Judge says he cannot give a private prosecutor more powers than the police. (TORONTO, CANADA) The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has dismissed an application by the Swiss NGO, the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), for the disclosure of financial data on the Malaysian Taib family’s businesses in Canada. BMF had...
Ontario Superior Court of Justice to hear case on $200 million real estate group linked to Sarawak Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud (MONTREAL, CANADA) A civil society delegation from the Malaysian state of Sarawak is touring the Canadian East Coast this week in order to create public awareness for the struggle...
Here is our wrap up of 2017 Borneo Project news. LAND RIGHTS UNDER THREAT Native Customary Rights protections challenged in court In October, the Federal Court of Malaysia overturned a decision of the High Court and the Court of Appeal and stripped land rights protections from indigenous communities in Sarawak....
Just a few weeks go I was meeting with rural communities in Sarawak to talk about how they envision their futures. For the first time in decades, people in the Baram River Basin are starting to imagine a world where their rights are respected and their forests are protected. Dear...
Something smelled fishy, and it wasn’t just the ikan bilis. On my first trip to Sarawak as The Borneo Project’s new communications pixie, I was ready to feast on some bubbling laksa, swim in some crystal clear waterfalls, and take some deep breaths of sweet rainforest air. Don’t get me wrong, I...
I’m piled into the back of a 4×4 on my first trip to Sarawak, alongside my compadre and boss Jettie. We are barrelling down the road from Miri to Sungai Keluan: a strip of highway that can be described as part paradise, part post-apocalyptic, on our way to visit an...
63 Penan communities celebrate the completion of a series of 23 high quality maps representing their land, culture and history (SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) Over the weekend, the indigenous Penan people of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo celebrated the completion of their 15-year long community mapping effort. 23 maps contain data collected...
Supplier of wood for Tokyo’s new National Olympic Stadium accused of destroying Indigenous livelihoods SARAWAK / MALAYSIA – On the anniversary of the first Tokyo Olympics, Matu Tugang, headman of the Indigenous Penan community of Long Jaik from Sarawak, Malaysia, delivered an urgent plea to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe...
TOKYO/LIMA – Today, 47 civil society organizations delivered an open letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Tokyo 2020 Olympic authorities, at the start of the IOC Executive Board Meeting in Lima, Peru. The letter reiterated grave and mounting concerns about the legitimacy and accountability of IOC sustainability commitments and the reputation...
Learning how to manage forests in Bario: On our recent trip to Sarawak we visited Bario, a community in the Kelabit Highlands. We wanted to learn about the consultation and management process for the Pulong Tau National Park, a large protected area nearby. We planted trees and chatted with Lian, one of only three rangers...
