The cumulative impacts of the project as a whole should be taken into account. If foreseen environmental impacts are severe and the mitigation measures inadequate, the EIA must be rejected and the project should not be allowed to commence. This is legally questionable and environmentally risky. The Sabah Government in allowing the logging to go on is making a mockery of the law and is undermining the EIA process. By allowing the logging to proceed without an EIA, the Sabah Government is completely disregarding the environmental impacts of the logging activities and is 'manipulating' the law.
Nothing is finalised yet.
In addition to that, Innoprise's claim that it had begun logging the area since 1998 raises another important question. The Memorandum of Understanding for the project was only signed in 1997 and an early agreement between the various joint-venture partners was signed in August 1999. The proposed project is situated in Sabah s biggest remaining block of continuous forest, sandwiched between two major conservation sites, the Danum Valley and the Maliau Basin. Both are classified as Class One Protection Areas allowing only scientific research and restricted activities such as sustainable ecotourism to take place in the area. The entire area, a world-renowned biodiversity hotspot, contains significant populations of rare animals and plants.