Borneo's Customary Land Claims at Risk
by Wick Pancoast and Harlan Thompson
Berkeley Borneo Project

MALAYSIA - In 1998, Sarawak's Ministry of Resource Planning proposed reclassifying large tracts of rainforest land as "Protected Forests" and "Forest Reserves." The actual intention, however, was not to protect these forests, but rather to encourage commercial logging operations and palm-oil plantations.

Under the proposed Forest Ordinance, indigenous communities whose ancestral lands lie within the reclassified areas would lose all pre-existing customary land rights. Access to indigenous communities would be limited to permit-holders or forbidden altogether. Last year, three quarters of a million acres of forest in the Baram River basin were proposed for conversion to Protected Forest and Forest Reserve.

Under the ordinance, indigenous communities will have 60 days to submit a claim of land rights. If a community misses the 60-day grace period, all pre-existing land claims will be permanently extinguished.

Many communities in remote parts of the interior have no access to daily newspapers and are far from the District Offices where such notifications are made public. Further, it is hard for many indigenous people to read the maps, understand the complex legal terminology and afford the necessary transportation required to file their claims.

On a recent fact-finding trip, members of the Borneo Project met with Penan community leaders whose ancestral land claims would be affected. Because many Penan live semi-nomadic lifestyles and few are literate, they are especially vulnerable.

In March 1998, a 600,000-acre Forest Reserve was proposed for a Penan area with14 villages. The Sarawak Penan Association insists that the government never told the Penan that their title was about to be extinguished. Had it not been for the advocacy group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), the Penan would never have known of the threat to their land.

In this case, however, the Penan were prepared. In 1997, representatives from 19 contiguous Penan villages had attended a mapping workshop supported by SAM, The Borneo Resources Institute and The Borneo Project. At this workshop, they mapped their traditional watersheds and settled all boundary disputes between Penan communities The maps were endorsed by each community headman and later by all the residents of each village.

When the proposed Forest Reserve was announced, the affected communities each submitted copies of the maps and petitions stating their ancestral claims. According to SAM staff, the officials at the District Office were stunned when they received this stack of documents within the 60-day period.

So far, there has been no official response to the Penan's claims. The communities hope that their maps and petitions will force the government to both redraw the Forest Reserve and recognize their land claims. Meanwhile, logging continues where communities have not yet mapped their lands. These areas remain vulnerable.

What You Can Do: Please send polite letters to YAB Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamed, Prime Minister of Malaysia [Jalan Dato Onn, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, fax: +60 32 306 540] and YAB Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud Chief Minister of Sarawak [Tingkat 14, Wisma Bapa, Malaysia: Petra Jaya 93502 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, fax: +60 82 440 506]. Ask for the recognition of the Native Customary Rights of the indigenous peoples of Sarawak to their lands, forests and resources. Also ask that no Forest Reserves and Protected Forest be proposed without proper notification and consent from affected communities.

Borneo Visitors Arrive in Berkeley
Last October, The Borneo Project hosted three representatives from Uma Bawang, a village in the rainforest of Sarawak, Malaysia. The visit coincided with the presentation of the Condé Nast Traveler Environmental Award, bestowed this year on Jok Jau Evong, Uma Bawang's outspoken leader.

Ironically, Jok was unable to receive the award in person because his passport was revoked by the Malaysian government in 1993 for trying to attend an indigenous people's conference. Because of these political difficulties, we've chosen not to mention the recent delegates by name.

While in California, the Uma Bawang leaders had the opportunity to share their experiences and learn from groups doing similar work around the world. For nearly two decades, the Uma Bawang community has been fighting logging and plantation development in innovative ways, with little contact with other groups pursuing similar goals around the world.

During their stay, the delegates attended the Indigenous Peoples Day Powwow in Berkeley and learned of the struggles of Native Americans. They told their own story at a number of slide show presentations in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

Several days were spent working with mapping experts at the University of California at Berkeley, where the delegation discovered new techniques from similar mapping projects around the world, including an impressive atlas created by the Maya people in Belize.

For the past four years, the Borneo Project has helped local mappers to document ancestral lands for legal claims and community-based resource management. While in the US, the delegation investigated computerized mapping systems which may help compile those maps.

Another project focus was on handicraft development. For villages like Uma Bawang, deforestation has made it difficult to rely entirely on the forest for subsistence needs, forcing villagers to seek employment in town. In response, the Uma Bawang Women's Association has joined with several neighboring communities to promote craft development so that families can stay in the village and still earn funds to pay for school, seeds and other expenses. The delegation compared notes with ethnic art stores and fair-trade buyers, distributors and retailers. Establishing direct-market access in North America assures the Borneo artisans a dependable source of income to assist their families.

Finally, the Borneo Project helped lay the groundwork for a new micro-hydro electrification project to generate power from local streams. The villages wish to rid themselves of the costly and polluting diesel generators now used to light longhouses and operate small power tools. New College engineering student Mark Bronez will be traveling to Borneo to help build the powerplant in Belaga, near site of the financially troubled Bakun Dam.

What You Can Do: Uma Bawang crafts will soon be available through Global Exchange outlets. (Check them out an our page on the Earth Island website - www.earthisland.org.) Checks earmarked to support the microhydro project can be sent to the Borneo Project, 1916 A Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA 94703 USA, (510) 705-8987, fax: (510) 705-8988, borneo@earthisland.org.