KUCHING: Penans living in Kubaan-Puak forest management unit (FMU) in Upper Baram are interested in the new way of timber harvesting discussed by the state government, industry players and conservationists.
WWF-Malaysia photo shows (from left) Asai and Selapan sharing their traditional knowledge on hunting using a blowpipe with the German visitors.
WWF-Malaysia photo shows the German visitors at Kubaan-Puak FMU.
A press release by WWF Malaysia said the forest dwellers have learnt about it from the organisation and Sarawak Forestry Corporation.
The approaches include High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs) assessment and natural forest certification, which Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem announced in August to ensure sustainability of natural resources, which is demanded globally.
Formerly nomadic, the Penans in Kubaan-Puak FMU have learned to settle down over the past decade.
“We want to be included in dialogues on how logging activities would be carried out in Kubaan-Puak, which is our home and livelihood,” said 39-year-old community leader Asai Berat from Long Siang.
“Changes in forests will have impacts on us because the most important value in our lives is found in the forests. The forest provides our needs. Life in rural areas are not based on money but our surroundings — the forests.”
The Penan communities are also excited with the prospect that forest certification will be implemented in Sarawak.
They told this to a high-level German delegation in the state for a four-day working visit in August.
Four out of seven Penan settlements in Kubaan-Puak FMU attended the dialogue with the Germans, SFC and WWF in Mulu.
The eight-member delegation led by Member of Parliament Cajus Caesar was a follow-up trip with Malaysian authorities on the implementation of sustainable forestry and conservation of biodiversity and wildlife.
Kubaan-Puak is a key landscape connecting Mulu, Pulong Tau and Gunung Buda national parks.
These areas form an integral part of the Heart of Borneo Corridor Initiative that seeks to restore landscape connectivity from Brunei to Sabah and Indonesia through Sarawak to conserve biodiversity and protect ecosystems of Borneo.
During the dialogue, Asai said if their surrounding forests are healthy, they can easily find their food source.
“Rivers are like our blood and they are important. If rivers are clean, we can drink the water but if rivers are polluted, we’ll be in trouble. Rivers are just like our blood, if our blood is dirty, we will fall sick,” he explained.
Selapan Malin, 43, a village elder from Ba Selulung said they realised that change and development are imminent in the rural landscape.
“We are concerned with the destruction to forests but we noticed that in recent years, the way timber being harvested has improved and less damaging than before.”
He said there were also benefits from the timber industry.
“One of the benefits is logging tracks which allow us to send the sick to the nearest hospital with the help from logging companies,” he said.
Caesar said the delegation could assist the Penans to improve their livelihoods through agriculture and eco-tourism activities.
He said Germany through its Ministry of Food and Agriculture, German Forestry Council and WWF are always on the community’s side and would help support their needs such as capacity building in environmental conservation, agriculture and eco-tourism activities.
Caesar said the delegation commended the state’s conservation efforts, adding that the German government is keen to do its part for the environment in this part of Sarawak as well.
German Forestry Council president George Schirmbeck thanked state authorities and WWF for working in the area and with the Penan community in creating a balance between development and conservation.
Kubaan-Puak FMU is located 17km from the eastern boundary of Mulu National Park, Miri Division.
It covers an area of 32,023ha and is a timber licensed area forming part of the six-million ha network of Permanent Forest Estates (PFE) of Sarawak.
Although only comprising a mere 0.53 per cent of the PFE network, Kubaan-Puak is the first FMU to undertake the High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) assessment using the WWF-Malaysia Toolkit for HCVF Assessment.
The assessment indicates that all six HCV attributes — biodiversity values, landscape-level forest, ecosystems, services of nature, basic needs of communities and cultural identity of local communities — found in the area, suggests the FMU is of high bio-diversity and ecosystem value.