KUCHING: A meeting between indigenous groups, the Forestry Department and the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) saw previously adversarial parties coming together for the future of the Baram.
SAVE Rivers managing director Celine Lim said indigenous representatives who participated in the Upper Baram Forest Area (UBFA) meeting on March 20 with the department and ITTO handed over a declaration to them.
“The declaration sets forth the hopes and vision for the UBFA project — the first indigenous-led and co-managed protected area of its kind in Sarawak,” she said.
She added the declaration was devised and agreed to by the 118 participants of a meeting in Long Lamam in late February this year.
“The participants represented 26 villages from the Penan, Kenyah and Saban communities across the UBFA.
“The groundbreaking meeting was organised by a coalition of NGOs including SAVE Rivers and KERUAN Organisation,” she said to reporters during the dinner meeting at Telang Usan Hotel here on Monday (March 20).
The declaration, she said, establishes eight guiding principles of the UBFA namely, Free Prior and Informed Consent; Governance and Self Determination; Protection and Conservation of our Ecosystem; Culture Sustainability; Land; Basic Services and Infrastructure; Unity Among Villages; and Income Generation.
“The declaration also puts in place safeguards around conservation and indigenous rights, including that the core forest zone of the UBFA must be protected from encroachment. It also calls for official recognition of indigenous land rights over the area,” she said.
The meeting with the Forest Department and ITTO, she said, was a step forward in this unique multi-stakeholder approach.
“The UBFA is seen as a unique approach in efforts to mitigate the climate crisis,” she said.
Erang Ngang from the Kenyah Jamok Community of Long Tungan who attended the meeting said they are thrilled that efforts are moving forward and that they are able to discuss and work together with Sarawak Forestry Department and ITTO in accordance to their Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) rights.
“This opens the door for years of investment into our villages, in the form that we actually want, not decided by someone else” added Bilong from Long Sait.
SAVE Rivers is an non-governmental organisation that supports and empowers rural communities to protect their land, rivers and watersheds through capacity building, networking, research, education and advocacy.
