Joint media release by Bruno Manser Fonds, Keruan,
SAVE Rivers, The Borneo Project, C4 Center:
A
new report by the Bruno Manser Fonds, “Plundering the
Baram Peace Park,” reveals how a community-led
conservation vision in Sarawak’s Upper Baram was
dismantled, paving the way for renewed industrial logging in
one of Borneo’s last remaining primary
rainforests.
For decades, Indigenous communities
have resisted logging and protected their ancestral forests.
Their efforts gave rise to the Baram Peace Park, a project
later adopted by the Malaysian government and International
Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) as the “Upper Baram
Forest Area (UBFA).”
In 2024, Borneoland Timber
Resources Sdn. Bhd. (“Borneoland”) was granted a timber
concession covering more than 100,000 hectares of the
proposed conservation area, without public tender,
transparency, or the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)
of affected communities. Logging has since expanded into
forests that communities understood to be protected,
damaging rivers, wildlife habitat, and vital cultural and
livelihood resources.
The report raises serious
questions about the responsibilities of the Sarawak and
Malaysian governments, international institutions, and
timber supply chains. It also highlights the need to
investigate how the UBFA project was undermined and how the
concession was granted.
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Civil society organizations
call for an immediate moratorium on Borneoland’s logging
activities and demand the licence be made public.
Furthermore, the Malaysian government needs to prioritize
transparency and freedom of information. Continuous lack of
transparency lays the ground for corruption.
The Baram
Peace Park may have been abandoned on paper, but its vision
remains alive. Indigenous communities continue to defend
their forests through blockades, legal action, and
advocacy.
Download the report: www.savebaramforest.org/en/report
