London, UK - 6 April 2009

Survival International campaigner Miriam Ross, has just returned from a trip to the Borneo rainforests of Sarawak state to investigate the plight of the hunter-gatherer Penan tribe, who are fighting to stop logging, oil palm plantations and hydroelectric dams destroying their last remaining forests.

Ross says, ‘It was terrifying to see the devastation of the Penan’s land, and all the more so to know how quickly it is happening. I went to Penan communities where the loggers have taken so much of the forest that the animals have gone and the Penan have real difficulty finding food.

‘Where the forests have already been logged to death, they are being replaced with oil palm plantations for biofuels and other uses. Oil palm is even worse for the Penan than the logging, because the plantations leave no space for them to hunt or gather. Their way of life becomes impossible.

‘And this is not all. A series of twelve huge hydroelectric dams is planned for Sarawak, and will submerge the villages of Penan and other indigenous people. The first dam is already under construction, and the Penan in the area have been told they have to leave.

‘The Penan have spent years trying to prevent the devastation of their land and their lives by mounting road blockades. But they say, ‘Our voices are small compared to the government and the companies.’ They want help to make the Malaysian government listen to them before it is too late.’

One Penan man told Ross, ‘The forest is like a bank for us. We’re not like the people in the towns who have money and can buy things. The forest is our life. If we lose it and everything it gives us, we will die.’

Asked by ECOCLUB.com "if Tourism is viewed as another threat for the Penan, or as a possible solution if community-owned / based", Myriam Ross replied: "I would not say tourism was a threat to the Penan. Some Penan communities do receive tourists, and welcome the income they bring. Other communities are keen to set up their own community-based tourism projects. The solution, however, has to be recognition of the Penan's rights to ownership and use of their land, and an end to logging, oil palm plantations, dam construction and any other development on their land without their free, prior and informed consent."

Related:
http://www.survival-international.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Manser

Update: 8 May 2009

According to Survival International, a landmark ruling made by the Malaysian courts this week could allow tribes on the island of Borneo to stop logging and oil palm plantations destroying their forests.

The Malaysian Federal Court ruled on Tuesday 5 May 2009 that indigenous people in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, have rights to land they use for hunting and gathering as well as land they use for growing food. Previously, the Sarawak government did not recognise tribal peoples' rights over their traditional land unless they could show that they had grown crops there.