Rimbunan Hijau is a

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n multinational logging corporation controlled by Malaysian businessman

Tiong Hiew King Tan Sri Datuk Tiong Hiew King (; Hokchew Romanized: ''Diŏng Hiēu-kĭng''; born 1935) is the Malaysian Chinese founder and chairman of the Rimbunan Hijau Group, a timber company founded in 1975. Its overseas timber operations in Papua N ...

. The company has operations in many countries, including

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. In Papua New Guinea, Rimbunan Hijau is the single biggest logging operator, and runs the country's biggest sawmill. It also owns one of the two major newspapers in the country, '' The National''. The company was established in 1975 and has an estimated annual turnover of more than US$1 billion, according to Malaysia-China Business Council.The Untouchables - Rimbunan Hijau’s World of Forest Crime and Political Patronage (page 4)

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

. Retrieved on 18 February 2011

Businesses

The group's core business activities are: *Forestry **Upstream and Downstream Timber Operations **Reforestation *Oil Palm Plantations **Plantation & Processing Operations *Media **Newspaper & Magazine Publication **

Malaysian Newsprint Industries Asia Honour Paper Industries (M) Sdn. Bhd., formerly known as Malaysian Newsprint Industries Sdn. Bhd. (abbreviated MNI), is a pulp and paper company based in Malaysia. It operates a single pulp mill and paper mill in Mentakab, Pahang, which pr ...

(minority share) *ICT **Information Communication Technologies **Hardware & Software *Hospitality **Hotel Operations **Tourism and Leisure Ventures *Others **Property Development—Tiong Toh Siong Group of Companies **Stingless Bee Farming (Meliponiculture) **Trading & Retail Services **Plastic Manufacturing **Aquaculture **Biotech **Oil & Gas **Mining **Toll Road Collection **Tyres Retreading **Insurance Services **Education (Learning Mandarin) -- "Zhong Hua Han Yu" ** Human Capital Development—Rimbunan Hijau Academy ** Engineering & Construction

By country

Equatorial Guinea

According to

Rimbunan Hijau is the dominant player in the logging sector in

by the subsidiary Shimmer International. Rimbunan Hijau was in 1999 also logging contractor for

Teodorin Obiang Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (born 25 June 1968, nicknamed Teodorín) is the Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, in office since 2016. He is a son of Teodoro Obiang, the authoritarian leader of Equatorial Guinea, by his first wife, Constancia M ...

, the agriculture and forests minister of Equatorial Guinea and the son of president.

Controversy

Rimbunan Hijau has been heavily criticized by environmental and humanitarian organizations for alleged human rights abuses, ignoring

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

, political

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

and negligence of the environment. A recent

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

report estimates that up to 70 percent of

logging in Papua New Guinea Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

is illegal, further adding to the criticism. Two groups that have made investigations and held protests against the company are

and Rainforest Action Network. Rimbunan Hijau in turn has threatened to sue Greenpeace for defamation because of its report "''The Untouchables - Rimbunan Hijau’s World of Forest Crime and Political Patronage''" demanding that the group withdraw the paper. Greenpeace has declined to comply.

Citibank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

, following a review of its own environmental policies in 2005, declared that it would require the client Rimbunan Hijau to obtain credible, independent, third party certification for its Papua New Guinea operations in the future.Citigroup Commended For Enforcing Environmental Policy
CommonDreams, 2005-03-03, Retrieved on 5 August 2007.

References

*
Greenpeace Forest Crime file: Rimbunan Hijau

Rimbunan Hijau
at SourceWatch

External links

* {{Authority control 1975 establishments in Malaysia Multinational companies headquartered in Malaysia Forest products companies Renewable resource companies established in 1975 Privately held companies of Malaysia Malaysian companies established in 1975