THE Malaysian Human Rights Commission has stepped in to negotiate between the Kelantan government and the Gua Musang Orang Asli community over blockades that have crippled the state’s timber industry.

Suhakam commissioner Jerald Joseph said the talks are aimed at finding a sustainable and long-term solution to the state’s much-criticised logging policy.

The Orang Asli said the policy is destroying the forests, which are their source of livelihood.

Environmental groups said Kelantan’s rampant logging has damaged water catchment areas and rivers critical to its clean water supply.  

Though he appreciates Suhakam’s involvement, Gua Musang Orang Asli leader Mustafa Along is sceptical about the state government’s commitment.

“I believe their logging policies will continue, including its ladang rakyat (people’s plantation) programme which results in clearing forests,” said Mustafa, a member of the Kelantan Orang Asli Villages network (JKOK).   

Suhakam’s intervention followed a two-month stand-off between an Orang Asli kampung in Gua Musang, logging companies and the Kelantan Forestry Department over three blockades.

JKOK volunteers and 1,998 individuals barricaded three logging roads leading into the Perias, Kuala Balah and Gunung Stong Selantan forest reserves.

Volunteers manning the barricades blocked lorries and tractors from passing through despite the fact that these timber companies have valid licences from the state government.

They said the clearing of the forests has made it hard for them to grow and forage for food and to source for clean water.

Forestry Department officials have failed in their attempts to negotiate with blockade leaders, said Mustafa.

When the community put up similar blockades in 2016, the department went in and tore down the structures and arrested the community’s leaders.

Long-term solution

To pre-empt another forceful response, Suhakam has intervened to mediate between the state government and the community.

“We are bringing both sides together so that the state agencies can talk directly to the community and the blockade leaders so that each can understand the other side’s concerns,” Joseph told The Malaysian Insight.

“We want to help both sides find a win-win solution,” he said, adding that the first meeting occurred on March 12 between the Forestry Department, the Gua Musang Land and Mines Department and Department of Orang Asli Affairs.

These bodies, said Joseph, are agencies tasked with implementing the government’s policy on logging.

Suhakam impressed upon them the importance of protecting Orang Asli land rights and to acknowledge that the community has a valid claim on the forest as foraging grounds.

The agencies told Suhakam that currently, the most the state government is prepared to do for each Orang Asli family is to give them between 0.8ha and 2.4ha land, Joseph said.

But the community also needs the land for foraging, Joseph said.

“The government also has to zone this land and not and convert it into agricultural land.”

Jerald added that for now, the Kelantan government is open to further negotiations and has agreed not to tear down the blockades.   

Everyone suffers

Environmentalist Hafizuddin Nasaruddin, who has studied Kelantan’s forestry policies, said its logging and the lading rakyat schemes have destroyed about 10,000ha of virgin rainforest near Orang Asli settlements.

Logging regulations and rules are also rarely enforced on timber companies, leading to the destruction of streams that the Orang Asli rely on for water, said Hafizuddin, president of the eco-group Kuasa.  

But the state’s forestry policies have also damaged water catchment areas and rivers in Gua Musang that are major sources of raw water supply for Kelantan.

About 199,345ha of virgin forest, an area roughly twice the size of Perlis will be cut down for ladang rakyat plantations.

This amounts to one third of the state’s 623,000ha of forest reserves, said Hafizuddin.

Originally, the ladang rakyat scheme was aimed at rehabilitating forest by replanting it with native species of plants, he said.

“But in Kelantan, they cut down virgin rainforest, and plant timber latex clones. They don’t replant on derelict land.

“The consequences are far and wide not just for the Orang Asli community but for the rest of Kelantan.” – March 29, 2018.