The Global Fight to Save Sarawak Tropical Rainforests
12/1/95
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
THE GLOBAL FIGHT TO SAVE THE TROPICAL RAINFORESTS OF SARAWAK, MALAYSIA
WESTERN CANADA WILDERNESS COMMITTEE is asking the Malaysian and
Sarawak governments to:
recognize the customary land rights of the Penan people, based on
their traditional usage of land.
set aside an ecologically and culturally adequate homeland for
the Penan's sustainable use as a precedent for other indigenous
peoples of Sarawak.
ensure that the area of primary rainforest set aside is large
enough so that the natural ecosystems are self-sustaining.
WCWC is calling upon the Canadian Government to:
uphold the recent policy statement made by our Prime Minister,
Brian Mulroney, that all foreign aid must be linked to the human
rights records of applicant countries.
immediately suspend all bilateral aid to Malaysia in recognition
of the human rights abuses in Sarawak.
WCWC is asking all concerned Canadians to:
boycott travel to Malaysia as a personal expression of concern
regarding the treatment of Sarawak's indigenous peoples and
natural ecosystems.
Basic Statistics
* Sarawak comprises 48,250 sq. mi. (77,682 sq. km). It is
Malaysia's largest state (38% of the total area of Malaysia).
* Sarawak state has complete authority over forest resources.
Rights to Sarawak's extensive offshore oil fields rest with the
federal government. About 95% of the total oil revenues of Sarawak
flow to the federal government.
* Timber, after oil, is Sarawak's largest export. About 5% of the
Sarawak workforce is involved in logging.
* The Chief Minister of Sarawak is also the Minister of Forests.
He personally decides who is granted timber concessions. The
current Chief Minister and his uncle, the former Chief Minister,
currently control over 50% of the timber concessions in the state.
The Chief Minister, since he came to office in 1978, has amassed a
personal fortune (primarily from timber concessions) of an
estimated $4 billion US.
Global Significance of the Sarawak Issue
* Sarawak is part of the oldest, biologically-richest rainforest
on Earth - perhaps the world's oldest terrestrial ecosystem.
* The genetic repository of Sarawak dates back as much as 160 to
180 million years--much older than the Amazon Rainforest.
* Sarawak's rainforest has one of the world's highest rates of
endemism.
* Dependent upon Sarawak's remnant rainforest is one of the
world's last tribes of hunter-gatherer peoples--the Penan.
* Despite ecological and cultural richness, this area is being
logged at the fastest rate of logging in the world.
* Virtually every major conservation group in the world as well as
many grass-roots groups are involved in this issue. It is fair to
say that no tropical rainforest/indigenous rights issue has had a
higher global profile.
Peoples of the Sarawak Rainforest
* Sarawak's population is approximately 1,700,000 and about one
half of this population is indigenous, comprising 26 tribal
groups.
* Tribes such as the Iban, Kenyah, Kelabit and the semi-settled
Penan still depend on the forest for foods, medicines, building
materials and sustenance.
* Because of their still traditional lifestyle and their total
dependence upon the primary rainforest, the Penan have been much
more significantly impacted by logging activities than other
indigenous peoples.
* The government has actively pursued the "civilization" of the
Penan as a policy of modernization and integration of tribal
peoples. Of the 9,500 Penan in Sarawak today, about 9,000 have
been relocated into government resettlement camps. Even the
government admits that these Penan are only semi-settled in these
camps.
How much rainforest is left?
* Large-scale logging in Sarawak began in the 1950s and 1960s when
Japan made a strong entry into the local market for mixed light
hardwood (1952).
* Between 1963 and 1985 over 30% of the total forest area of
Sarawak was logged.
* In 1975 Sarawak's annual allowable cut (AAC) was 2.5 million m3.
* In 1990 the ITTO (International Tropical Trade Organization)
conducted a study of Sarawak forestry operations and recommended,
based on 1988 AAC figures of 12 million m3, that the cut should be
reduced to 9 million m3 in order to "sustain" the forest for
timber harvesting. At an AAC of 12 million m3 the ITTO estimated
that all intact primary rainforests will be logged in Sarawak by
the year 2000.
* The World Bank (1991) report on the Malaysian Forestry
Sub-Sector estimates logging rates at that time as four times the
sustainable yield.
* In 1990 Sarawak's AAC was 18.8 million cubic meters (remember:
the ITTO recommended a drop to 9 million m3!)
* The Sarawak State Government announced that its target harvest
for 1992 is 16.2 million cubic metres. The rate of cut since
January of 1992 has been 1.6 million m3 per month.
Impacts of Logging on the Forest and the Forest Peoples
* Although the government states that Sarawak's forests are being
selectively logged (about 29 out of 440 trees per hectare actually
being cut), many of the remaining trees and forest canopy are
damaged.
* The trees which are removed as the most commercially valuable
are also of great ecological and cultural value-
-the major fruit bearers which supply food for monkeys, hornbills
and wild pigs--the major protein sources for the Penan and other
Dayak peoples.
