Nature Alert: Natives threaten to use force to defend land

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

Natives threaten to use force to defend land

Tuesday November 10, 2009 The Star

MIRI: Workers of an oil-palm company who bulldozed their way through land claimed by natives were forced to retreat after angry residents threatened to use force to defend their land.

The dispute between the workers of a Miri-based development consortium and Kenyah natives in Long Koyan, Belaga district, central Sarawak, almost turned into a violent confrontation on Saturday, after three days of an intense stand-off.

“The affected villagers from an entire longhouse came out and confronted the workers on Saturday.

“They had, over the past few days, appealed to the workers to stop the land-clearing works,” said Mark Bujang, the executive director of community-rights watchdog group Borneo Resources Institute.

“Since last Thursday, the workers have been ploughing their bulldozers and excavators through farmland belonging to Kenyah longhouse natives to build an access road for a proposed oil-palm plantation,” he added.

“On Saturday, the longhouse residents lost their patience and confronted the workers en masse. They came out and made a united stand and blocked the bulldozers and excavators.

“Fearing for their safety, the workers retreated from the area,’’ he said. Long Koyan is located some 550km south of Miri.

Bujang said the institute had sent representatives to Long Koyan to monitor the situation.

The 500 Kenyah natives claimed that the area targeted for clearing was their customary rights land while the company claimed it was given the concession to develop the land by the state.

Long Koyan chief Tuai Rumah Nyalang Tahe claimed that affected villagers had lodged numerous reports against the company but the police had not investigated.

Bujang said it was not clear whether the company had withdrawn permanently.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/10/nation/5071405&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.