Reaction by the Penan tribe

1) Penan tribes to blockade against loggers and blowpipes- The standoff began on August 20th when the Penan set up three blockades to prevent logging companies from accessing the forest for timber and to clear for acacia, eucalyptus, and palm oil plantations, according to news release from the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF). A Penan spokesman has said the blockade will continue until the Sarawak state government recognizes the Penan's land rights and commits to protecting their forest. 

picture of the blockade






2) penan tribes should make sure the global world is aware of their situation and also show the alternative to deforestration

 Natural Resource Management:

-Reforestation of degraded areas with native trees;

-Demarcation of community-protected areas

-Community gardens for organic vegetables and medicinal plants;

-Documentation of traditional uses of rainforests.

3) documentaries about the effect of deforestation should be made and published to the world. Well renowned artist should be used in the video.

4) Rights of Penan tribe were made but these rights were not exercised properly b the government

• Recognise the ancestral and native customary rights on Penan lands and give special rights or privilege to the Penans to continue to obtain the

The Penan tribal/village chiefs together with representatives from twenty seven (27) villages/settlements demand the following from the Government of Malaysia and that their demands are fulfilled on an urgent basis:ir source of food and produce from their forests

• Revoke the provisional leases or licenses issued for large scale plantations which are on Penan customary lands
• Expedite the approval of the Penans’ applications for Communal Forest Reserves
• Prepare a sustainable development plan which is agreeable and beneficial to the Penans
• More education centres should be allocated in or near the Penan villages
• Agricultural and livestock rearing centres should be set up in Penan settlements since the Penans have begun to farm as a result of dwindling food sources from the forests because of logging activities
• The Ministry of Health should constantly monitor the health of the Penans and should do in depth research into the cause of the diseases that attack the Penans and health problems faced by the Penans
• The Ministry of Health should also organise special programmes in Penan villages where Penans should be educated on healthcare through these informative workshops
• The National Registration Department (NRD) should set up a viable mechanism to solve the problems of registration of births and deaths as well as the issuance of identity cards specially for the Penans
• Housing projects for the Penans must take into account safety and comfort not only in terms of the surrounding environment, cleanliness and health, they must also be equipped with all basic amenities
• Provide educational and vocational programmes for graduate or non graduate unemployed youths
• Provide more fully equipped healthcare centres in or near Penan areas in order to enable the Penans to utilise these centres at any time in case of emergencies
• Provide proper educational or scholarship assistance to the Penan children who are receiving government or private education whether at primary/secondary or tertiary levels


The courts would take these issues and put it pending for another day and make the tribes men 

 wait.

The goverments reason for Deforestation

Deforestation seems to be one of the biggest issues in the Sarawak region for the Penan tribe. Here are some of the reason said by the government for deforestation.
1) Emergence of new diseases - In 1997, approximately 5 million hectares of tropical forest in Malaysia were slashed and burned to make room for pig farms, and the widespread burning caused a severe haze that blanketed much of the region. The haze coincided with a drought -- a combination of factors believed to have reduced the number of flowering and fruiting trees that the local fruit bat population relied on for survival. With their food sources diminished, the bats sought nourishment in orchards near the pig farms; the pigs in turn ate fruit contaminated with bat urine and saliva, transmitting the virus to the livestock. The Malaysian government was unprepared for this new disease and subsequently bore high costs from the outbreak, including more than 100 human lives lost as well as an economically devastating collapse of its pig-farming industry. Eventually, the new scourge was identified and named: the Nipah virus.
2) Illegal palm oil Development -  The Forestry Department statement noted that oil palm companies spent million of ringgit "to develop the illegal oil palm including the recruitment of illegal workers to destroy forests and intimidate Forestry Department staff on the ground." It said that 202 people were arrested in the reserves between 2003 and 2006. Statewide, 732 were apprehended for illegal encroachment. 471 of these were illegal immigrants. 
3) A quicker approach to attain the Malaysia 2020 and 1 Malaysia - The main focus for the Malaysian government is to attain he Malaysian 2020 perspective which calls for a close to developed Malaysia as possible, thus which mean an increase in the economic social and political factors that cause for the development of the country. Thus to increase the exports of the country , the products development should also be increased and thus the procurement of the raw materials must  be increased leading to a larger scale deforestation for wood, oil and other forest related products.

Pictures of the Deforestration

The Sarawak rain forest before the logging and deforestation

the Sarawak Forest After the deforestation and logging

The Cause of Deforestration in the Sarawak forest

Sarawak was blessed with a high density of large, valuable Dipterocarp trees, which were the first ones to be extracted. Now a huge proportion of Sarawak's primary forest has been logged at least once, and over time smaller and smaller trees have been taken in different logging passes. One reason for this is to produce plywood and other processed timber. The Sarawak government places a strong emphasis on processing timber to maximise local profits. Since industrial logging began in the late 1970s technology has evolved to allow smaller logs to be processed, which is deemed essential to keep up with the demand from Japan, India and the Far East – only a small percentage of Sarawak timber makes its way to Europe and the USA.

