The Baram Peace Park (Taman Damai Baram)
The Baram Peace Park is a community initiative designed to protect Sarawak’s last islands of primary forest, celebrate local cultures, and develop sustainable livelihoods. The vision for the park is spearheaded by communities in the upper reach of the Baram River in northern Sarawak, who aim to limit logging in their ancestral lands while developing alternative income sources.
Background
The concept of the Baram Peace Park originated in 2009 among 18 Penan villages, initially known as the Penan Peace Park. This initiative arose in response to the constant encroachment of logging companies into the forest. The Penan communities envisioned the park as a means to integrate ecological and cultural conservation with economic advancement. Central to the Peace Park is the principle of self-determination, ensuring the protection of Indigenous rights, particularly the right to land.
In 2015 and 2016, the late Chief Minister Adenan Satem and the Sarawak Forest Department welcomed the Baram Peace Park project with great interest. They recommended the inclusion of all communities in the area—Penan, Saban, Kelabit, and Kenyah—into this ambitious initiative.
Conservation Significance
The Baram Peace Park encompasses some of the last remaining primary forests in Sarawak, with 28% of the total area covered by primary tropical forest, 23% by agricultural land (primarily small-scale subsistence farms), and the remaining 49% by previously logged forest. Four Dayak ethnic groups—the Penan, Kenyah, Saban, and Kelabit—currently inhabit 32 villages within the proposed protected area.
A survey conducted by ITTO in the adjacent Pulong Tau National Park indicates that the proposed protected area represents a “biological hotspot.” This study reveals that at least 819 plant species, 315 bird species, 20 large mammal species, 15 small mammal species, 84 fish species, 6 crustacean species, 34 amphibian species, and 75 taxa of aquatic insects reside in the area.
Current Status
Following the support from the late Chief Minister Adenan Satem, the Sarawak Forest Department submitted a proposal for funding to the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), with backing from NGOs such as Keruan, SAVE Rivers, Bruno Manser Fonds, and The Borneo Project. The Baram Peace Park project was officially accepted and approved by the ITTO in November 2020. Partial funding was secured in 2021, but in October 2024 the Sarawak Forestry Department cancelled the project. We are now working with our partners to ensure that this highly important Indigenous-led project continues on, and is able to achieve its goal of protecting some of Sarawak’s last remaining primary rainforest.
Global campaign launched to save Malaysian Borneo’s last primary rainforests – Sarawak Premier Abang Johari under fire over ties to Malaysian timber tycoon (Miri, Sarawak) A newly released video by Swiss NGO Bruno Manser Fonds reveals alarming deforestation in the heart of Malaysia’s tropical rainforest. Filmed in Sarawak’s Upper Baram...
Bruno Manser Fonds launches “Save the Baram forest” campaign at UNESCO headquarters (Paris) Forest activists told Sarawak Premier Abang Johari during his visit to Europe that his first step towards climate protection should be the conservation of old-growth forests in Sarawak. A delegation from the Switzerland-based nature protection agency Bruno...
Lack of transparency and breakdown in communication cause cancellation of International Tropical Timber Organization’s (ITTO) showcase operation in Malaysian Borneo (MIRI / SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) International donors were stunned last Thursday when, minutes prior to the start of a project meeting in Miri, Malaysia, they learned that the Forest Department...
In an interview with Juliet Jacobs of BFM Radio, Malaysia’s only independent radio station, our friend and partner Celine Lim talks about the ongoing struggle to save the Baram Peace Park. Celine is Managing Director of Sarawak-based Indigenous rights NGO SAVE Rivers, which upports and empowers Indigenous communities to protect...
Save our forest and stop the logging – Baram Penan communities send clear message from the forest to Sarawak’s capital (KUCHING & BARAM / SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) Today, a delegation of Penan from the Upper Baram River Basin delivered a petition with over 500 signatures to government representatives at the...
Satellite analysis reveals logging road expansion nearing core protection zone of government backed project in the Baram River Basin (BARAM / SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) New satellite imagery shows major logging road expansion in the northwestern area of the Upper Baram Forest Area (UBFA), a conservation project in northern Sarawak supported...
Malaysian Borneo’s last primary rainforests under threat despite international conservation promises A new logging operation in Sarawak’s Upper Baram region poses an immediate threat to the Malaysian state’s last primary rainforests in the Heart of Borneo. Community sources say operators linked to Malaysian tycoon Hii King Chiong (“Hii”) have started...
Communities from Upper Baram Forest Area welcome steps taken to realize the project, and hand over declaration to Forest Department Sarawak and International Tropical Timber Organization On March 20th in Kuching, Indigenous representatives participated in the Upper Baram Forest Area meeting with the Forest Department Sarawak and a representative from...
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...
Samling withdraws from the Upper Baram Forest Area as Penan increase pressure with police report and blockade (BARAM / SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) Penan communities have filed a police report and erected blockades to stop logging in the area of the mountain of Batu Siman in Northern Sarawak. In May and...
