UPOV, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, is a global system of plant breeders’ rights. It gives legal monopoly rights to companies or institutions that develop “new” plant varieties. In Sarawak and across Malaysia, many Indigenous communities strongly oppose joining or aligning national law with...
While the Sarawak government pushes AI and “digital transformation,” rural communities still have to fight for basic infrastructure like electricity. Photo courtesy of TONIBUNG. The Sarawak government has been talking a lot lately about its grand plan for a “digital transformation” – an ambitious leap into the future to become...
What: Clearing of native forest for a massive commercial bamboo plantation. Where: The Bakun reservoir is an area in Sarawak’s Belaga region that was flooded to develop the Bakun hydroelectric mega-dam, displacing more than 9,000 Indigenous people in the late 1990s and early 2000s. When: A new 44,545 hectare plantation...
An aerial photograph taken during the British colonial period near Ba Main, Sarawak. (Australian War Memorial) Much has changed in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo since 1958. The state has celebrated nearly 70 years of independence from colonial rule, its population has more than doubled, and its cities have evolved from small...
What’s happening? Numerous forest and peatland fires are raging across Sumatra and Sarawak, with heavy smoke drifting into Malaysia and Singapore. Many of these fires are linked to land cleared for monoculture plantations such as oil palm and timber, but they are also affecting other vulnerable areas – including natural...
The Borneo Project has spent the last 35 years standing alongside Indigenous communities in Sarawak, Malaysia, defending rainforests, resisting destructive development, and advocating for Indigenous rights. This critical work is made possible entirely through the shared commitment of our donors: a powerful community of supporters, partners, and allies who believe...
For Indigenous communities, the arbitrary label of “Protected Forest” is not a guarantee of conservation, but rather a tool of exclusion. I remember my confused delight when I first came across a signboard on the side of a logging road in remote Sarawak announcing the dense jungle ahead as a...
A guide to understanding its role in strengthening Indigenous land rights Maps are part of the background of our lives, tools we use to get from Point A to Point B – navigating our neighborhoods, commutes, and shared spaces. Maps are so deeply ingrained in our lives that we rarely...
Many people ask us about carbon offsets and carbon credits. In theory, they seem like a promising solution for addressing climate change while protecting forests. But in practice, their implementation is often inconsistent and complicated. Where we work in Sarawak, carbon offset projects are just starting to emerge, and we’re...
We’ve been sounding the alarm lately about Malaysia’s resistance to the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a law that aims to prevent products associated with deforestation from entering the EU. Malaysia has lobbied against forest protection rules, excluded civil society from policy discussions, and played the victim card in high-level...
