New publication details Iban's loss of NCR land

Penang-based environmental NGO Sahabat Alam Malaysia launched its publication ‘The Land We Lost: Native Customary Rights and Large Monocultures in Sarawak’ in George Town today.

SAM president Meenakshi Raman said the publication provides a critical analysis of how large monoculture plantations are responsible for large-scale deforestation in Sarawak, and the violations of the native customary rights (NCR) since the 1990s.

It contains two case studies on the Iban communities of Sungai Sebatuk, Batu Niah and Sungai Buri, Bakong, both in the Miri division, she added.

The document is available on SAM's website.

In conjunction with the launch, SAM also held a public forum with Iban community representatives from Sarawak.

Meenakshi said although the impact of logging on indigenous communities are also horrendous, this time around, monoculture plantations entail the actual loss of their NCR land.

“Their forests and smallholdings have been fully destroyed by land clearing activities,” she said.

“Today, many indigenous villages in rural Sarawak have had to source their potable water from rainwater, after their rivers have been polluted,” she lamented.

“Naturally, such destruction has also resulted in a sharp loss of income.”

Meenakshi said all these continue to be experienced by members of the Residents’ Association of Sungai Buri in Bakong and Rumah Lachi in Batu Niah, both in Miri Division, which were documented by the publication.

She said it is unlikely that such deforestation and violations of NCR can be resolved by any type of certification process.

Photo: SAM president Meenakshi Raman.

She recommended policy and legal reforms as the best way forward to resolve the long-standing issues.

“Although the federal government has announced that it will halt the expansion of new oil palm cultivation areas, this publication also emphasises that most licences for monoculture plantations had been issued between the late 1990’s and 2005, Meenakshi said.

“However, not all such licensed areas have been fully developed.

“Therefore, the publication urges the federal government to take the necessary actions to protect forests and NCR territories in licensed areas that have yet to be developed, including those involving oil palm cultivation,” she added. - Mkini