Hornbill Unleashed

SARAWAK ELECTION MONITORING 2006

Confusion in Bareh and Magoh Forest allocated for Penan encorached by loggers

By Sahabat Alam Malaysia

Utusan Konsumer, December 2002, Vol 32 No. 12

2002-12-16 | In July 2002, to the delight of a nomadic community in Bareh and Magoh, the Forest Department responded favourable to their application letter for a community Forest Reserve in May. Favourably? Well, almost. Close to 5,000 ha were allocated to them and yes, logging operations were supposedly prohibited in these areas.However, the question on the legal status of the land remains unresolved until today. Then in October, SAM officers discovered that even this insignificant portion of land (by logging operation standards, that is) was said to have been encroached upon by the insatiable loggers.

MUCH has been said about the demand of the Penan community for Communal Forest Reserves (CFR) in areas adjacent to their respective villages. Looking at the various Sarawak land and forest laws, one can easily see that the best legal protection (although not the most ideal) that forest-dependent communities in Sarawak can receive for their customary forests is provided for by the Sarawak Forests Ordinance, which allows forested areas in the state to be gazetted into CFRs for the benefit of local communities.

Thus way since the 1980s, letter upon letter had been sent by various local communities to the relevant state authorities, requesting that their traditional territories be gazetted as CFRs. However hardly any received a positive reply. Some received no reply at all.

However, in July 2002, the nomadic community from the Bareh-Magoh area finally received an encouraging response from the Forest Department indicating the allocation of a specific section of forestland to the communities residing in the area and the prohibition of logging operations in this zone.

SAM certainly viewed the initiative of the State Government as a very positive move as well as an indication of its genuine concern on the socio-welfare of the nomadic Penan whose survival depends entirely on forest resources.

However there are still several issues that we need to examine.

Firstly, it appears to us that the legal status of the land still remains unclear. As long as the land is not gazetted as a CFR under the Forests Ordinance, legally, the allocation does not carry any weight for the people. All that the communities have now is a letter from the Forest Department stating that "the State Government has allocated an area of 5,000 hectares in the requested vicinity for the use of local communities as marked in the enclosed map. Logging operations are prohibited in the above said area."

Secondly, SAM has also discovered that the reality on the ground is way harsher. Recent reports from various nomadic groups from the area seem to indicate that logging activities are going on as usual in and around the Reserve. Thus this certainly defeats the purpose of such initiatives.

As a result of the continuous encroachment, the people have been extremely distressed. Representatives from various groups in the Bareh, Puak and Magoh areas had travelled all the way to Marudi to seek our assistance in conveying their desperate plea to the Forest Department and to all the other relevant authorities so that immediate steps will be taken to protect the Reserve from further logging operations.

The 5,000 ha land is actually being shared by three nomadic groups, led by Chief Guman Megut from the Magoh River, Chief Bujang Lawai from the Bareh River and Chief Tebaran Agus in Tepen and Puak Rivers.

We first received the report on the encroachment from Chief Guman Megut and two of his people, who had come all the way from Magoh to our office in Marudi in early October.

According to Chief Guman, one logging company had directed its agents to carry out logging within the upper Ketokep and Babui Mebing Rivers (upper tributaries of Magoh River) in early September. The people complained of water pollution and other environmental damages caused by the operations.

In late October, Chief Juperi Moyong and Chief Leyong Abit from two nomadic groups in the areas adjacent to the Bareh-Magoh Reserve reported that forest areas surrounding the Tanak Pepang and Kemanan Rivers (upper tributaries of Bareh Rivers) along