In the Upper Baram region of Sarawak, Malaysia, a large-scale logging operation continues despite widespread complaints from Indigenous communities. Meanwhile, the timber company abandons a 30-door longhouse construction project that was promised as compensation. Controversial logging operations carried out by Borneoland Timber Resources Sdn. Bhd. (“Borneoland”) in Sarawak’s Upper Baram...
MIRI, SARAWAK: On 10th October, nearly 300 Indigenous Peoples from Miri, Marudi, Baram, Niah, Belaga, Bintulu, Sibu and Kuching participated in the Sarawak Indigenous Solidarity March, which began at Miri City Fan and ended in front of Miri Court House. The march was jointly organised by Hak Tanah Adat Bangsa...
In May of last year, when we helped residents of Long Urun file a complaint with Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO), the community had already been watching its forests cleared for palm oil production for more than a year. After trying everything they could think of to stop the forest...
Community camera-trap confirms forest slated for Rich Venture’s 44,545-hectare bamboo project is a biodiversity hotspot; satellite imagery shows old logging roads reopened BELAGA, SARAWAK: Indigenous communities living beside the Bakun reservoir have documented a sun bear mother and her cub, along with 26 other mammal and bird species, inside a...
The Borneo Project’s Jessica Merriman appeared on Consider This from Malaysian news outlet Astro Awani to discuss the Bruno Manser Fonds’ recent report, Plundering the Baram Peace Park. The report documents how the Upper Baram Forest Area (UBFA), a conservation project established to protect some of Sarawak’s last remaining primary...
Originally published in Malaysiakini. It takes five and a half hours by boat across the Bakun reservoir to reach Long Jawe, a remote Indigenous village on the reservoir’s furthest inlet. When we arrived, our boat driver’s dogs came down to meet him. They were up to their necks in mud,...
What if a conservation project becomes a logging project? For decades, Indigenous communities in the Upper Baram region of Malaysian Borneo have been fighting deforestation. Through sustained efforts, they have successfully protected large areas of forest. These efforts gave rise to the vision of the Baram Peace Park, which was...
by Peter Kallang The future of Upper Baram is no longer an abstract debate about development versus conservation. It is a real and ongoing conflict involving Indigenous communities, logging interests, and government authorities responsible for managing Sarawak’s forests. Since 2024, Indigenous Penan and Kenyah communities in Upper Baram have opposed...
Obituary written by Rhett Ayers Butler, originally posted on butlernature.com In the early 1990s, the logging roads running through Sarawak’s Upper Baram became the site of a bitter confrontation. Penan families built wooden barricades across red-dirt tracks, blocking bulldozers and timber trucks and facing units of the Police Field Force. As...
BARAM: More than 100 representatives from 40 Penan communities have unanimously rejected a proposal to construct hydroelectric dams along the Tutoh River in Baram, describing the project as a serious threat to their customary lands, livelihoods, and the future of the Penan people. The proposal involves the construction of hydroelectric dams...
