A Report on the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme - Rengah ...

included WWFM, MNS, a woodworkers union, a consumer association, a national woman organisation,
a rotary club, an environmental protection association and three indigenous organisations, namely
Persatuan Murut Sabah, Kadazandusun Cultural Association (both newcomers) and Sarawak Dayak
Iban Association. The majority of the participants represented economic interests, while a portion of
them came from government organisations and direct forest manager groups (MTCC 2002b).
In a subsequent dialogue session with Mr. Heiko Liedeker, executive director of the FSC, Mr. Sidi
Munan of the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association claimed that his group of NGOs represents 71% of
the population of Sarawak (MTCC 2002b, 16.21). It should be noted that Iban comprise about 30% of
the state’s population. Mr. Liedeker, however, expressed his view that ‘Mr. Munan’s statement is a
very powerful endorsement’ (MTCC 2002, 16.22).
The report on the Assessment of Compatibility of MC&I with FSC Requirements was of the opinion
that MTCC decision-making procedures represented ‘partial compliance’ but that it was ‘preferable to
proceed to an additional decision-making procedure to explicitly meet the FSC requirements with
detailed records on comments and decision-making’ (Sandom & Simula 2001:13). Nevertheless, the
sharing of information coming out of subsequent consultations and meetings of the MTCC did not
improve. Although proceedings of national level consultations in developing MC&I were sent to all
stakeholder groups, other documents such as the minutes of the national Workshop on Standards
for Certification of Plantation Forests (held on 31 October 2002 in Kuala Lumpur) were not made
available to all stakeholders. The author of this document eventually obtained a copy after repeated
requests over a period of seven months (February to September 2003).
4. Certification process
Registration of certifiers
Eight companies and organisations are registered as independent assessors for forest management
certification: Saytech (Sarawak) Sdn. Bhd., Gaya Tunas Sdn. Bhd., Chemsain Konsultant Sdn. Bhd.,
SGS (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., TropBio Forest Sdn. Bhd., Sirim QAS Sdn. Bhd., Forest Research Institute
Malaysia (FRIM), and the Faculty of Forestry at the University Putra Malaysia (MTCC website as
of August 2003).
There are 11 companies registered as assessors for chain-of-custody certification: Saytech (Sarawak)
Sdn. Bhd., Chemsain Konsultant Sdn. Bhd., Gaya Tunas Sdn. Bhd., TQS Management Sdn. Bhd.,
SIRIM QAS Sdn. Bhd., SGS (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., JB Agriculture Management Services, KiwiHeng
Wood Industry Consultants Sdn. Bhd., AOQC Moody (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., TropBio Forest Sdn.
Bhd., and Bureau Veritas (M) Sdn. Bhd. (MTCC 2001).
It must be noted that a
representative from FRIM,
one of the assessors, sits Clear conflict of interest
exists when
on the Board of Trustees of
the MTCC (2001). Simi-
larly, since May 2001 one of
the two representatives of
the University Putra Malaysia
on the Board of Trus- members on the tees appears also to be an
assessor for the Univer-
sity’s Faculty of Forestry. A
conflict of interest be- Board of Trustees tween these roles is clearly
possible. However MTCC
has acknowledged the problem
and notes that nei-
ther FRIM nor the FF-UPM
are also “independent
assessors” assessments. “In the event
have yet carried out any
that any trustee has any
interest or connection with
either an assessed party or the independent assessor, the normal practice would be for the trustee
concerned to declare his or her interest when these parties are the subject of the relevant discussion
in MTCC” 10 . It would however be better to avoid this problem by prohibiting assessors from being
Board members.