The NCA should be done through a proper process: Former Senator

PENAMPANG, 21 Feb — A proper consultation with various parties should be done regarding the Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA), said Former Senator Adrian Lasimbang.

According to him, the main issue is not about conserving forests for carbon trading, but more about ensuring our indigenous people who depend on such forest resources are not affected by the agreement’s implementation.

“Dealing with community is not as straightforward as dealing with companies. It can only be done through a proper process.

“We should first address the main question, which is our rights, who is going to be affected, where is the area in terms of state or jurisdiction, what are the implications, who is going to pay for the ranger, and so on.

“It (the agreement) just basically tells on how to operationalize this NCA through Hoch Standard, and it is up to Hoch Standard to do anything they want, but it clearly shows it has bypassed the proper process,” he said during his brief on Global Warming, the World Climate Crisis and Carbon Trading at PACOS Training Centre, here today.

Meanwhile, in the same ceremony, Vice President of the United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (UPKO), Datuk Ewon Benedick, asked for the government to be more transparent in the agreement and discuss it openly in the State Legislative Assembly.

“There have been many problems due to agreements here in Sabah, such as the Malaysian Agreement 1963 (MA63). Why are we still suing until now? Because the implementation of it is not perfect and has caused many problems until now.

“I’m all for it, but the process needs to be more transparent. We do not want the state leadership or the state legislators, namely the state assemblymen today, to be blamed by the next generation for failing to ensure the non-transparency of the NCA agreement,” said Ewon.

Earlier this month, an article was published by Al Jazeera titled “Very hush-hush: Borneo’s $ 80bn carbon deal stokes controversy” regarding the sale of carbon credits through NCA.

Concurrently, last year, the 100-year agreement was secretly signed between Sabah government and Singapore’s private firm Hoch Standard that would look into carbon and nature trade deals involving up to 2 million hectares of state land.

Following the expose, conservationists and politicians have come forward to object to the deal due to lack of transparency.