The Bakun Dam

The Bakun Dam is a $4.6 billion hydroelectric project that will flood an area of virgin rainforest the size of Singapore and generate 2,500 megawatts of power. Construction work ground to a halt in early 1998 because the Asian economic crisis resulted in an inability to generate financial support. In February 2001, however, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed announced that the Bakun Dam, located upriver from Belaga on the Upper Rejang, would be completed at full size (1).

The construction of this dam will have adverse environmental and social consequences. At least 12 protected animal species and 93 protected plants are found within the dam's flood zone and will be destroyed if the dam is built. The dam may also have a negative impact on the Rejang River - the longest in Sarawak - by lowering water levels and degrading fish habitats and fisheries downstream. Construction work has also already forced the relocation of 10,000 people from their ancestral homes to a relocation village named Asap, where they face poverty, malnutrition and unemployment (2).

It is believed that that real reason for reviving the project is political - elections were due to be held in Sarawak in September 2001. Resuming construction work would give a much needed boost to the local economy. Companies owned by or having close connections with the Chief Minister and his friends are expected to win most of the bids. It will also create thousands of jobs and give the country's ailing construction industry a shot in the arm (3).

What's truly strange however, is that the energy from the dam will serve no useful purpose. The dam was originally designed to power industry in Peninsular Malaysia via an underwater cable. This cable has been cancelled due to a belated recognition that it isn't technically feasible. Sarawak already gets more than enough energy from other sources, so what will the energy be used for? Because the dam is so poorly conceived, not even the World Bank and other international lenders will touch the project. There is thus some hope that funding will not be realized.

Oil Palm Plantations

Malaysia is the world's largest producer and exporter of palm oil, contributing 54 per cent of the world's production in 1999 (4). In Sarawak, oil palm plantations are an important part of the economy, and the Sarawak government plans a steady and massive increase in the amount of land covered by oil palm. The government is also supporting large scale fast growing tree plantations and other types of plantations.

These large-scale monocultures are a great threat to the rainforest and to the people who inhabit it. The establishment of industrial plantations causes widespread deforestation at a level of severity even higher than that caused by industrial logging. Because of the widespread use of herbicides, the plantation also prevents the forest from regrowing. The depletion of the rainforest destroys flora, fauna, soil and water resources.

The people who inhabit the rainforest are greatly affected by the appropriation of their land by plantation companies. They no longer have ownership of their traditional lands - plantation companies are awarded concessions or land titles to that land and receive government support to repress opposition from local communities (5). Villagers are promised jobs and a cut of the profits if they agree not to fight plantation development on their traditional lands. However, these jobs are scarce, low paying, and temporary, and profit sharing nothing but false promises (6). Wages are so low, that virtually all plantation jobs are taken by illegal immigrants, mostly from Indonesia, because wages are below survival wages for Malaysians.

Furthermore, the price of oil palm has plummeted in recent years and some crops have been left to rot in the fields. Oil palm is one of very few crops that can be planted in a tropical jungle climate, and in recent years it has been overplanted around the world . Prices thus are likely to stay low. In Peninsular Malaysia, the government is subsidizing companies to move out of oil palm, even as the Sarawak government is subsidizing companies to move into oil palm! No wonder many in Sarawak are looking for alternatives to the government's development concepts.

Continue to Part 7 - Bruno Manser and Land Rights

Return to Part 5 - Blockades