The Upper Baram Forest Area, also known under the name of Baram Peace Park (Taman Damai Baram), is a community initiative designed to protect Sarawak’s last islands of primary forest, celebrate local cultures, and develop sustainable livelihoods. The vision is spearheaded by communities in the upper reach of the Baram River in northern Sarawak, who want to limit logging in their ancestral lands and develop alternative income sources.
Background
The idea of a Peace Park was originally initiated in 2009 by 18 Penan villages and was known as the Penan Peace Park. This initiative was a reaction to the constant encroachment of logging companies into the forest. The Penan communities developed the idea of the park as a way to integrate ecological and cultural conservation with economic advancement. The principle of self-determination is essential for the Peace Park: the initiative was developed to protect Indigenous rights — especially the right to land.
The late Chief Minister Adenan Satem and the Forest Department of Sarawak welcomed the project with great interest in 2015 and 2016, and recommended including all communities living in this area — Penan, Saban, Kelabit and Kenyah — in an ambitious project called Taman Damai Baram (Baram Peace Park).
Current status
After the project received 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 the support of NGOs (Keruan, SAVE Rivers, Bruno Manser Fonds, The Borneo Project). The project was officially accepted and approved by the ITTO in November, 2020. Partial funding was secured in 2021, and stakeholders are in the process of designing a phased-in approach.
Conservation significance
Some of the last remaining primary forests of Sarawak are found in the proposed project area; 28% of the total area is covered with primary tropical forest, 23% with agricultural land (primarily small-scale subsistence farms), and the remaining 49% with previously-logged forest. Four Dayak ethnic groups – the Penan, Kenyah, Saban and Kelabit are currently living in 32 villages of the proposed protected area.
According to a survey carried out by ITTO in the adjacent Pulong Tau National Park, the proposed protected area represents a “biological hotspot”. This study reveals that at least 819 plant species, 315 bird species, 20 big mammal species, 15 small mammal species, 84 fish species, 6 crustaceans species, 34 amphibian species, and 75 taxa of aquatic insects live in the area.
Kuala Lumpur / Tokyo — A coalition of civil society organizations has called on the Government of Japan to immediately suspend funding for International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) projects in Sarawak, Malaysia, following serious human rights concerns, allegations of corruption, and environmental destruction linked to projects implemented by the Forest Department...
UN timber body loses key member state after Malaysia project failure. “ITTO is no longer a credible institution when it comes to forest conservation and sustainable tropical forestry”, says BMF director Lukas Straumann. (BERN/YOKOHAMA). The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) has initiated consultations for Switzerland to leave the...
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...
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...
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...
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...
