KUCHING: Swiss-based environmentalist Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has hailed Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem’s “courageous stance and important leadership” in warning the state’s six biggest timber companies over illegal logging.

“Today is a day of celebration for Sarawak and Malaysia,” Lukas Straumann, BMF executive director, said on Adenan’s warning, at a corporate integrity pledge signing on Monday, to stop giving excuses and denials about illegal logging.

The companies involved in the signing were WTK Holdings Sdn Bhd, KTS Holdings Sdn Bhd, Rimbunan Hijau Forest Corporation Sdn Bhd, Tan Ann Group, Samling and Shin Yang Groups.

“These are the clearest words ever we have heard from a leading Malaysian government minister to combat corruption as a root cause of deforestation and under-development. We commend Chief Minister Adenan Satem for his courageous stance and important leadership in this question,” Straumann said in Berkeley in the US, where he is currently promoting his book on the alleged rape of the Sarawak forests.

“The international community and civil society are ready to assist Sarawak in the badly-needed reforms not only of the forestry practices but also its governance and institutions in a wider sense,” Strausman said in a statement. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 19, 2014.