Lawsuit against forest defenders dropped
'Hoon Teo, of Central Manchester Meeting, spent much of last year campaigning for people in Borneo, who are threatened by logging by an international company.'
A Manchester Friend has been celebrating after a leading timber company withdrew a lawsuit against indigenous forest defenders in Borneo.
Hoon Teo, of Central Manchester Meeting, spent much of last year campaigning for people in Borneo, who are threatened by logging by an international company. She walked 500 miles to raise funds for a counter lawsuit to protect them from environmental exploitation.
This is now unnecessary, since the logging company Samling has now dropped its defamation case against the indigenous grassroots organisation SAVE Rivers. Samling originally sought: an apology; an injunction that would stop SAVE Rivers from reporting community claims under their #StopTheChop campaign; and damages in the sum of RM5,000,000 (about £850,000).
Writing in the Manchester Quaker newsletter, Hoon Teo said: ‘After a two year battle, we won!… we have been working really hard. I am overwhelmed. Glory be to God.’
Writing on her Just Giving page last year, Hoon Teo, a native Malaysian, said: ‘In 2015 the Penan and Kenyah tribes defeated the building of a mega-dam that would have drowned over 1,000 hectares of primary rainforest on the island of Borneo, home to many endangered and iconic animals including the orangutan. With the support of international NGOs they want to create a national park, the Baram Peace Park, which would be managed in perpetuity by indigenous tribespeople. However this project is in grave danger because a multinational logging company has obtained… concessions to log in Baram.’
Hoon Teo raised the issue with Manchester Friends when she told them about allegations that an international company was granted logging rights without consultation with local indigenous people. As this is a requirement of the international certifying body, any agreements made at COP26 or COP27 to protect forests were ‘meaningless’, she claimed.
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