Borneo’s indigenous people have erected new blockades against logging and sand mining activities on their native lands. Since March 27, 2002 many Sarawak indigenous groups, including the Penan, Kayan, and Kenyah, have erected barricades to prevent the movement of logging and mining vehicles. It is the first time that these indigenous communities have come together drawing national and worldwide attention to their plight.
Wooden barricades have been placed at strategic points: on a road used by Interhill Logging and Samling companies. In early April, the companies signed agreements with different Penan communities, but the companies did not comply and the Penan have re-erected the blockades. Recently, a timber camp manager in Sugai Apoh, became violent and verbally abusive towards the Kayan community, who had built a blockade on the road leading to the camp. Following traditional practice, the Kayan arrested the manager and kept him in custody in the long house. As a consequence, 31 Kayan community members were remanded by the police; most have since been released while others are still being questioned about this incident.
The Penan, a nomadic hunter-gatherer group living in Sarawak (Federation of Malaysia) has long been suffering the consequences of logging and mining activities on their native lands. The peaceful existence of the Penan was shattered in the mid 1980s, when the Malaysian government discovered the economic potential of exporting Sarawak’s most exploitable resource: tropical hardwood. In two decades the logging companies have imposed a devastating blow to the natural environment of the Penan people. The invasion and destruction of the forest has brought devastating cultural consequences. Recent numbers show that no more than 300 of the roughly 7,000 Penan have been able to maintain their traditional nomadic lifestyles.
The Sarawak State Government has also not kept its promise to provide fair compensation and financial assistance for relocation purposes. The indigenous people are forced to live in dreadful conditions with no proper housing facilities, healthcare and education services, or any other basic living necessities. The Penan are demanding that all the logging, plantation, and mining activities on their land be halted and that all future development plans be discussed with them. They will keep the blockades in place until the companies meet their demands-which include recognition of their rights to the customary land, fair compensations, and improvement of their living conditions.
