THE International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) has officially endorsed a proposal from communities in the upper Baram River Basin, Sarawak, for the Baram Peace Park.

The proposal is to turn 280,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land, inhabited by more than 30 indigenous Penan, Kenyah, Kelabit, and Saban tribes, into a protected, sustainable conservation area free from commercial logging.

The Sarawak Forest Department was to take the lead in the conservation programme with inputs from local communities and civil societies.

The area includes some of the last remaining untouched forests in the state, according to conservation groups Save Rivers and the Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund.

The groups stated that the Malaysian government formally submitted the proposal for consideration at the ITTO’s 56th meeting from November 9 to 13 in Yokohama, Japan.

Peter Kallang, chairman of Save Rivers, lauded the decision.

“The communities welcome the Sarawak Forest Department’s initiative and the ITTO’s endorsement. This is an important signal to the communities who have been waiting for the project to move forward,” he said in a statement today.

According to Peter, the endorsement showed that the government and the international community were taking the communities’ concerns seriously.

“Baram communities are keen to see what the protected zones will entail and welcome their new role as key decision makers in this plan. They expect full transparency and the respect for free, prior and informed consent.”

The proposal for the park was mooted in 2009 as the tribes feared losing their forests, which they depended on for their food, water, housing materials, and health, to rampant logging and agricultural encroachment.

The initiative had also received support from local civil society groups such as the Penan organisation Keruan and The Borneo Project, before being taken up by the Sarawak government and former chief minister Adenan Satem in 2015.

The Bruno Manser Fund stated thatm while the ITTO endorsed the proposal, the timber company Samling was threatening to derail the project by continuing to log the forest within the park.

Keruan CEO Komeok Joe said, while the communities there were grateful for the support of the peace park, they questioned Samling’s continued logging in the area.

Joe said they have now requested the company to stop immediately and to support the implementation of the project.

With the endorsement of the proposal – Management of Upper Baram Forest area for conservation and sustainable development with involvement of local communities, Upper Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia – the ITTO needs to secure US$800,000 (RM3.27 million) to finance the project.

The Baram Peace Park is the second community-initiated project in Sarawak to promote conservation and sustainable development on such a scale.

The first was Pulong Tau national park proposed by Kelabit community of the northern highlands in the early 1990s. – December 16, 2020.