Penan communities set up blockade in bid to stop logging activities

 

Several Penan communities in the Middle Baram area in Sarawak have set up a blockade to stop alleged encroachment of their native customary land (NCR land) by a logging company, according to an NGO.

The group Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF) said yesterday that the community has struggled with the logging activities in their NCR land by Samling Group for more than two months since the first trees were cut in late August.

It said this is the second blockade in the Baram region against the timber conglomerate in a month, which underscores the lack of community consent towards the logging activities.

“We request Samling to leave immediately and not to be given any timber certification in our area.

“We erected a blockade to prevent Samling from further encroaching into the NCR land of Long Pakan.

“We are not happy when the company continues to work because the forest will vanish, forest products are difficult to find such as sago, rattan, medicines, the game is also difficult to hunt and the polluted water and soil erosion cause the fish to die,” the Swiss-based environmental group quoted Long Pakan village chief Pada Jutang as saying.

Long Pakan village chief Pada Jutang posing for a photo with a police report he lodged against Samling Group over allegations of NCR land encroachment

BMF claimed that the Long Pakan villagers saw the first trees being cut by Samling Group in late August, comprising 109 logs at Ba Nyepangah.

Pada Jutang then travelled to Long Lama to lodge a police report against the logging activities and while village elders erected a blockade at Ba Nyepangah.

“Since Sept 22, the blockade has been dismantled and reinstalled various times. The villagers and Samling currently face a standoff at the blockade site. Village head Pada Jutang travelled to Long Lama to lodge a second police report on Oct 5,” it said.

BMF said the move followed another blockade set up by the Penan community in Long Ajeng in the Upper Baram area since September, also to prevent alleged encroachment since March by Samling Group, through dialogue, letters to the authorities and a police report.

“Nevertheless, the company continued the timber extraction and as a result, the villages set up a blockade in September that brought the logging activities to a standstill,” it added.

Malaysiakini has contacted the Samling Group for comment.

Previously, in response to BMF’s earlier claims of encroachment of NCR land in Long Ajeng, Samling had said it has a permit from the Forest Department of Sarawak to carry out logging activities in the area.

In addition, it said it solicits consent from the village head before entering any area to harvest timber and has obtained written consents from the village heads of Long Selaan and Ba Buboi for logging activities in the Upper Baram.

“We strongly dispute any accusation of ‘encroachment’ into primaeval forests as we have obtained the consent of the representatives of the Long Selaan and Ba Buboi villages of the area.

“This can be attested to by the fact that the village heads have each lodged police reports disclaiming the allegations made by the Penan protestors, and in fact have accused the Penan protesters of encroaching on their ancestral land.

“According to the police report lodged by Peter Tingang Lalo, who is the village head of Long Selaan, the area concerned is under the jurisdiction Long Selaan, while the group of Penan who had erected the blockade are actually from Ba Ajeng, Ba Muong and Ba Sebatu, which are located a considerable distance from where the harvesting is actually taking place,” Samling Group said in a statement on Sept 29.

It said the Sarawak government excises NCR lands out of areas that have been licensed for logging. Any claims of NCR land outside of those identified by the Sarawak Land and Survey Department must first be verified before they can be officially acknowledged as such.

“Thus, to say that we are encroaching on Penan traditional territory is untrue in more than one sense. Firstly, we have the written consent of village heads of the area to carry out harvesting activities, and secondly, the areas concerned are not classified NCR lands,” the Samling Group added. - Mkini