Indigenous communities on Borneo celebrate timber company’s withdrawal from their lands
In a major victory for Indigenous communities defending their lands, one of Malaysia’s largest timber companies has withdrawn several of its timber concessions from the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme. The move came after persistent resistance from local villages and civil society groups in Sarawak, Malaysia, and is a landmark for conservation on the island of Borneo.
Indigenous residents have long challenged the Samling timber company’s failure to obtain free, prior, and informed consent for logging, as well as its encroachment into lands that Indigenous communities manage under customary law. During a February 13 meeting with village leaders, a Samling representative confirmed the company has abandoned logging in the area due to sustained opposition from communities and NGOs.
Photo by Fiona McAlpine/The Borneo Project
One of the organizations that fought for this win is SAVE Rivers, led for many years by 2019 Seacology Prize recipient Peter Kallang. Seacology honored Kallang for his work in leading a successful grassroots campaign to stop the construction of a mega-dam in Sarawak, which would have displaced thousands of Indigenous people and flooded crucial rainforests.
For years, Indigenous communities and civil society partners have exposed serious flaws in Malaysia’s timber certification process, which is intended to ensure that forests used for timber extraction are managed sustainably. They cite inadequate consultations, disregard for customary land rights, and lack of transparency about forest management. Approximately 70 community members from all around the Baram region attended a meeting on February 15 in Lepo’ Gah Tanjung Tepalit, a village long under threat from logging.
“We really hope this meeting will finally bring about positive change. I wanted to be here to show that whether certified or not certified, communities here have all suffered from logging activities,” said one community member who had travelled from the remote Penan village of Ba Data Bila to attend.
SAVE Rivers and other groups have worked with local communities to oppose logging, dams, and other threats to Borneo's rapidly disappearing forests. Photo by SAVE Rivers.
Borneo's dense forests support incredible biodiversity, but habitat loss from logging, palm oil cultivation, and other threats have put many species at risk.
Celine Lim, Managing Director of SAVE Rivers, said, “The crowd that gathered here today are eager to voice their grievances over systems that rob them of their Indigenous territories. They are jubilant that Samling withdrew their forests from the logging certification system. What communities now want is a full recognition of their territories, and to stop having to perpetually deal with outsiders that claim to have operational rights.”
Communities and NGOs are calling on the Sarawak government to return the land to indigenous communities, uphold Indigenous rights, and prevent other companies from entering Indigenous territories without the full consent of communities. Uding, a Kenyah-speaking resident of Lepo’ Gah Tanjung Tepalit, told SAVE Rivers, “If only I were able to speak in Malay, I would go and tell them we just do not want any logging activities in our forests any more. We just want it to stop.”