KOTA KINABALU: The state government should make details of the controversial Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) for carbon credit sales public, says a group of civil society organisations.
They said that if the state was going ahead with the NCA, many questions still needed answers, especially on whether the state would be able to obtain any revenue under the agreement.
The 13 civil society organisations made the call amid the latest statement by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, who said the NCA involving two million hectares of Sabah forest reserves was still on track and steps were being taken towards the implementation of carbon credit sales.
They claimed there were flaws in the NCA deal that needed to be rectified.
“The lack of transparency on the agreement is worrying as we simply don’t have enough information on the agreement to determine its impact on the state and its people in the long run.
“If the NCA is to go forward, there is an urgent need for the government to make public the details of the agreement.
“We strongly urge the state government to clarify its position on the contentious NCA in order to avoid further confusion on the matter.
“The serious problems with regard to the NCA that were highlighted previously still stand today, and aspects of the agreement require further scrutiny,” they said in a statement.
The signatories of the statement were WWF-Malaysia, Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP), South-East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP), Hutan, Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Sabah Environmental Trust, Pacos Trust, Pertubuhan Kota Kita Sabah (KotaKita), Society for Equality, Respect and Trust for All Sabah (Serata), Kelab Belia Generasi Pemenang Kampung Tempasuk, Undi Sabah, and Sabah Human Rights Centre.
Among the key issues, the group said, was that the project proponents have not engaged with the communities that may be impacted by the NCA.
A project of this type would normally be expected to include a robust “free, prior and informed consent” (FPIC) process, but to date no such process appears to have been initiated, they claimed.
The groups noted that NCA will cover two million hectares of Sabah’s protected forests, and as such, must have provisions for the livelihoods and general wellbeing of rural and forest-dependent communities.
They also raised concerns over the NCA agreement that did not appear to conform to the basic requirements of any internationally recognised carbon financing standards.
Aside from the central importance of the FPIC, they said such standards require strict compliance with the principle of “additionality” for large-scale forest restoration.
The concept of additionality is used to distinguish the net benefits associated with an activity in comparison to what would have happened without the intervention.
In climate change mitigation, additionality usually means net greenhouse gas emissions savings or sequestration benefits above those that would have arisen anyway in the absence of a given activity or project.
“The current NCA will operate in forests that are already protected – hence, it is unclear how the NCA would achieve additionality,” they said, adding that forest restoration at scale and in remote areas is prohibitively expensive and difficult to implement.
Forest restoration in the case of the NCA would also almost certainly not be cost-effective as the price of any carbon sold via the project would unlikely meet the cost of restoration, they argued.
The group also wanted the state to clarify how the NCA will be compliant with internationally-recognised carbon standards, the timeframe for project development, and the expected costs of project development and operations, especially forest restoration activities.
Sabah signed the NCA deal with Singapore-based Hoch Standard Pte Ltd on Oct 28, 2021.
