Logging protests spread in Borneo as nomads block roads

24 August 2009
Protests by the Penan tribe in Bor­neo have esca­lat­ed, with twelve vil­lages com­ing togeth­er to mount new road block­ades against the log­ging and plan­ta­tion com­pa­nies that are destroy­ing their rain­for­est.

Jour­nal­ists cov­er­ing at the block­ades were inter­cept­ed by police with machine­guns and tak­en away for ques­tion­ing.

Hun­dreds of Penan have blocked roads at three new loca­tions in the inte­ri­or of Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Bor­neo. The pro­tes­tors are demand­ing an end to log­ging and plan­ta­tions on their land with­out their con­sent, and recog­ni­tion of their land own­er­ship rights.

BBC TV pre­sen­ter Bruce Par­ry vis­it­ed the Penan for his hit series, ‘Tribe’. One Penan told him, ‘It’s not true that we Penan do not want progress. Not the ‘progress’ where log­ging com­pa­nies move on to the land. What we want is real progress. What we need is land rights first of all.’

The new protests come only weeks after block­ades by two near­by Penan vil­lages. The destruc­tion of their for­est robs the hunter-gath­er­er Penan of the ani­mals and plants they eat and pol­lutes the rivers they fish in. With­out the for­est, many Penan have dif­fi­cul­ty feed­ing their fam­i­lies.

The Penan have been strug­gling for more than twen­ty years against the log­ging com­pa­nies that oper­ate on their land with full gov­ern­ment back­ing. In areas where the valu­able trees have been cut down, the com­pa­nies are clear­ing the for­est com­plete­ly to make way for oil palm plan­ta­tions.

The block­ades are aimed at forc­ing the Malaysian tim­ber com­pa­nies Sam­ling, Inter­hill, Rim­bunan Hijau and KTS to end their activ­i­ties on the Penan’s land with­out the tribe’s con­sent. One of the ear­li­er block­ades, mount­ed in June at the set­tle­ment of Ba Marong, result­ed in the with­draw­al of a KTS sub­sidiary from the area – but the Penan fear that the log­gers may return.

In anoth­er Penan area, the noto­ri­ous com­pa­ny Sam­ling is advanc­ing on an area of the tribe’s for­est that has nev­er been logged before. Observers say that the road built by the com­pa­ny is like­ly to reach the remote Ba Jawi area with­in weeks.

Survival’s direc­tor Stephen Cor­ry said today, ‘The log­ging and plan­ta­tion com­pa­nies are pre­vent­ing the Penan from being able to feed their chil­dren. It’s no won­der they’re tak­ing to the bar­ri­cades. Penan in some areas are cur­rent­ly receiv­ing food aid – before the log­gers arrived, they would nev­er have need­ed such hand-outs. The Malaysian gov­ern­ment must rec­og­nize that this land is theirs and stops sanc­tion­ing its destruc­tion.’