A REMOTE Penan community of Ba Jawi in the upper reaches of the Baram river in Sarawak wants logging company Samling Group to leave the forests alone.

Their renewed call comes as the company is facing fresh audits by regulatory bodies over its alleged non-compliance with the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS).

“As the last nomads of Baram, we ask Samling to stay away from our forests and allow us to continue to live like our ancestors and carry on their legacy and culture,” the representatives of Ba Jawi told said Samling chief operating officer James Ho Yam Kuan in a letter sighted by The Malaysian Insight.

The community said they are the main guardians of the forest and territory of Ba Jawi who have been living, hunting, gathering and collecting sago within the boundaries of the territory for about 200 years.

“We are the last semi-nomadic Penan in the whole of Baram. We are the guardians of the nomadic Penan culture,” they said.

“We herewith state that we ourselves control our forests and refuse to delegate it to Samling or any related party. We are within our rights to withhold consent for any logging on our land.”

Their village is part of the Gerenai Forest Management Unit (FMU), which received logging certification under MTCS in 2020.

Second surveillance audit

Civil rights groups supporting this community said in a statement that the community filed a Native Customary Rights lawsuit against Samling in an attempt to preserve their forests in 2010.

The groups said in 2012, Samling entered the forests of Ba Jawi and logged one of the last intact primary forest areas of Sarawak without the community’s consent.

Following complaints from the community and the civil groups, certification body Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia is conducting a second surveillance audit for Gerenai FMU from July 17-21.

The groups, led by Bruno Manser Fonds, Keruan and The Borneo Project, said the community has also submitted a map of their territory for the ongoing audit so that their area will be marked as a no-logging zone on future maps of the FMU.

The Germany-based international non-profit Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is also investigating Samling for alleged violations of FSC policies, including alleged illegal logging, violations of traditional and human rights and destruction of high conservation value forests. – July 20, 2023.