For thousands of years, the indigenous people of Borneo have relied on the rainforest for their daily necessities, including fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants, meat, fish, firewood, construction materials, and clean water. They have maintained vital cultural ties to the forests, which serve as the focal point for traditional ceremonies. Over generations they have developed impressive knowledge of biological diversity in these globally important and largely undocumented ecosystems.
Over the past thirty years, the island of Borneo has been the world’s largest exporter of tropical wood. Logging is the biggest moneymaker for state governments in both Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo. Despite declarations by these governments that their forest management is sustainable, many scientists and citizens counter that the forests are being depleted far faster than they can re-grow. A typical logging operation in Borneo removes all trees over 60cm in diameter. In order to reach all the largest trees, bulldozers make new roads and access trails in every direction. This destroys the local hydrology (water drainage patterns), as roads are often built directly over streams, with no culverts. Roads are also built on steep slopes on fragile soils, causing entire hillsides to collapse. With the thin layer of fertile topsoil destroyed, and the shade of the canopy gone, many rainforest tree and plant species do not regenerate well. The destruction of the ecosystems has also assaulted the way of life of indigenous communities in and around the forests.
The rights of indigenous people to manage their native customary lands are stated vaguely in national-level laws of both Malaysia and Indonesia. However, both governments grant logging concessions without regard to indigenous peoples’ rights. Examples of indigenous rights violations include:
~Indigenous communities are completely left out of the planning system, and they are told only rarely when or where a logging operation will begin. There is no implementation of the internationally recognized right to “Free Prior Informed Consent” of indigenous peoples over land and resource use.
~They receive little to no financial compensation from logging that occurs on their land.
~The logging companies destroy cemeteries, fruit plantations, farms, and other areas of cultural and economic significance.
~Although Malaysian law permits local villages to find and use products from the forest, such as rattan and fruit, logging companies often bar people from entering their areas of operation.
~Once logging is complete there are often few valuable natural resources left.
~Logging has increased the amount of silt in streams and devastated fish stocks and freshwater ecology.
~Hunting, trapping and fishing (often with poison or dynamite) by logging company employees have reduced wildlife populations.
All of these pressing problems are linked to an overarching challenge for the indigenous communities: How to reclaim control over their traditional lands?
Recognizing the threat to indigenous rights by the Malaysian authorities, several environmental and civil society activist groups, including Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) (Friends of the Earth Malaysia), the Borneo Resources Institute (BRIMAS), and the Borneo Project, have taken up the cause.
Several strategies are being employed to combat unrestrained logging in this corner of the globe. Since 1987, up to 200 natives at a time have been involved in organizing peaceful roadblocks in an effort to stop logging companies from accessing forests. In response to this, the Malaysian government enacted a statute under which any individual demonstrating in a roadblock could receive 2 years in prison and a fine of RM$6000. These blockades continue today. SAM has provided legal assistance to a number of natives who have been arrested due to the setting up of these roadblocks.
In 1995, working in conjunction with the Borneo Project and SAM, indigenous communities began a practice of community mapping, in which villagers generate maps of their traditional boundaries and land used. In this way, they hope to show Malaysian authorities exactly what land is being used and how; they currently have no other means of proving this crucial information to outsiders.
At the outset of this effort, the Borneo Project and SAM held workshops that aimed to educate the villagers on their rights, and outline simple community mapping techniques. Initial mapping techniques were fairly unsophisticated, which occasionally resulted in substantial doubt on the part of government as to the accuracy of the maps. Since then, mapping techniques have become more sophisticated and cutting edge, utilizing Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).These maps are then taken to court as evidence to have lands excluded from industrial plans, or for a redress of grievances. SAM and BRIMAS now support mapping by over 100 communities across Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Their work has inspired community mapping in neighboring Sabah as well as Indonesian Kalimantan.
Indigenous land rights defenders won a major victory in 2001, when a Sarawak High Court found a paper plantation company guilty of violating native customary rights to their land, based on evidence presented by the maps generated by Iban community members. This set a precedent for the legitimacy of the maps in court.
However, six months after this landmark decision, the Malaysian government passed a statute under which map making could only be conducted by government approved cartographers. Violators could receive fines and prison sentences of up to three years. Nevertheless, SAM and the Borneo Project have continued to support communities in their mapping efforts.
In July 2005, the appellate court reversed the 2001 decision, stating that there was no sufficient evidence to prove native customary rights based on the facts of this case. However, the appellate court also upheld the law as stated in other high court decisions (in relation to native customary rights) wherein that the proprietary interest of the natives in their customary and ancestral lands is an interest in and to the land and “the radical title of the sovereign becomes encumbered with such native rights in respect of the aboriginal land.” It also held that the common feature which forms the basis of the claim for native customary rights is the continuous occupation of land, and these rights can only be extinguished in accordance with the laws and after the payment of compensation.
The Iban community has appealed their case to the federal level. When their court date is set, they will travel to the Malaysian capitol, Kuala Lampur, and have their case heard for the final time. This will be a landmark case in any event, setting precedent for years to come on the issue of indigenous land rights.
Whatever the outcome of the trial may be, the indigenous land rights activists remained resolved in their quest to protect their forests and ways of life. Iban headman Nor Anak Nyawai, reports that he will take their grievances “all the way to Kofi Annan, if I have to.”