After decades of deforestation, the Indigenous Peoples of Sarawak (Malaysia) take stock and ask: Our forest is gone - where is the money?

Journalists and civil society are increasingly under pressure: freedom of press and freedom of expression are being questioned by potentates, oligarchs and the corporate world who have discovered the power of legal means to silence critical voices. SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) have become a popular tool for the powerful and wealthy to intimidate journalists and NGOs and affect their work on a daily basis.

The Penan are campaigning for a UNESCO biosphere reserve in the Magoh region of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. With they biosphere, they want to protect their forests from deforestation, continue to use them sustainably, improve their standard of living and secure their rights as indigenous people.

Trade in tropical timber has been a very lucrative business for Sarawak for more than thirty years and also one that is susceptible to corruption. Very few key individuals control the issue of logging concessions and the export of tropical timber. In Sarawak this power is concentrated in the hands of just one man: Taib Mahmud. For 30 years he had been the chief minister of Sarawak and at the same time the minister of finances and the minister for natural resources and currently, he is the governor of Sarawak. While the primary rainforest in Sarawak has shrunk to just one tenth of its original extent, his personal wealth and that of his family clique has grown to several billion dollars in the course of the past three decades. Taib’s own assets alone are estimated to be worth around 15 billion US dollars. The big losers have been the indigenous peoples of Sarawak, since their rainforest and land has been taken from them, while others are profiting from the proceeds.

Oil palm plantations are spreading in Malaysia at an incredible rate at the expense of the rainforest! This is contrary to the Malaysian government's promise to curb rainforest destruction for palm oil. Sarawak's only UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site is also threatened by oil palm plantations. In the immediate vicinity of the Malaysian Mulu National Park, an area of 4400 hectares threatens to be converted into palm oil monocultures. The affected indigenous Berawan and Penan people have not been consulted. They reject the planned oil palm plantation as it will destroy their forests and livelihoods.

The Penan of Long Kerong use their primary forest, which they were able to protect from logging and which was able to preserve its biodiversity, to help other communities with reforestation. The Penan collect seeds in the forest and nurture seedlings in a tree nursery, which they use to help surrounding communities rebuild their degraded land and deforested forest stands. The community receives technical, financial and scientific support from the BMF.

The last primary, old-growth and other high conservation forests of Europe are in danger. In Romania, the furniture giant resorts to intensive commercial logging and destructive practices even in protected areas.

Sarawak's aggressive logging policy has drastically reduced the rainforests. Now, the logging companies and the government are promoting the PEFC timber sustainability label. The affected indigenous people are fighting against the label’s greenwashing with the support of the Bruno Manser Fund.

The Penan would like to ensure that their habitat as well as their culture and history are properly documented for the benefit of future generations. They also need the cultural and historic documents and maps as evidence of their use of their land and the limits of their territories in order to be able to claim their land rights before the courts.

Svydovets, one of the most pristine forest landscapes in Europe, is to be destroyed by a large network of ski resorts. The mountain massif in the Ukrainian Carpathian Forest is home to at least 93 endangered animal and plant species and serves as a water reservoir for the region. Primary beech forests — protected by UNESCO — can be found in the immediate vicinity of the planned Svydovets ski resort. The consequences would be massive for the fragile ecosystem in the Carpathian Forest. The projects would also have serious consequences for the local population, who depend on an intact forest landscape for their livelihood. The Bruno Manser Fonds supports the local environmental movement Free Svydovets with an international campaign and demands that the Ukrainian government protects this unique natural landscape.

Together with the Bruno Manser Fonds, the Penan came up with the idea of a rainforest park in the north of Sarawak in 2009. The idea has been taken further since then, with the neighbouring ethnic groups of the Kenyah, Saban and Kelabit now also involved. Protection of the rainforest is to go hand in hand with sustainable income opportunities and indigenous rights, and the villages will be actively participating in the shaping and administration of the park. Negotiations between the Sarawak government and the villages have been underway since 2017.

One of the ways in which the Penan are attempting to halt the rapidly advancing removal of their rainforests is through court action. The Bruno Manser Fund is helping them file successful land-rights claims by ensuring that they are assisted by qualified lawyers. It also provides general support to the Penan communities by accompanying them throughout the drawn-out legal proceedings.

Palm oil, soya, cocoa etc. are also imported into Switzerland if rainforests have been destroyed to grow them and are found in chocolate, paper and detergents. This petition aims to change this. The EU is already changing this by means of a regulation, but Switzerland is unfortunately still lagging behind. Sign the petition and join us in calling for an import ban on hidden deforestation