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.
JOINT PRESS RELEASE by KERUAN, Bruno Manser Fund, The Borneo ProjectFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Logging company Samling extracts timber near culturally important site – Penan communities outraged (LONG AJENG / BARAM / SARAWAK) Logging company Samling is currently extracting timber from an area earmarked for community-led conservation and community development under...
Originally published in Malaysiakini EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was amended to reflect that there are a number of communities, not just Penan, involved in the campaign. Indigenous communities of the Baram River Basin in Sarawak have launched a signature campaign against what they claimed to be a misleading sustainability certification for...
Basel mayor Beat Jans announces a $200,000 contribution to the International Tropical Timber Organization’s (ITTO) Upper Baram Forest Management Area – 24 indigenous communities in Malaysian Borneo are to benefit from the conservation and sustainable development of their forest lands. (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) Today, the Swiss Canton of Basel-Stadt (City of...
Last month, the community of Long Moh submitted a letter to Samling demanding compensation for unpermitted logging on their land. Dated November 8th, the letter was signed by 300 community members and is the second plea made by the community to Samling, after an initial letter sent in September received...
The timber company Samling has been encroaching into the area earmarked for the conservation zone of the Upper Baram Forest Area (also known as Baram Peace Park) in Northern Sarawak. Assistant Headman Suya Ara of Long Ajeng, one of the Penan communities currently affected, is alarmed and sending an alert...
Originally published in Mongabay by John Cannon An intergovernmental organization representing countries that produce the bulk of the world’s timber has thrown its support behind a decade-long effort to protect the last remaining primary forest in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. In its November 2020 meeting, the International Tropical Timber...
Here is our mid-year wrap up of 2018 Borneo Project news. INDIGENOUS-LED CONSERVATION Our work to promote indigenous-led conservation in Sarawak continues through consultations, workshops, and facilitating meetings with the government. We’re advocating for a socio-ecological study that trains local people to collect data for wide-reaching surveys. In the Amazon,...
Press release by SAVE Rivers, KERUAN Organization, The Borneo Project, and Bruno Manser Fund 21st October 2016 – for immediate release Launching of Baram Conservation Initiative Following the cancellation of the Baram Dam, the communities of Baram are proud to announce the launch of the Baram Conservation Initiative. (Baram/Miri/Sarawak/Malaysia) The...
Miri – Village folks in Baram were enthusiastic when informed about a proposal made to the Sarawak state government for a rainforest park to be created in Ulu Baram. The concept of the Taman Damai Baram is for a primary jungle to be jointly maintained and managed by the...
