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Sarawak cultural performance
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Indigenous Malaysians Empowered to Protect Land

WASHINGTON, May 13 (OneWorld.net) - A landmark ruling by the Malaysian courts has granted indigenous tribes land rights that could help them stop deforestation and the expansion of palm oil plantations on their traditional terrains.

• The Malaysian Federal Court concluded last week that the indigenous people of Sarawak state, located on the Malaysian part of Borneo island, "have rights to land they use for hunting and gathering as well as land they use for growing food," reports the indigenous rights group Survival International. "Previously, the Sarawak government did not recognize tribal peoples' rights over their traditional land unless they could show that they had grown crops there." Previously without official rights to their land, local indigenous groups have struggled to protect the areas they depend on for survival from logging and palm oil companies. (See Survival International's full statement below.)

• According to the Borneo Resources Institute of Malaysia and the World Wildlife Fund in Indonesia, "land disputes [are] emerging as one of the biggest problems associated with palm oil," says the Associated Press (AP). Reporting on a two-day environmental summit on palm oil, AP notes: "Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's top two palm oil producers, have aggressively pushed to expand plantations amid a rising demand for biofuels, which are considered cleaner burning and cheaper than petrol." Palm oil is also used as a "vegetable oil" in consumer goods such as frozen fried foods and shampoo, and corporations have long been razing forests on the Southeast Asian island nations to make way for large plantations of the resource. "The situation is getting critical at the moment," said Kalyana Bujang, director of the Borneo Resources Institute of Malaysia, referring to the displacement of local communities at the hands of palm oil producers. "The communities are caught unaware. They don't know what to do, or where to go."

• Palm oil plantations are increasingly replacing some of the Earth's most biodiverse ecosystems, including rainforests, grasslands, and peat swamps in South America, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. Clearing these lands releases enormous amounts of greenhouse gases and poses a huge threat to dwindling plant and animal biodiversity. The establishment of palm oil plantations also forces small farmers and indigenous communities off of their traditional land, violating traditional and indigenous land rights. The workers employed on palm oil plantations face abuse, harsh working conditions, unfair pay, and exposure to toxic pesticides. To read more about the harmful effects of palm oil plantations, visit the Rainforest Action Network's campaign site, "The Problem with Palm Oil."

Landmark court ruling could help tribes stop deforestation and oil palm plantations

From: Survival International 

8 MAY 2009

A landmark ruling made by the Malaysian courts this week could allow tribes on the island of Borneo to stop logging and oil palm plantations destroying their forests.

The Malaysian Federal Court ruled on Tuesday that indigenous people in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, have rights to land they use for hunting and gathering as well as land they use for growing food. Previously, the Sarawak government did not recognise tribal peoples' rights over their traditional land unless they could show that they had grown crops there.

Penan, Sarawak, Malaysia.

© Robin Hanbury-Tenison/Survival 

The Penan and other tribes in Sarawak are desperately trying to stop logging and oil palm companies razing the forests they rely on for their survival.

The Sarawak government has, until now, required indigenous people to provide evidence that they have cultivated their land for many years before it will recognize their rights. This has made it impossible for the Penan, who are hunter-gatherers and grow very little of their food, to protect their land.

The Sarawak state government has leased the Penan's land out to logging and oil palm companies without consulting the tribe. The destruction of their forests scares away the animals they hunt, pollutes the rivers and kills the fish, so that many Penan have real difficulty finding food.

Tribes in Sarawak have filed around 200 land rights cases, but most are facing long delays in the court system.

Survival campaigner Miriam Ross has recently visited the Penan, and is available for interview.









Article:  HERE