Penan People - Penan Resistance To Deforestation in Sarawak

Penan Resistance To Deforestation in Sarawak

The army and the police came to our blockade and threatened us and told us to take down our barricade. We said 'we are defending our land. It is very easy for you as soldiers and policemen. You are being paid. You have money in your pockets. You can buy what you need; rice and sugar. You have money in the bank. But for us, this forest is our money, this is our bank. This is the only place where we can find food'.'' (Penan spokesman, 1987)

The Penan came to national and international attention when they resisted logging operations in their home territories of the Baram, Limbang, Tutoh and Lawas regions of Sarawak. The Penan’s struggle began in the 1960s when the Indonesian and Malaysian governments opened up large areas of Borneo’s interior to commercial logging. In most cases, the largest and most lucrative logging concessions went to members of the island’s political and business elites. With an increase in the global demand for timber at the time, these consessionaries began to percure all marketable trees from their holdings. Since both the settled, semi-nomadic and nomadic Penan communities were and are reliant on forest produce, they were hit hard by the large scale logging operations that encroached on their traditionally inhabited territories. The logging caused the pollution of their water catchment areas with sediment displacement, the loss of many sago palms that form the staple carbohydrate of Penan diet, scarcity of wild boar, deer and other game, scarcity of fruit trees and plants used for traditional forest medicine, destruction of their burial sites and loss of rattan and other rare plant and animal species. For the forest people of Borneo, like other native tribes, such plants and animals are also viewed as sacred, as the embodiment of powerful spirits and deities. Thus, the Penan made numerous verbal and written complaints to the logging companies and local government officials. They argued that the logging companies were located on land given to the Penan in an earlier treaty, recognised by the Sarawak State Government, and were thus violating their Native Customary Rights. It was also claimed that logging plans were never discussed with the Penan before felling began. However, these complaints fell on deaf ears. Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing today the Penan and other indigenous communities such as the Iban, Kelabit and Kayan (collectively referred to as Dayak) have set up blockades in an attempt to halt logging operations on their land. These succeeded in many areas but the efforts were hard to sustain and ended in large scale clashes between the indigenous communities and the state backed logging companies, supported by the police and Malaysian army. In 1987, the state government passed the amendment S90B of the Forest Ordinance, which made the obstruction of traffic along any logging road in Sarawak a major offence. Under this law, The confrontations ended with several deaths, many injuries and large scale arrests of indigenous people. Many of the detained reported being beaten and humiliated while in custody. An independent Sarawakian organisation IDEAL documented such claims in a 2001 fact finding mission entitled "Not Development, but Theft".

However, confrontation with state authorities has not been the only source of conflict for the Penan or the Dayaks. In the late 1990s, in neighboring Kalimantan, the Indonesian government set aside millions of acres of forest for conversion into commercial rubber and palm oil plantations. Much of these areas have been traditionally occupied by indigenous groups. Crucially, in order to provide labour for such developments, the Indonesian government subsidised the relocation of unemployed laborers from other parts of Indonesia (particularly Java and Madura) to Kalimantan. As part of their contracted obligations, these settlers have participated in the clearing of forests. This has resulted in (increasingly) frequent and violent conflicts between the settlers and the Dayak population. Hundreds of people have been killed in these encounters and thousands more have been forced to live in refugee camps. Because the two warring factions have different racial and religious backgrounds, the international media has often reported this conflict as ethnic aminosity. Rather, it is the pursuit of resource wealth by powerful governments and businesses, despite strong resistance by local residents, which has caused the fighting.

In the mid 1980s, when the plight of the Penan had been exposed on the world stage, the Sarawak State Government began making many promises to the Penan in an attempt to quell international protests and embarressment. Among these were the promise of infrastructure facilities (for those who had been forced to resettle in government encampments due to deforestation) and the Magoh Biosphere Reserve. Magoh Biosphere Reserve is an environmental ‘no intrusion’ zone introduced by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud in 1990. However, in reality, this reserve has only ‘proposed boundaries’ within which logging companies continue to fell the forest.

The Penan explicitly outlined their wants and requirements to the Sarawak State Government of Abdul Taib Mahmud in the 2002 Long Sayan Declaration. The confrontation between the Penan and Sarawak State Government has continued to the present day. Most recently the blockade setup by the Penan community of Long Benali was forcefully dismantled on 4 April 2007 by the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC), with support from a special police force unit and overlooked by Samling Corporation employees. Samling Corporation had been granted a logging concession by the Malaysian Timber Certificate Council (MTCC) that included land traditionally inhabited by the Penan of Long Benali and despite their continued petitions against the concession.