Logging and oil palm destroying tribe’s forest home
The hunter-gatherer Penan in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, are battling to stop the destruction of their last remaining forests, and their way of life.
The Penan’s land rights are not recognized, and their forests are being cleared for logging, oil palm plantations and hydroelectric dams, robbing them of their means of survival.
In 2008, a document was leaked on the internet revealing plans by the Sarawak government to build a series of twelve new hydroelectric dams, flooding many Penan and other indigenous villages.
The first of these, the Murum dam, is already under construction, with the initial contract having gone to the controversial Chinese state-owned China Three Gorges Project Corporation.
Chinese engineers are working at the site, hillsides are being blasted, and Penan from six villages have been told they must move to government resettlement areas.
The dams are projected to produce far more electricity than Sarawak uses.
With the loss of their land, the Penan fear they will lose their independence. They know that other Penan who were resettled to make way for the existing Bakun dam are unable to hunt or gather, and find it difficult to grow enough food on the small plots of land provided for them. The resettled Penan also struggle to pay the bills for water and electricity in their government-built homes.
