Be more transparent with EIAs, 53 civil society organisations urge DoE

KUALA LUMPUR – The Rimba Disclosure Project (RDP), along with 53 other civil society organisations, has demanded for increased transparency from the Environment Department on environmental impact assessments (EIA). 

RDP, an independent initiative seeking to centralise data sources to disclose environmentally harmful activities, urged the DoE to make EIA data publicly available online and regularly update its databases. 

It stressed that such data is essential for relevant organisations to monitor projects such as land reclamation, logging, and plantations, as well as mining and quarrying. 

“These projects are of public interest as they may potentially involve environmental destruction, impacts on communities, exacerbate climate change, and have exposure to corruption,” it said in a statement today. 

“The lack of transparency makes it very difficult for groups and the public to act as a check-and-balance to the environmental regulators, as we are left in the dark about what projects have been approved and are being planned in sensitive areas.”  

It also emphasised that it is insufficient for EIAs to only be accessible physically, as this places needless barriers to the public from accessing information on projects that ultimately affect them. 

Pointing out that the lack of transparency is inconsistent with the department’s own guidelines on EIAs, it said that the department’s recently revised website had replaced limited availability of data with an “inadequate” database. 

“The new database on the DOE website – redesigned in February this year – is not regularly maintained or updated, with the last EIA posted being in May 2022 and only showing nine EIAs since February 2022,” it claimed. 

Besides alleging that the portal only provides EIAs from 2020 onwards, it said that a number of documents appear to be missing from the database, based on a cross-check with the project’s own data. 

EIAs from 2020 that appear in its records, but not on the department’s EIA list, include proposals for projects in Gua Musang, Kelantan, with one being a 315ha forest project and the other a permanent forest reserve project involving the planting of various tree species. 

Other missing documents relate to the proposed 406.52ha of forest plantation development in the Tekam Forest Reserve in Jerantut, Pahang, and the proposed 404.70ha of logging activity on private land in Rompin, Pahang.

RDP noted that it had reached out to the department for clarification via email on June 14 but has yet to receive a response. 

The statement today was undersigned by 53 human rights groups, including Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism, Klima Action Malaysia, Persatuan Aktivis Sahabat Alam, and Suara Rakyat Malaysia. – The Vibes, July 7, 2022