KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government has been urged to explain its position over the 100-year Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA), which was signed behind closed doors in October 2021.
The CSO Platform for Reform, a coalition of more than 60 civil society organisations, also urged Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor to issue an official statement on the status of the NCA.
"The CSO Platform submitted a joint memorandum to the Sabah state legislative assembly on Dec 5, 2021 demanding involvement, disclosure and transparency about the Sabah forest carbon agreement.
"However, after almost two years, the government still has not taken any further action on this claim. The government's direction in this agreement is still unclear which raises doubts about whether this NCA is capable of raising public interest," read the statement which was issued by the CSO Platform committee today.
The statement further stated that Hajiji should strive to have more involvement, facilitate access and be more transparent with local communities, especially the indigenous communities that will be affected by the agreement.
"Transparency is the foundation of good governance leadership. The lack of transparency in the NCA has led to critical attention and suspicion among local and international organisations and media.
"The NCA did not provide clear evidence about the impact, potential and risks of this project on the environment, economy and indigenous communities in Sabah. This point shows that there is no guarantee and protection for the rights and interests of the people of Sabah in a period of 100 years."
The statement was made following several developments to continue the implementation of the NCA.
On June 28, this year, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Jeffrey Kitingan stated that Sabah is currently in the process of cultivating approximately two million hectares of forest for a 100-year carbon credit conservation project.
Then on July 3, his political secretary, Anuar Ghani, asked for support for the NCA to be carried out immediately to prevent Sabah from suffering losses in this project.
The CSO Platform argued that this development is contrary to the statement issued by State Attorney-General (AG) Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof on Feb 9, last year, where she clearly emphasised that the agreement cannot be fully enforced and stressed that any carbon trading activities will not be allowed in Sabah until the NCA fully fulfils some of the provisions.
"We would like to state our position that we are not against the NCA. We take it seriously because this agreement involves handing over two million hectares of Sabah land for carbon credit conservation for 100 years in secret, without holding the principle of Free and Transparent Early Informed Consent (FPIC) which should involve the local community in the process."
Meanwhile, Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan insists that the controversial NCA to sell carbon credit in Sabah is on track and had never been shelved despite the media statement issued by the State AG.
He claimed that her (Nor Asiah) objections were not officially forwarded to the state Cabinet or the steering and management committee for the implementation of the NCA chaired by him.
"Those are not the AG's words, it (the statement) was not from the AG. If it was from the AG, they (State AG office) should have (officially) given it to me but they gave it directly to the press so, that means it's not from the government," he said during a press conference at Wisma Pertanian here.
Kitingan said that the Sabah government and his committee were not officially informed of the objections by the state AG and the latter was sitting in the committee.
"The statement should have been forwarded to the minister and Cabinet … somebody is playing around," he said but declined to identify who it was.
Towards this end, Kitingan, who is also State Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Minister, said the NCA was just delayed because the implementers needed to utilise things like satellite technology, planes, drones as well as human capital to verify the content of carbon.
"So, we are wasting a lot of time. In the meantime, (other) people are getting money from their conservation.
"Right now we are only getting RM110mil from our forest reserves. Compare that to conservation - it will be billions. So, what are we waiting for?
"We've already put the state at a loss, we have wasted a year," he said.
In another statement, 16 native NGOs and associations in addition to the Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association have signed a joint statement to support the NCA and urged the Sabah government to immediately implement the agreement.
According to the statement, the 16 have full understanding of the NCA and give their consent and support to the agreement.