KUALA LUMPUR: Sirim QAS International (Sirim) has refuted all claims by an environmental watchdog that there are significant flaws in their audits of Perak's forest management unit (FMU), claiming that the latter is generalising Sarawak and Sabah's land law in Peninsular Malaysia in their investigation.
Sirim president and group chief executive officer Datuk Indera Dr Ahmad Sabirin Arshad said their audits had complied with all the requirements and that their audits were in accordance with the Malaysian Criteria and Indicators (MC&I) for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) standards.
He said Sirim is an accredited Certification Body by the Department of Standard Malaysia which implies the competency of personnel, procedures of certification and the actual conduct of the certification body are in compliance with the accreditation procedure, relevant rules and regulations.
He also dismissed claims that there are blatant violations of indigenous people and human rights and deforestation in their audits, adding that there were no indigenous land rights conflicts because there are three different sets of legal requirements; Sabah, Sarawak, and Semenanjung (Peninsular Malaysia) .
"There are different land laws in Sarawak, Sabah and the Semenanjung. So, RimbaWatch was trying to generalise that as the same and that is a major flaw. When they start with the wrong interpretation then the rest is also wrong.
"Sirim confirmed based on audit findings that there were logging blockades and some villagers were arrested. However, the audit findings showed that the blockade was not in accordance with the legal requirements for Peninsular Malaysia," he said.
He added that the Perak FMU recognised and supported the indigenous communities' land rights by allowing them to freely access the forest and collect resources for home use.
On Aug 23, the New Straits Times reported that there were flaws in the auditing of Perak FMU to be able to receive the "sustainable forest management" label as claimed by Rimbawatch. The group also expressed their shock that timber was certified despite being linked to blatant violations of indigenous and human rights and deforestation.
"We have no valid reasons to suspend Perak FMU as they are currently fulfilling and complying with our certification requirements.
"In fact, the suspension and withdrawal process is a common practice in the certification decisions as we have previously exercised this process with other FMUs in Malaysia. We would retract their certification until they comply with all the requirements," he said.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
from New Straits Times https://ift.tt/blIdWST
0 Comments