Taib-Linked Group Faces Tasmanian Protests
Environmentalists accuse timber company of cutting old-growth timber
Asia Sentinel
A unit of Ta Ann Group Bhd, a Sarawak-based timber giant closely linked to Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, is being accused by an Australian lawmaker of invading a protected 430,000-hectare Tasmanian forest that was supposed to be protected by a national-state intergovernment agreement.
Tasmanian Sen. Bob Brown, the leader of Australia’s Greens, said that although the governments had signed an agreement earlier this year to protect the forests until an independent verification process was completed, Ta Ann had already begun logging.
“Four months later not one hectare has been protected and Forestry Tasmania continues to fell these magnificent trees as fast as they can put the roads in. All up, more than 10 square kilometers of our wild forests will be destroyed,” Brown said.
In an effort to stop the logging, a young woman name Miranda Gibson climbed into a structure high above the forest with a vow to sit there to stop the logging, which began last Monday.
That is the latest protest against the company, which has been operating in Tasmania for some time, ostensibly receiving A$10 million in direct public subsidies and being housed in Tasmanian state premises that cost A$22 million. Ta Ann Tasmania has reported net losses of A$18 million although the parent company declared a 25 percent profit margin on annual sales of more than RN800 million.
Ta Ann Holdings Bhd, headed by Taib’s cousin Hamed Sepawi, is comprised of at least 31 Sarawak-based companies in three broad sections including timber harvesting, palm oil plantations and various other interests. The company, with a market capitalization of RM1.24 billion (US$388.6 million), employs 6,000 people and began expanding overseas n 2007, according to the group’s website.
Taib himself is under fire from a plethora of NGOs from six different countries demanding that he and 13 members of his family be arrested and prosecuted for massive fraud, theft, corruption, illegal appropriation of land and abuse of public office and that he is at the epicenter of the operations despite the naming of family members to head ancillary operations. They allege that the looting of Sarawak’s rich timber and other natural resources has earned Taib’s family billions of US dollars through investment in as many as 400 companies in 25 countries.
Research released earlier this month by the Switzerland-based Bruno Manser Fund said official documents show the Taib family stake in 14 Malaysian companies alone is worth US$1.46 billion. The fund has uploaded all of the documents onto the Internet. They can be found here. Billions more are believed to be held in other countries.
Environmentalists accuse the Tasmanian unit of claiming it exports rotary peeled veneer manufactured only from regrowth and plantation Eucalyptus logs supplied by Forestry Tasmania. However, the environmentalists say, “the reality is that Ta Ann is sourcing timber from Tasmanian old growth forests, from world heritage value and high conservation value forests.”
The Tasmania-based Huon Valley Environmental Center accused Ta Ann Tasmania of receiving wood timber from logging areas containing old growth forest is processing wood acquired from the logging of old growth forests, high-conservation value forests and forests with recognized world heritage values in Tasmania.
