KOTA KINABALU: Eleven non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are seeking United Nations help to clarify and clear the air on legal issues over the Sabah government's Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) for carbon credit trading.

       The groups involving four Sabah-based NGOs as well as national and regional groups have sent a letter to the UN to look into various aspects of the deal that allegedly ran afoul of international standards and laws among others.

       The groups include PACOS Trust, Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS, Indigenous Peoples’ Network of Malaysia), Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), and International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), as well as local and international civil society and conservation allies, Borneo Futures, Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP), South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP), WWF Malaysia, and the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL).

       Among the issues being sought from the UN was a clarification that it is not involved in the deal as the agreement's language suggested that "United Nations" through its agencies were involved in the development of the NCA or overseeing the delivery of rights or sustainable development commitments.

       "The UN (or its agency) should make it clear to the people of the state," the NGOs said in a statement Tuesday (March 8).

       Among the language used in the agreement that the parties under NCA "is working under United Nations’ treaties and mechanisms" which the NGOs believe was confusing and false.

       The agreement also states that it will comply with Kyoto Protocol (which was replaced by the Paris Agreement), and that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an instrument connected with carbon trading, suggesting the NCA was being developed and overseen by UN bodies.

       The groups also pointed out that the NCA, which not once mentions the existence of Indigenous Peoples or Native Customary Rights, instead refers to the role of the UN 12 times and its SDGs no less than 18 times.

       The NGOs expressed their concern that this language may mislead Sabahans to believe they “can rely on UN's involvement’ and standards to ensure its success.

       Since the NCA will only have financial value if the international community has confidence in its technical quality, the NGOs in their letter also asked that the UN Special Rapporteurs to confirm “that carbon credit certification requires standards of transparency, due diligence and governance of the kind referenced in Sabah government policy and not reflected in the NCA process thus far”.

       Similarly, they also wanted the UN's Special Rapporteur to state clearly the rights of indigenous peoples to be recognised under the country's laws for Native Customary Rights.

       “We are taking this issue to the United Nations because for some reason those behind the NCA are still claiming that they have successfully become the legal rights holders of all carbon and life in these forests at the secret stroke of a pen.

       "There is nothing that the indigenous peoples of Sabah can do about it for one hundred years”, said Anne Lasimbang of PACOS Trust.

       “Just because you are a politician elected by indigenous voters in one constituency does not mean that communities across Sabah have given their free prior and informed consent to giving up their rights to use the forest to meet their wellbeing needs”, Beverly Joeman of CSO Platform for Reform said.