The Penans in Murum affected by the Murum Hydro-electric Power (HEP) Dam continue to blockade the road leading to the construction site of the dam despite newspaper reports saying otherwise. Raymond Abin, coordinator for Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) confirmed today via telephone that the blockade in Murum...
Survival International recently announced that “Indonesia treats its indigenous and tribal people, especially in West Papua, worse than any other country in the world.” This finding, surprisingly, comes after the Indonesian Government adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples back in September, 2007. Read below to learn more....
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is calling for international support to demand an end to the intimidation of an indigenous community in Indonesia as well as the destruction of its forests by plantation firms. Two companies are clearing forests and farmland belonging to the Dayak Benuaq of Muara Tae, while the...
This summer, Australian broadcaster SBS aired an investigative story on its Dateline television program called “The Last Frontier” focusing on 12 controversial dams being built in Sarawak, Malaysia. It was one of the first times that a major international news network raised attention to continuing human rights violations in Sarawak that have gone largely unnoticed outside...
Penan protest continues over the lack of prior and informed consent regarding the construction of the Murum dam. According to the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) that Malaysia has signed, whenever the government does any major project involving the rural communities, the communities have the right to...
On September 26th, hundreds of Penans staged a blockade against the Murum hydroelectric (HEP) dam project calling on the government to listen to their plights with regard to the construction of the dam. Penans came from 8 villages, namely Long Wat, Long Luar, Long Tangau, Long Menapa, Long Singu and...
In a petition delivered yesterday to the Chief Minister of Sarawak, the Baram people protested the plans to build the Baram mega-dam. The project would flood half the size of Singapore and displace thousands of Baram residents from their ancestral lands, homes, and farms. Thomas Jalong, President of Indigenous Peoples’ Network...
The High Court recently ruled against a joint petition by Penan and Kelabit people in Limbang to save their forest lands from the greed of Chief Minister Taib’s timber and plantation allies, Samling Global and the Hii family. The judge based his ruling on the failure of the natives of...
The mining activities of 18 companies caused heavy and extensive flooding that hit Samboja, a subdistrict of Kutai Kartanegara, inundating 486 houses. The mining companies have failed to construct settling ponds, repair waste treatment facilities, and normalize the flow of the Seluang and Merdeka rivers which have been filled by...
According to a study published last year in the journal Global Change Biology, Indonesia and Malaysia lost more than 11 million hectares (42,470 square miles) of forest between 2000 and 2010. Borneo was on the top of list, losing 12 percent of its 2000 cover. Lowland forests historically have been...
