Penang Tolak Tambak (Penang Rejects Reclamation) and other civil society groups in Malaysia released the following media statement upon handing over the memorandum (reproduced below) to the National Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) on 16 January 2020.
Environmental justice is about promoting a fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens and ensuring that vulnerable low-income communities do not bear the brunt of pollution, environmental degradation, and climate change.
Penang Tolak Tambak is an alliance between the Persatuan Nelayan Pulau Pinang and Penang Forum formed in mid-2019 to stop the destructive large-scale coastal reclamation projects in Penang, particularly the Penang South Reclamation project.
This memorandum focuses on the Penang South Reclamation project. The Penang government’s project to reclaim three islands measuring 4,500 acres will produce major negative outcomes for environmental justice and human rights. The creation of three supposedly smart and green artificial islands which aims for affluent buyers and investors will be undetaken at the expense of vulnerable groups and future generations.
This memorandum raises five issues of environmental justice affecting traditional/inshore/artisanal fishers and fishing communities which should be raised to the Penang state government as the project proponent and approver of the project.
A. The Penang South Reclamation project will inflict permanent damage on Penang’s richest fishery and sensitive coastal ecosystem, impacting the livelihoods of 4,909 fisherfolk and 511 marine aquaculture operations. Sand mining for the project will affect an additional 6,000 fisherfolk and aquaculture operations in northern Perak.
B. Have the Penang government and the Department of Environment failed to observe the precautionary principle in climate mitigation and environmental protection?
C. Are the state authorities ignoring, overruling and undermining the traditional fisherfolk’s rights of tenure and access to the fisheries commons, by planning a project which destroys and pollutes the marine ecosystem?
D. Are the state authorities violating the principle of free, prior and informed consent by deciding to proceed with the project despite the explicit objections of local fishing communities?
E. Did the authorities attempt to obstruct the fisherfolk’s protest and memorandum handover on Hari Solidariti Nelayan (Fisherfolk Solidarity Day), 4 November 2019, by trying to deny them the use of a public space, imposing restrictive conditions, erecting a police barricade and despite permission given in the police letter denying entry to the state assembly venue?
Memorandum
The current trend of coastal reclamation projects as a development strategy in Malaysia is creating thousands of victims of development among vulnerable low-income coastal communities. Penang South Reclamation is an important test case for the defence of traditional fisherfolk’s human rights against the sea grab of the fisheries commons by state and business interests.
The deliberate erosion of fisheries rights for Penang and Malaysia’s fisherfolk and the implications for our national food security and cost of living poses a direct and monumental threat to the wellbeing of the bottom 40% of the population.
Two petitions to stop the Penang South Reclamation project have been signed by more than 250,000 supporters (see the change.org and rainforest rescue petitions). The numbers clearly demonstrate the groundswell of local, national and international support for these fisherfolk and for the protection of our marine ecosystems.
We have appealed to the prime minister of Malaysia and the chief minister of Penang to observe the precautionary principle for environmental protection and to stop/cancel the proposed project.
We call upon Suhakam to advise the Penang state government, developers, government officers and fisheries authorities to respect the fishing communities’ right to free, prior and informed consent and to conduct any consultations fairly and transparently with all legitimate representatives on board and observing mutually agreed due process.
Any attempt to undermine the Persatuan Nelayan Pulau Pinang’s (Penang Fisherfolk’s Assocation) collective position by any party through eg one-to-one negotiations and the offering of incentives or the exertion of undue pressure through mala fide acts such as intimidation, coercion or abuse of power in the removal of normal subsidies or use rights, obstruction of access to fisheries, arbitrary demotion or disqualification of any fisherfolk, undermining the right to freedom of association or de-platforming of the fisherfolk’s association in any manner should be investigated.
We appeal to Suhakam to ensure that local fishing communities are not disenfranchised of their rights to the fisheries commons which has been their source of livelihood for generations. To protect the human rights of the fisherfolk, we call upon Suhakam to conduct a full investigation into the plight of the Penang and Perak fisherfolk threatened by the proposed Penang South Reclamation project.
We also call upon political representatives, government, civil society and the public at large to recognise coastal reclamation as an environmental justice issue affecting tens of thousands of fisherfolk and their fishing communities and to support the fisherfolk’s rights by calling for the national proscription or ban on coastal reclamation proposals for urban development, as advised in the National Physical Plan 2020.