical forests, they possess relatively little expertise in sustainable plantation forestry. While they are attempting to diversify, Malaysian companies remain leading players in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and even South America and Africa. They have attracted continual and widespread criticism (GAT in Cambodia; and Rimbunan Hijau in Papua New Guinea) but appear to be immune to reputational damage. A key issue now is smuggling of illegal wood from Indonesia into Malaysia for processing and/or export. Our analysis attempts to uncover discrepencies in the trade statistics relating to this trade. Chart 1 indicates that for several decades, Malaysia has supplied a substantial proportion of Japan's timber imports. Chart 2 shows that Japan's timber imports from Malaysia rose strongly during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Since 1993, when Sabah (Malaysia) imposed a ban on log exports, the roundwood equivalent volume of those imports has varied around eight million cubic metres. Chart 3 shows that Japan has for many years imported a large share of the timber which is exported from (but not necessarily grown in) Malaysia. Japan's share and the total exported was even higher during the two preceding decades. This implies that Japan has had a dominant influence over the evolution of Malaysia's export-oriented timber industry - not least that of its plywood industry (Japan has imported about 50% of Malaysia's plywood exports each year since the end of the 1990s). Although Japan's share in the exports of timber from Malaysia has changed little overall, the mix of timber products within that share has shifted from logs towards plywood. On the basis of roundwood equivalent volume derived from export statistics, Sarawak supplied almost 80% of Japan's timber imports from Malaysia during 2003; Sabah supplied almost 20%. Thus, Japan (principally, its trading companies) has chosen to import from those parts of Malaysia where forest management is least sustainable. The forestry sector in Sabah and Sarawak - as in Indonesia - appears to be conducted primarily to enrich the ruling elite . There is so much concern (outside Japan and other parts of East Asia) that illegal timber is being exported from Malaysia that importers are now refusing to import Malaysian timber (as yet, only that exported from Sabah) unless it is accompanied by a special licence from the Malaysian authorities certifying that the timber is legal. Malaysia is rather further advanced than any other major tropical timber producing country in developing a scheme to certify the quality of forest management in forests within Malaysia. This scheme does not take into account the negative impact of logging on indigenous people - which has been a source of NGO protest for years.
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