by AUFA MARDHIAH / Pic Source: RDP’s Facebook
THE Rimba Disclosure Project (RDP) with 53 civil society organisations have demanded transparency regarding the environmental impact assessments (EIA) from the Department of Environment (DoE), particularly on projects in Ulu Tembeling, Pahang.
They said that many details of the project, including the construction approval of a large dam in the Ulu Tembeling forest, were sketchy and not easily accessible for review.
“These projects are of public interest as they may potentially involve environmental destruction, cause impacts on communities, exacerbate climate change and are exposed to corruption.
“Furthermore, the lack of transparency makes it very difficult for NGOs and the public to act as a check-and-balance to the environmental regulators,” RDP said in a statement on Thursday.
“Although it is the second scheduled EIA under DoE guidelines, it should be publicised and made available for public review.
“Unfortunately, there is no sign of this EIA on the DoE website and to date, we have not been able to access it or its executive summary — it’s inadequate for it to only be accessible physically via the DoE offices,” it added.
In addition, RDP also demands the DoE to include relevant information in the database, namely the project proponents and EIA consultants that have submitted the EIA.
RDP recommended several steps for the DoE to improve the transparency such as updating the EIA database online daily and ensuring that the database includes EIAs from at least 10 years before (2012 onwards), among others.
The civil society groups also urged the DoE to organise briefings between the project proponents and the public to get feedback and clarifications.
Earlier this year, RDP revealed that vast tracts of allegedly deforested lands in various states in Peninsular Malaysia were supposedly advertised for sales online.
RDP has identified and verified 43,539ha of forested land purportedly for sale through 28 listings on websites including Mudah.my, iProperty, PropertyGuru and Facebook.
These listings contain land within forest reserves, central forest spine habitat linkages and indigenous customary land.
RDP has called on authorities to investigate these online advertisements of the vast tracts of forest in the peninsula, ostensibly for sale and conversion to agriculture with a 99-year lease.
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