Sun bear mother, cub and other animal and bird species found inside a forest concession area cleared for commercial plantation

BELAGA, Oct 9 2026:  Indigenous communities living beside the Bakun reservoir have documented a sun bear mother and her cub, along with 26 other animal and bird species, inside a forest concession currently being cleared for a commercial bamboo plantation .

Caption: The sun bear and cub caught by camera-trap in a forest concession area cleared for bamboo plantation.

A joint statement released by environmental group SAVE Rivers and the Borneo Project said a-trap survey, carried out by local teams over two months, provides the strongest evidence yet that the area is a biodiversity hotspot that should be protected rather than converted to monoculture.

The statement noted that the Bornean sun bear is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and is a Protected Species under Sarawak's Wild Life Protection Ordinance. 

It said the evidence of a mother with a cub indicates a breeding population that depends on intact forest for survival. Sun bear populations across Borneo have fallen by an estimated 30 to 35 percent, and the species is increasingly rare in Sarawak because of habitat loss and poaching.

The statement said the survey also recorded the White-fronted Langur, the Tufted Ground Squirrel, and the Bornean Great Argus, all of which are Totally Protected under the Wild Life Protection Ordinance, and two macaque species listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. The sighting of a Bornean Bearded Pig in the survey is also particularly significant – as populations across Borneo collapsed after African swine fever in 2020. 

According to documents obtained by the community, there are plans to convert more than 20,000 hectares of native forest to bamboo. Clearing began in early 2025 and prompted seven Kenyah, Kayan, Lahanan and Penan communities (Uma Belor, Uma Lahanan, Uma Kelep, Uma Penan Talun, Uma Balui Liko, Uma Juman and Uma Daro) to lodge a police report in September 2025 demanding suspension of the licence.

"We have already raised this directly with the premier,” said Denis Hang Bilang, Chairman of the Customary and Native Land Committee of Hulu Balui, referring to Abang Johari Openg, adding: “When we met with him at his office on February 25, 2026, we asked him to re-establish our rights over the unsubmerged land within 10 kilometres of the reservoir bank. That land is ours, and it is where these animals live." 

Satellite monitoring by The Borneo Project shows that clearing in this concession has resumed in recent months, and that old logging roads through the area have been re-established. 

Many communities were already displaced once, when the Bakun reservoir flooded their ancestral lands in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The forest now under licence is much of what remains of their ancestral lands.

"The sun bears and other wildlife caught on our camera traps may well be the very animals that were rescued and released during the Wildlife Monitoring and Rescue (WiMoR) programme in 2010–2011, a joint effort by the Sarawak Forestry Corporation and Sarawak Energy”, continued Bilang. 

“The state spent time and money saving these animals once. Why destroy their habitat now?" the statement asked.