Even arguments based on science, like the function of rainforests as carbon sinks and water catchment areas, carry little weight when there's money to be made in the short term. What the seminar did was to look beyond the logs and at the hidden cash. The rainforest is a treasure trove around which numerous industries can be established - their total value is worth more than just timber in the long run. It holds vast eco-sport, tourism, education and entertainment potential. It harbours plant and animal DNA bearing possibilities of breakthroughs in medicine and agriculture.
Conservation only makes sense, given the nation's thrust towards a knowledge-based economy.
As repeated by several speakers during the seminar, knowledge of the rainforest will be the basis of Malaysia's k-economy. There are even plans for a BioValley, akin to the Multimedia Super Corridor, where homegrown biotech companies can flourish, supported by universities and research institutes. Protecting such knowledge is therefore crucial and the Deputy Prime Minister said that laws on access to our bioresources are being drafted. If not, the spectre of pharmaceutical giants owning intellectual property rights over what grows in our own backyard is likely to happen. It is believed that prospecting by such firms has already begun quietly in the jungles.