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BROC Report 13
Findings on the activities of Rimbunan Hijau International in Siziman Bay, Khabarovsk region. Analysis of the company's violations, possible controls, and local activists
REGION: Khabarovsk
DISTRICT: Vaninskii
DATES OF RIDES: July 27th - August 10th 2004
PARTICIPANTS:
Aleksandr Khlus (BROC)Summary
Roman Moroz (frontier guard administration)
Stanislav Ivanov (frontier guard administration)
The headquarters of the company Forest Starma are located at the mouth of the Siziman River, 100 kilometres south of the village of De Kastri. Manager Pavel Pavlovich Grinyaev has an office in the village of Vanino, and the office of Director Vong Ing Kai is at 1 Alleya Truda, Komsomol'sk-na-Amura. The controlling share of Forest Starma is held by the Malaysian company Rimbunan Hijau. At the time of the inspection, all critical documents were current and correctly completed. However, the isolation of the area and the lack of information about forest usage, exports, and interaction between Forest Starma and its Far Eastern sister company in Sukpai lead us to demand additional information and analysis.
Purpose
Our goals were to reveal, with the help of local activists, the export paths of processed and unprocessed wood, the extent of the company's forest stocks, the felling and removal methods used by the company, the composition of its workforce, the nature of any illegal activities, and the company's interaction with RH, its regional branch in Sukpai.
Introduction
There are 283 people at the headquarters in Siziman, among them 9 Malaysian citizens. Employees work according to a 15-day rotating schedule. Workers are driven to the site from the Vaninskii and Komsomol'skii areas. The workforce is composed, for the most part, of "declassified elements" who work 2-3 cycles before they are dismissed. Their pay does not exceed 10,000 roubles. Only lumber-truck drivers and highly qualified workers receive more than this - they comprise the permanent workforce, which works for several years. A strict regime is enforced in the living quarters - leaving one's lodgings between 23:00 and 7:00 is forbidden. The company's own security service controls employees' movements around the base. Entry by outsiders is strictly forbidden. Even teams waiting to load their crafts are not allowed onto the territory of the base; they are sent to a rest area outside the village.
The base is equipped with lodgings for 300 people, a canteen, a club, medical facilities, and all services essential for the autonomous existence of the village. The industrial part of the base has a car park, repair services, and an electric power station. In all, there are eight new Mercedes-Benz lumber trucks; the rest of the fleet consists of rather run-down vehicles, most likely representing every major automobile factory in the world. Two hundred metres south of the village is a mooring that extends 250 metres into the sea. Further up the Siziman River is a supply of unprocessed wood and mechanical timber cutting machines. The supply consists of around 50,000 cubic meters of unprocessed wood. All of the buildings and structures on the base are situated in direct proximity to the mouth of the Siziman River, an important fish spawning ground.
Findings
The entire territory is located within the boundaries of Vysokogornenskii and Tumenskii Leskhoz. All functioning logging areas are located 150-170 km from the base near the village of Vysokogornyj. The network of roads is well developed, and the roadways are of excellent quality. Soon after work is done in one area, the roads are blocked with waste materials to prevent illegal logging. Work is done very carefully - driving around areas that have already been logged, one does not see waste materials or low storage buildings. The discarded wood and rubbish dumps that one usually sees along logging roads are absent. The forest is homogenous and of very low quality. The fir trees are no greater than 25 cm in diameter and somewhat decayed.
Vessels are loaded with mobile caterpillar cranes. 1-3 river-sea crafts are loaded each week; each craft holds 2000-5000 cubic metres. At the time of the inspection, the Lenatrans craft was being loaded with stockpiles of wood from the winter. This wood, measuring 13-18 cm in diameter, was bound for China. Chinese companies purchase this type of wood for no more than 40 dollars and make it into cellulose. Because the quality of the wood is extremely low, the company makes marginal profits.
Due to the difficult climatic conditions in its mountainous location, the company stops work for 3 months every year. Mountain passes can reach 850 metres. The removal of wood on ships is dependent on navigational and ice conditions. In various years this goes on for 6-7 months. Customs and border processing of the ships is conducted in the port at Vanino.
Because the headquarters is located far from populated areas, the Ministry of Internal Affairs or other official bodies conduct no inspections. There is a fishing section in Vanino's Gosproxoza. The section is frequently inspected by Amurrybvoda, the Amur Fisheries Department, but there is no sign that the activities of Forest Starma - RH have been investigated. The forest inspectorate has also neglected to inspect the company for a long time, partly due to the high standard of production in the forest and partly out of laziness. The connections between this company and RH in Sukpai did not come to light.
Recommendations
The Khabarovsk regional forest service should conduct regular inspections of the activities of Forest Starma - Rimbunan Hijau on the Siziman Bay. Offer assistance to activists in Vanino and Komsomol'sk in order to ensure social control of the activities of this company.