The cancellation of a high-profile, Indigenous-led conservation project in Sarawak has cast doubt over the future of the heavily-logged Malaysian state’s last patch of intact primary forest.
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Forest Department Sarawak (FDS) announced the termination of the Upper Baram Forest Area (UBFA) project – also known as the Baram Peace Park – on 10 October, due to “ongoing challenges and disruptions in project implementation.”
The UBFA’s suspension comes four months after non-government organisations (NGOs) that helped create the project sounded the alarm on logging activity in Ba Data Bila, territory inhabited by the Indigenous Penan people within the UBFA.
The forestry agency’s director Hamden Mohamad said in a statement last week that the project had encountered “interference” from local and international NGOs, which has led to “distrust and the spread of misleading information among local communities,” and that the project would be seeking alternative sources of funding.
FDS said in a statement that it had terminated the project so that it would be disassociated from Swiss Indigenous rights NGO Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) as a donor “who thinks they have the right to dictate to the Sarawak state government what to do since they provided the measly funds of US$150,000.”
Initiated only last year, the forest conservation project consists of 283,500 hectares (ha) of customary homelands for Indigenous groups, past and current timber and oil palm concessions, and a 79,000-ha patch of primary forest that is home to 39 rare, threatened or endangered species.
This project, which has been billed as worth US$1.4 million, was borne out of a partnership between sustainable forestry management group International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), the Japanese government, the city of Basel in Switzerland and civil society groups including Kuching-based Save Rivers and BMF.
UBFA is seen as critical to Malaysia achieving climate and forest protection goals, and its inception a rare victory for Indigenous rights in the country.
Hamden said that since the project’s creation, the forestry department has faced letters of complaint to high-level officials and “damaging” articles containing “unsubstantiated allegations” made against the Sarawak government and ITTO without consulting project partners.
NGO members of the UBFA project steering committee sent letters to ITTO and FDS earlier this year after complaints were made by local communities that Ba Data Bila, a biodiverse forested area within the UBPA, had been extensively logged. A petition of appeal to the Sarawak government drew 500 signatures.
Sarawak’s forestry agency responded to a media release published by BMF by denying that “massive logging” had occurred in Ba Data Bila, and said the area was being developed to provide basic amenities and roads with the consent of the Penan people. Hamden told Borneo Post Online that the logging firm had been welcomed “with open arms” by local communities.
In a statement last week, Save Rivers said that the deforestation had occurred after Borneoland Timber Resources, a timber company owned by Hii King Chiong, a Sarawakian businessman with close ties to Sarawak Premier Abang Johari, had been secretly granted a logging concession.
The concession was awarded to Borneoland after the Sarawak forestry department and ITTO “shifted the focus” of the UPBA from conservation to forest exploitation under the guise of sustainable forest management, Save Rivers said in a media statement.
The NGO noted that the concession does not appear to be certified, as is required for all long-term logging concessions in Sarawak.
Sarawak forestry’s legal officer, Mohamad Fuad bin Ahmad, told Eco-Business in an email that the timber licence had been issued in accordance with the law, and NGOs were informed of the license issuance at a recent project steering committee meeting.
Save Rivers claimed that FDS had axed the project following pressure from NGOs to release details on Borneoland’s operations, accusations which FDS has denied.
Save Rivers’ managing director, Celine Lim, said that communities and civil society have consistently been left out of the loop and their concerns regarding logging in the UBPA unanswered.
“We expected the project to prioritise the principles of free, prior, and informed consent, sustainable land management and self-determination. These guiding values, reaffirmed in a declaration by participating communities last year, are essential. However, we were disappointed by the stance of the Sarawak Forest Department.”
Over the past 20 years, Sarawak has lost more than a quarter of its forests, which Indigenous people in the region have historically depended on for their food, health, livelihoods and culture.
The cancellation of the UBFA comes as policymakers prepare to meet in Colombia for the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) on 21 October. Key targets for COP16 include implementing a commitment to conserve 30 per cent of the world’s lands and ocean by 2030, with Indigenous peoples included in how conserved areas are protected.
