Nature Alert: Murum Penans under threat

Monday, 26 October 2009

Murum Penans under threat

Published: Monday October 26, 2009

By STEPHEN THEN

BELAGA: Many Penan families living in the Belaga district of central Sarawak have been affected by the clearing of jungles for the construction of the RM3bil Murum Dam.

The jungles being cleared for the dam, located 70km inland from the Bakun Dam, have a large population of Penans, many of whom have lived in isolation from the outside world for centuries.

The clearing of the jungles has affected their food supply and they have been forced to migrate in search of food.

Catholic priest for the Belaga parish, Sylvester Ding, recently came across a group of semi-nomadic Penans who had wandered out of Murum while searching for food.

“A community made up of some 20 Penan families from Murum have now moved out from the dam area because they are short of food. We found them wandering near the Bakun resettlement site in Sungai Asap.

“They are now taking temporary shelter in a long-house,” said Ding.

He added there might be more needy Penans who would be forced to migrate once the dam construction was in full-swing.

He hoped the Government would look into the plight of the Murum Penans. There are some 1,800 Penans living in eight long-houses along the Murum River who will have to make way for the construction of the dam.

The Star found that the access road into the Murum Dam site has already been paved. The construction of the site office is in progress and the terracing of the hillslopes on both sides of the Murum River is being carried out.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/26/nation/20091026201734&sec=nation

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.