* The "holes" in the forest caused by logging create pockets of
second-growth which greatly inhibit travel and hunting by
blowpipes.
* Increased stream turbidity is attributed to logging: 40 to 60%
of the rivers in Sarawak are now degraded by heavy siltation.
Fish cannot survive because of siltation, the toxic latexes from
the detritus of bark and lianas in the water and loss of their
major food source-fruit dropping into rivers from trees above.
* In 30 years of intensive logging, the nomadic Penan people have
been pushed to the upper reaches of 3 watersheds (the Baram,
Limbang and Belaga).
Current Crisis: A Humanitarian Issue Requiring Immediate
Action
* Disregarded in their initial petitions and pleas to both the
state and federal governments, for the past 6 years, the Penan,
Kayan, Kenyan, Kelabit and Iban people have been peacefully
blockading logging roads in order to protect their homelands and
way of life. These peaceful protests have met with arrests,
imprisonment, and many cases of brutality.
* On February 5, 1992, the Sarawak State Government arrested
Anderson Mutang Urud and held him in custody for 28
days--eventually charging him under the Societies Act for
operating an unregistered society (SIPA - the Sarawak Indigenous
Peoples Alliance).
* In February of 1992, the government assisted in the dismantling
of the military dismantled the long standing blockade of 500 or
more Dayak tribes protecting one of the last remaining large
tracts of pristine rainforest in their homeland.
Common Arguments by Malaysian Officials and WCWC's Responses
What is being said: We must bring the Penan out of the jungle and
into the mainstream of development. It is our moral obligation.
Environmentalists want to sequester the Penan as living museums.
Response: This statement ignores the fact that the Penan have been
choosing technologies from the outside world for over a century yet
have chosen to save their forests and way of life. NGOs word-wide
support the Penan's right to choose their own way of life and the
Penan call for a United Nations Biosphere Reserve and for forestry
reserves which protect a full range of lifestyle options.
What is being said: The Penan and other natives are being
manipulated in their protests by outsiders.
Response: The Penan and other Dayak peoples had been independently
protesting logging in their homelands through political channels
prior to any foreign NGOs hearing of this issue.
What is being said: There are only about 300 Nomadic Penan--not
enough to worry about.
Response: The 9,000 "semi-settled" Penan and 220,000 other native
people of Sarawak also depend on the forest for foods, medicines,
building materials and sustenance. The nomadic Penan are the
symbol in a much wider cause--the rights of people to choose a
sustainable lifestyle (especially indigenous people still occupying
their traditional homelands) and the need, if we are truly
committed to occupying this planet in an ecologically sustainable
way, to set aside from industrial development large areas of
primary ecosystems as genetic reservoirs and ecological controls.
What is being said: We must log Sarawak's forest to develop the
state of Sarawak and our nation.
Response: Very little of Sarawak's vast timber resource wealth
returns to the local people. The Chief Minister of Sarawak has
amassed a personal fortune estimated at $4 billion (US) while most
native villages go without basic services and the World Bank is
asked to build roads.
What is being said: The native people themselves, not commercial
logging operations, are destroying the forest through slash and
burn rice cultivation.
Response: In 1985 in Sarawak, shifting agriculture destroyed at
most 18,000 hectares of primary forest (compared to industrial
logging of 270,000 hectares in the same year). Most destructive
slash and burn activities are not the result of traditional methods
by traditional swidden agriculturalists but the recent attempts of
displaced/relocated peoples to provide a livelihood for themselves
on an inadequately small land base.
What is being said: The Federal Government has no authority of
influence over State Forestry Practices according to the Malaysian
Constitution.
Response: This argument ignores the fact that 95% of Sarawak's oil
revenues flow to the Federal Government. An "oil revenue for
protected forest" swap by the Federal Government is entirely
feasible.
What is being said: Too many people (government estimate of
50,000) depend on logging-related jobs, therefore we cannot stop
logging.
Response: Even the ITTO predicted that at the 1988 rate of
cut (13 million m3) the intact, primary forests would be gone
within about 10 years. The current rate of cut based on satellite
data suggests a much reduced time frame for jobs. With over 85% of
Sarawak's logs being exported raw (i.e., with no secondary
processing) the jobs argument become even weaker.
What is being said: The outside world has no right to interfere in
our sovereign and domestic affairs.
Response: The nomadic Penan and other native groups most affected
by the logging have no representation in government and are asking
the world directly for help. With the Malaysian government
promoting world trade links and tourism, governments, companies and
individuals can choose to set the ground rules they require before
deciding to invest.
WESTERN CANADA WILDERNESS COMMITTEE is a non-profit society
dedicated to the protection of Earth's remaining wilderness. WCWC
is working to protect and achieve ecologically sustainable
communities. Ecotourism can be a means of ecologically
sustainable development which protects both traditional indigenous
lifestyles and wild ecosystems.