No luxury hotel at the expense of the rainforest!
Picture: Construction site of the Novotel Interhill hotel in Kuching, Sarawak (February 2009)
Europe's leading hotel group, ACCOR, ought to withdraw from the controversial NOVOTEL INTERHILL hotel project in Sarawak (Malaysia). This is what the Bruno Manser Fund is demanding in a letter to ACCOR CEO, Gilles Pélisson, published today. According to the ACCOR plans, the 4.5-star hotel in the Sarawak capital of Kuching, which is currently under construction, will offer 388 hotel rooms over a total of 23 stories. It is being implemented jointly with the Malaysian tropical timber company, Interhill.
"Interhill has been logging Sarawak's tropical rainforest since the end of the 1980s and bears decisive responsibility for the ongoing destruction of the very basis of the Penan's existence", said Lukas Straumann, Director of the Bruno Manser Fund. "We are shocked by ACCOR's cooperation with Interhill, since it is completely at odds with ACCOR's ecological and social standards."
The Bruno Manser Fund states that the Penan have been protesting against the Interhill logging company since the end of the 1980s by setting up blockades on logging roads. Interhill is operating with a timber concession for 55'000 hectares of tropical forest. According to Penan sources, Interhill has had the Penan intimidated by armed thugs on various occasions for purposes of asserting its interests vis-à-vis the local communities. The Malaysian police are currently investigating alleged cases of sexual abuse of Penan women by Interhill workers in Sarawak's Middle Baram region.
With 150,000 employees and annual sales of EUR 7.7 billion (2008), ACCOR is Europe's leading hotel provider. The membership of the ACCOR Board of Directors also includes a former top politician from Germany, namely the one-time Finance Minister, Theo Waigel. ACCOR operates 47 hotels in Switzerland, including six NOVOTELs in Zurich, Berne, Geneva and Lausanne. Since February 2008, major Swiss bank Credit Suisse has held a share package of 5.08 percent in ACCOR.
(23 February 2009)