The Penan is a tribe of hunter gatherers unique to the rainforests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, the land of the hornbills. They live a life in harmony with nature, in a partnership that has gone on for thousands of years.

A partnership, that sadly, is soon to be over, as the extinction of this idyllic way of life, for the docile Penan, may unfortunately, be just around the corner.

Something, which is being made inevitable, by the rampant rate, by which the rainforest of Sarawak, are being plundered.

Since the 1970s, the Sarawak government has backed large-scale commercial logging, on tribal lands across the state.

The rampant logging, continue to shrink forested lands that the Penan and other indigenous tribes depend upon for their livelihood, and is likely to destroy it all together.

Sooner rather than later.

The rainforest dwelling Penans may soon find themselves homeless, as native lands which are their ancestral stomping grounds has been appropriated by the state government and awarded to logging and plantation concessionaires.

Bereft of their traditional lands, the Penan will be displaced, and forced to bear the full brunt, of oppression, mounted by logging and plantation companies.

Companies, who allegedly receive the full support of the  government, to repress and suppress, any semblance of opposition, from the local communities.
 
This is a classic case of big business against the little guy, where commercial interests are put above and beyond and the fate of the native dwellers of Sarawak’s rainforest.

Just two months ago 15 natives were picked up by police based on dubious reports from plantation companies. A move which many are saying, is typical of a pattern of harassment that the local communities are subjected to.

The arrested natives were accused of illegally harvesting oil palm fruits grown on their own land. The land having been appropriated for an oil palm project, which the natives never agreed to.

This followed in the footstep of the 15 who were arrested on Sept 16, during Malaysia Day, while trying to trying to send a memorandum of protest to the Sarawak Chief Minister over the what they alleged, is the improper appropriation of NCR lands.

The memorandum, like the timber blockades of the Penans, are unfortunately nothing more than symbolic, as the state government continue to turn a blind eye to the issue.

The abject misery of the Penan, took a more drastic turn, recently, with the Sarawak government upping the ante.

In gearing up towards expanding the local oil palm industry, state authorities is looking to convert, 1.5 million  hectares, of Native Customary Rights, or NCR land, into oil palm plantations.

Vast tracts of the lands, ear-marked and alienated for this purpose, include ancestral lands claimed by the natives.

The Penan, has been promised jobs and a slice of the economic pie, if they agree, not to fight, the planned development of their traditional lands.

However, those promises are but the bitter icing on an even more bitter cake.

For the jobs offered are scarce, low paying, and very, very temporary. While the promised slice of the economic profits, never materialized.

In fact, the wages for the promised jobs are very low, well below the poverty threshold, that virtually all those who fill these jobs, are illegal immigrants, mostly from neighbouring Indonesia.

With various concerns plaguing the Penan, this new ‘oil palm’ invasion, is another hurdle, in their long and arduous fight, with the Sarawak government.

Malaysiakini, visited several villages in Ulu Baram recently, and spoke to a number of Penan headmen, many of whom are very vocal about their disapproval, of the government sponsored development, which according to them, encroaches upon NCR lands, is destroying the delicate rain forest ecosystem and fraught with alleged human rights abuses.

While logging has continued on in Sarawak for years, this recent upsurge in the oil palm industry has heightened the threat it represents to the Penan.

The planned allocation of a million plus hectares of rainforest land for oil palm plantation by the year 2010, is expected to contribute to the local food supply as well as a potential source of bio-diesel.

However, the apparent disregard for the effects, that such a move will have, on the environment and Borneo’s bio-diversity, has caused alarm bells to sound, in scientific and environmental activist communities.

Scientist, are questioning the logic and possible harmful effects of replacing natural forest with a single species of trees.

A fact that Lois Verchot, principal scientist for climate change, at the Centre for International Forestry Research in Jakarta, has pointed out.

According to him, “This is really the big story in climate change.”

Verchot said, one of the key problems in the escalation of carbon emissions comes from the cutting down of the rainforest.

Only 40-50 tonnes of carbon per hectare is stored in an oil palm plantation. This is in contrast to 150-400 tonnes of carbon, stored in a hectare of natural rainforest.

If this holds true, cutting down the rainforest to plant oil palm, will allow the release of huge amounts of carbon.

In addition, animals native to the rainforest, can't live in oil palm plantations. Orangutans, for example, need a completely different forest habitat to survive.

Yet the state government of Sarawak argues that developing this land - by logging, clearing and then planting for oil palm - is the best chance for the peoples of the rainforest to ‘participate’ in Malaysia’s economic development.

Script & narration by Hazlan Zakaria

Produced by Malaysiakini.tv