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 Penan sue Samling and Sarawak Government to regain Land RightsBy BMF BMF 2007-07-05 | PRESS STATEMENT: The Penan community of Long Lamai on the upper reaches of the Baram River in the Malaysian state of Sarawak has filed a new court case against the Sarawak state government and the Malaysian logging giant Samling in order to save their unique mountain rainforests in the heart of Borneo from logging. In the representative action case, five plaintiffs are claiming Native Customary Rights (NCR) to 31,000 hectares of primary rainforest and farmlands in the name of the community of Long Lamai. Long Lamai is one of the biggest and oldest settlements of the Eastern Penan in Sarawak. In 1955, the nomadic Penan group of the area under headman Belare Jabu was encouraged by the British colonial administration to settle at the current village site on the Balong River close to the Indonesian border. Today, the Penan are living from farming, but still depend on the forest for hunting and for collecting various forest products. "The plaintiffs and their ancestors had been living as nomads roaming their Tana Pengurip or Native Customary Rights Land since time immemorial", according to the Penan
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