Malaysian Forests taking a back seat.

I suppose on reading this piece of business news, Malaysia is king of wood products export, one would expect Malaysians to be celebrating some sort of achievement, but on delving deeper into the report, I think there are some questions that cross the mind. First is the news that the Asia Pacific region has only 2% of the certified forests in the world while North America has the bulk at 54%. What this revelation means to us is that, the Asia Pacific region is arguably doing the most damage to its remaining virgin forests and forest reserves, and though it's mentioned in the report that Malaysia has the largest area of "certified" tropical forests, I am not sure this is one fact that we can be proud of.

All the more a nebulous claim for fame, if we read further the challenges facing 'forest certification' which, "include the conduct of macro-environmental impact assessment at FMU level (for Peninsular Malaysia), protection of endangered species of flora and fauna, avoid or minimise pollution of water sources as well as avoid or minimise conversion of natural forest to forest plantations and/or non-forest land use."

My confusion here is, how will Malaysia maintain its claim that it's exporting 'certified timber' which mandates that the country must protect its "endangered species of flora and fauna, avoid or minimise pollution of water sources as well as avoid or minimise conversion of natural forest to forest plantations and/or non-forest land use", when we know for a fact that all timber producing companies are increasing ANNUALLY their hardwood production from existing forests, and that the ever increasing acreage of forest plantations initiated by some State Governments are just in a nascent stage.

What we see here is, again, short term profits take precedence over the long term survival of the forests, and of Mother Earth herself..

Malaysian Forests taking a back seat.