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Sarawak-Malaysia4 Tong Tana April 2003Hopefully trees keep growing into the skies –also for the Penan! Majestic tree in the upperLimbang-area, june 2002.Penan take the Government andSamling Co. to courtjk – On the 4 th of January 2003, in the case KelasauNaan against Samling and the Government, a hearingtook place between the lawyers of the three parties.They discussed Samling’s application for authorisationfor two Kenyah long houses lying close to the plaintiffs,the Penan, as defence against the land right demandsof the 4 Penan settlements (see Tong Tana December2002). The court had not made any ruling on this matterat the time of going to press but it is conceivablethat Samling’s application will be rejected because ofvarious contradictions. In the meantime, some Kenyahhave realised that they are more often than not in thesame boat as the Penan (also in the literal sense)rather than in that of Samling and that they never hadany problems with them. That is why the Kenyah areseriously considering demanding their own land rightsfrom the Government and Samling instead of takingaction against their long-standing neighbours!A forest reserve for Penan-Nomads?jk – As the BMF found out locally in December 2002,the Forestry Department gave a positive response inJuly 2002 to a petition drawn up by the nomads of theBareh and Magoh river. The three groups of nomads,led by Guman Megut, Bujan Lawai and Tebaran Agus,were promised a common forest reserve of 5,000hectares. This would appear to be grounds for celebration.The fact that this apparently positive developmentonly came to light when the Penan nomads wentto the office of Sahabat Alam Malaysia in Marudi atthe beginning of December in order to report on themassive incursion of forestry companies (includingSamling), and to ask for help, means that all hope fora change for the better can be forgotten once again.While the nomads may have been given a map with theextension of the forest reserve, this is so vague andhand drawn that it is not possible to speak of an actualend to timbering. Furthermore, the actual legal bindingforce of this proposal is unclear even though it hasbeen signed by the Forestry Department. A third of the“reserve” has furthermore already been “selectively”deforested over the past few years and a further thirdof this reserve, which is in any case too small, is currentlybeing exploited. The majority of the Penan territoriesneighbouring the “reserve”, which share theirhunting and gathering grounds according to age old traditions,have also been devastated. In the catchmentarea of the Bareh and the Magoh river, the actualheartland of the Penan and Bruno’s friends, another30 nomadic Penan families with over 150 membersare still trying to survive according to the traditionalway of life. The Sarawak government, the ForestryDepartment in particular, has therefore once againmade empty promises and is playing the time game,as from the point of view of those who stand to profitfrom the forest, once the conditions are created i.e.once the forest is ruined, then the Penan problem isalso solved. And with the privatisation of the ForestryDepartment, this “forest reserve” will also end up inthe wastepaper basket.The BMF has financially compensated the 3 fightingnomad groups for their action and is planning, withinthe framework of the mapping project that is definitivelysupported by the association “Kunst für denTropenwald”, to complete the documentation on theirlegitimate land and customary rights this year. The aimis to allow at least two nomadic groups to take theircase to court as quickly as possible.The Mapping Projectjk – In order to gain an overview of the situation and todiscuss the timetable for the year 2003, in DecemberI travelled to Sarawak for 10 days and met all of theproject partners in 3 hot and sticky cities. Over thistime I obtained a very positive impression of the workcarried out and of what can be achieved through commitmentand cooperation. Steering this kind of largescaleproject through the tricky local currents (Know-How/Personnel, Techniques/Infrastructure, Financialresources, etc.) is not an easy undertaking. The resultoriented aim is necessary as far as we are concerned,in order to be able to guarantee the on-going financialsupport, but is also causing some headaches inSarawak, both because of the aforementioned deficienciesand because of the local way of living andthinking, which is not always accustomed to long termworking processes. The traditional subsistence economy(hunting and gathering, planting and harvesting ofrice fields), and the weather (rainy season) are alsoforcing the Penan again and again to reset their priorities.However, this 3-year project is on the right pathand the first phase will be completed by the middle ofthe year as planned.