MIRI, February 7, 2022: The Lun Bawang community is objecting to the state government’s proposal to declare 118,163ha in Lawas as the Ulu Trusan Protected Forest (UTPF).
Ba’Kelalan State Assemblyman said the proposal, when gazetted, threatens the community’s very existence as natives of Sarawak.
“The new proposal has not been published in the Gazette as required under Section 8 of the Forest
Ordinance yet, as was done in 2015.
“However, the community at a meeting held on Saturday has resolved to send a petition to Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg to strongly object to the proposal,” he said in a statement.
He said several issues should be noted about this proposal, saying that it will extinguish the NCR lands of a large proportion of the Lun Bawangs, thereby depriving them of their hunting, foraging and fishing lands.
“This will effectively rob them of their livelihood,” Baru said.
He added many are questioning why the government is targeting their NCR lands, asserting that “without our lands, we have nothing. Without our lands we will die. Without our lands we lose our identity as Lun Bawang.”
“All the villages along the alignment of the Sarawak-Sabah Link Road are affected although these
villages are not within the boundary of the proposed UTPF.
“The question here is - why earmark these areas as proposed Protected Forests when they are clearly land and forests which the Lun Bawangs are dependent upon for their livelihood?
“Further these areas had already been logged during the last 30 plus years and are still under valid Timber Licences?” he asked.
He said the SSLR is expected to bring economic growth to this area, and with it, land value is expected to increase.
“By extinguishing the rights of the people, the government is depriving them of the future benefits the SSLR is expected to bring,” he said.
Baru, who is a lawyer by profession, noted that Section 29 of the Ordinance on ‘Revocation of Forest Reserve and Protected Forest’ is noteworthy in that it provides that upon revocation, ‘such a forest reserve or protected forest or part thereof shall cease to be reserved or protected, but the rights or privileges which have been extinguished therein shall not be revived’.
He said once the NCR over an area is extinguished and the area is declared as Protected Forest, the NCR over the land will not be returned if the area is degazetted as Protected Forest in the future.
“The Lun Bawang people will not allow their lands to be taken from them in this manner and eventually alienated to some big corporations later.
“We are suspicious at this moment of this second attempt to extinguish our rights in view of the fact that this area is expected to greatly benefit economically with the imminent relocation of the capital city of Indonesia to Nusantara.
“We are asking whether the state government is deliberately depriving us, the Lun Bawangs of such an opportunity to better our lot,” he said.
“And we don't want at the end of the day, ‘Lun Bawang, Iamo Na Bawang’, (we are called ‘People of the Land, but with No Land’).
“This cry was heard even more loudly Saturday afternoon at our meeting, which wasattended by some hundreds of landowners and village representatives of the Lun Bawangcommunity and representatives from all the affected villages.
“We will continue to fight for our lands, our heritage and our existence.
He noted that the UTPF was first proposed in 2015, but was suspended after over 3000 people signed a petition which was presented to the former chief minister the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem.
“Interestingly, when I spoke to him about it, he said that he had no idea about the proposal.
“According to the information we received, the latest version of the proposal involves an areatotalling about 118,163 ha compared to 120,855 ha in the 2015 proposal, impacting villages which are located along the SSLR alignment.
“At least 36 villages, possibly more, will be affected, involving lands that are clearly NCR lands. “According to our calculation, the farthest portion of the boundary of the proposed UTPF is only 3.9 kilometres, which is at Long Telingan and the nearest is about 1.2 kilometres at Long Lidung.
“We estimate that two-thirds of the Lun Bawang people stand to lose their NCR lands that include their "Tana Bawang" or "Tana Kenen" (Pemakai Menua) "Amug" (Temuda) if this proposal goes through,” he said.
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