Penan sue Samling and Sarawak State Government to save their Rainforest from Loggers

Basel, 5 July 2007
>
> MEDIA RELEASE, BRUNO MANSER FONDS / SWITZERLAND
>
> Penan sue Samling and Sarawak State Government to savetheir
> Rainforest from Loggers
>
> The Penan community of Long Lamai on the upper reaches of the Baram
> River in the Malaysian state of Sarawak has filed a new court case
> against the Sarawak state government and the Malaysian logging giant
> Samling in order to save their unique mountain rainforests in the
> heart of Borneo from logging. In the representative action case, five
> plaintiffs are claiming Native Customary Rights (NCR) to 31,000
> hectares of primary rainforest and farmlands in the name of the
> community of Long Lamai.
>
> Long Lamai is one of the biggest and oldest settlements of the Eastern
> Penan in Sarawak. In 1955, the nomadic Penan group of the area under
> headman Belare Jabu was encouraged by the British colonial
> administration to settle at the current village site on the Balong
> River close to the Indonesian border. Today, the Penan are living from
> farming, but still depend on the forest for hunting and for collecting
> various forest products.
>
> "The plaintiffs and their ancestors had been living as nomads roaming
> their Tana Pengurip or Native Customary Rights Land since time
> immemorial", according to the Penan´s statement of claim filed by
> Kuching-based lawyer Baru Bian who handles the case. Around 1995, the
> Samling subsidiary Merawa Sdn Bhd was given a timber licence by the
> Sarawak state government "without the consent of the plaintiffs who
> are the rightful owners" of the land.
>
> "The plaintiffs have been deprived of their sources of food, fish,
> medicine, wildlife and other forest products which the plaintiffs need
> and are dependent upon for their daily subsistence. The plaintiffs
> have also been deprived of the sources of income from their lands,
> fruit trees, and other essential trees and crops." The statement of
> claim also states that the issuance of a timber licence without the
> Penan´s consent had been "oppressive, arbitrary, illegal and
> unconstitutional".
>
> The Long Lamai case is the second NCR case filed by the Eastern Penan
> after four neighbouring communities had filed a similar case in 1998
> which is still pending. The Sarawak government refuses to recognise
> any land rights of the indigenous Penan communities, which is widely
> regarded as a severe human rights violation. Samling and other logging
> companies, such as Shin Yang, Interhill and Rimbunan Hijau, are taking
> advantage of this situation.
>
> In March 2007, the controversial Samling group was publicly listed on
> the Hong Kong stock exchange with support from Credit Suisse, HSBC and
> Macquarie Securities. An international coalition of NGOs is pressing
> these banks to refund the profits made from the Samling listing
> because of the company’s involvement in illegal and unsustainable
> logging. Both Credit Suisse and HSBC are defending their support for
> Samling while Macquarie has not made any public statement.
>
> For more information, please contact us:
>
> Bruno Manser Fonds
> Association for the Peoples of the Rainforest
> Heuberg 25
> 4051 Basel / Switzerland
> Tel. +41 61 261 94 74
> www.bmf.ch
>
>