The companies carrying out selective logging in Sarawak use bulldozers to clear tracks through the forest and along steep ridges so that specific tree species can be cut and extracted. Logging crews (and their families) live in wooden huts on giant skids that are dragged between locations. These techniques were pioneered by James Wong, former Sarawak minister for the Environment and Tourism.

It's a bitter irony that whilst building tracks along ridges is seen as good logging practice in the rest of the world, in Sarawak it destroys a lot of sago palm, a staple of the Penan. Badly planned trails are a recipe for landslides, erosion and silting watercourses.

Once the giant trees were removed and the canopy opened, the remaining plant life, bursting towards the sunlight, undergoes some rapid growth which in places has created bushy secondary forest. Game is harder to spot and track, plants useful to the Penan are less plentiful and vital sago palms less abundant. The removal of large fruiting trees takes away a food source for the Penan and the game. At the same time logging roads give hunting access to non-Penan hunters.

As Sarawak's natural forests become less productive large areas are being assigned for acacia and palm oil plantation. In economic terms this makes perfect sense. Acacia trees can grow 15m in seven years and can re-grow from stumps, so they are very profitable over the long term. Palm oil is the most productive of all edible oil-producing plants and a possible biofuel (the EU has set a 5.75% target for transport biofuels). Malaysia produces 50% of the world's palm oil, a trade worth billions, and by 2010 the Sarawak government hopes to double palm oil plantations to 1 million hectares.

Sarawak's timber industry is worth around £1 billion a year. Some commentators maintain that logging in Sarawak has always been run by commercial imperatives and profit maximisation in order to enable the development that will turn Malaysia into a first world country by 2020. In development terms this would seem to be a logical trade off, but the marginalised Penan would beg to differ.

Opposition to Logging
Opposition to logging was fierce in the 1980s. Today the picture is more mixed. Some settled Penan villages see that a positive attitude to logging provides jobs, free transport, cash compensation, material goods and other assistance. Other communities have an ambivalent attitude to the logging, opposing logging but turning to logging companies for help, even if this means setting up a blockade as a negotiating tool. Confrontation with the loggers is usually non-violent.

The Sarawak government has often stated its desire to address the issue and bring development to the Penan. There is a minister, Alfred Jabu, with responsibility for the Penan. Penan communities who have chosen to settle have schools and clinics, and Penan children do receive some financial help to attend school, but anecdotal evidence suggests that hand outs from logging companies has much to do with this development.

Almost all nomadic Penan oppose logging and there is a huge gap of understanding and trust between the Penan and government. At heart, the government can't understand why anyone would want to live in the jungle and the Penan believe that the government cannot be trusted. In their experience logging only brings disaster and they believe that if they leave the forest they will lose it completely. What’s more, whilst they see secondary forest as bad, having their territories converted into plantation is a catastrophe.

penan tribes men hunting for food using their poison blow darts. This poison is accumulated from a sap of some trees

The Penan Tribe of the Sarawak

The Penan are a nomadic aboriginal people living in Sarawak and Brunei. They are one of the last such peoples remaining. The Penan are noted for their practice of 'molong' which means never taking more than necessary. Most Penan were nomadic hunter-gatherers until the post-World War II missionaries settled many of the Penan, mainly in the Ulu-Baram district but also in the Limbang district. They eat plants, which are also used as medicines, and animals and use the hides, skin, fur, and other parts for clothing and shelter.

Penan communities were predominantly nomadic up until the 1950s. The period from 1950–present has seen consistent programmes by the state government and foreign Christian missionaries to settle Penan into longhouse-based villages similar to those of Sarawak's other indigenous groups.

Some, typically the younger generations, now cultivate rice and garden vegetables but many rely on their diets of sago (starch from the sago palm), jungle fruits and their prey which usually include wild boar, barking deer, mouse deer but also snakes (especially the Reticulated Python or kermanen), monkeys, birds, frogs, monitor lizards, snails and even insects such as locusts. Since they practice 'molong', they pose little strain on the forest: they rely on it and it supplies them with all they need. They are outstanding hunters and catch their prey using a 'lepud' or blowpipe, made from the Bilian Tree (superb timber) and carved out with unbelievable accuracy using a bone drill - the wood is not split, as it is elsewhere, so the bore has to be precise almost to the millimetre, even over a distance of 3 metres. The darts are made from thesago palm and tipped with poisonous latex of a tree (called the Tajem tree) found in the forest which can kill a human in a matter of minutes. Everything that is caught is shared as the Penan have a highly tolerant, generous and egalitarian society, so much so that it is said that the nomadic 

Basic necessities like food gathered from hunting and crop and the main source of nutrients but living in a jungle makes one prone to all kinds of diseases and infection. the clan seems to be living is a malicious environment but yet they strive and survive for generation. is it possible that man in order to survive needs just the basic qualities without any technological  background or is the government of Malaysia trying to get rid of these tribe in order to get in to the technological world that is 20/20 Malaysia by destroying their land and resources and exporting it to the western world for their technological improvements.

some of the traditional food eaten by south east Asians. Questions must be pondered ?
Is this good.
Is it healthy
Do they have all the proper requirement to prevent diseases grown in on food?
Is their immunity system 10 folds better than a western civilization and if so how.??