Mulu community leader Ukau Lupung targeted by Sarawak government over Penan resistance against controversial township plans at UNESCO World Heritage site. (MULU/SARAWAK/MALAYSIA) The Penan community of Bateu Bungan located at the heart of Sarawak’s iconic Gunung Mulu National Park denounce efforts by the Sarawak government to oust their long-term leader,...
Penan from Ba Abang village set up a blockade against Malaysian logging company GT Interhill and demand a community-elected headman. Sarawak’s Middle Baram Penan have once again set up a blockade against logging. The protesters are demanding that the company “stop cutting down trees and destroying land without consent”, says...
Indigenous communities from Sarawak have made an impassioned plea to King Charles III asking for the head of the Commonwealth to lend his support to their campaign to end rainforest destruction. On a visit to the UK last month, community representatives argued that — as the third largest importer of...
Indigenous rainforest activists from Borneo bring Cecilia Vicuña’s ‘Brain Forest Quipu’ to life in a moving solidarity ritual at London’s Tate Modern. Woven with interviews from leading environmentalists from the UK and Malaysia, the ceremony forms the centrepiece of a new short film by award-winning, activist-filmmaker, Fergus Dingle. ‘One With the...
Joseph Lee This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here. Recognizing and demarcating Indigenous lands leads to reduced deforestation and increased reforestation. That’s according to a new study that looked at more than 100 Indigenous territories in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and found that legal recognition...
Indigenous delegates from Sarawak, Malaysia visit the United Kingdom this week to talk about Britain’s part in greenwashing timber from Borneo. The UK is the third largest importer of MTCS certified timber in the...
This story was written by Joseph Lee for Grist. You can subscribe to Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images Indigenous leaders from around the world are calling for a bigger role in negotiations at the United Nations’ Biodiversity Conference which convenes today in Montreal. Known as COP15,...
Timber giant Samling has stopped logging and withdrawn its machinery from a key conservation area! Throughout the Covid years we’ve been hard at work with local communities to #StopTheChop. These efforts have pressured Samling to withdraw from several sites on Indigenous territory in the upper Baram River Basin. This shows how our coalition of grassroots organizations with relatively...
This story was written by Joseph Lee for Grist. You can subscribe to Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Photo by Martin San Diego for The Washington Post via Getty Images The world’s healthiest, most biodiverse, and most resilient forests are located on protected Indigenous lands. That’s according to a new study that suggests...
Indigenous reps at COP27 say we are “horrifyingly far from our goals” if what is happening on the ground continues to be ignored Last month, a coalition of NGOs submitted a complaint to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) against Malaysian timber giant Samling. The 40+ page report chronicles allegations from...
