Sadia wants Forest Department to intervene in alleged timber extraction attempt
KUCHING: Sarawak Dayak Iban Association ( Sadia) is urging the relevant authorities to intervene in the alleged attempt by two local companies to extract timber from the Native Customary Rights ( NCR) land of the Iban community at Bukit Spali, Sungai Ngemah in Kanowit.
Its secretary- general Nicholas Mujah said the communities of Rumah Juil and Rumah Sliong had informed Sadia of the alleged attempts, and sought the association’s assistance in addressing their concerns.
“The communities there had expressed their concern that the logging activities, if carried out, would destroy the protected high conservation area of their NCR land,” he told reporters at Wisma Sumber Alam, here yesterday.
Nicholas said according to the longhouse folk, the companies claimed they had been issued licences in 2006 to extract timber from the Bukit Spali area. Fearing the expected severe impact to their life and livelihood, he said numerous police reports were lodged at Kanowit police station by the affected communities last year against the two logging companies.
“The communities had also written a letter of complaint to the Forest Department in Kuching in 2016. However, the numerous police reports lodged and the letter of complaint to the department seem to be no deterrent to the concession licence holders.
“In fact, the companies or their agents or employers had been coming into the said area for road- building, and encroaching into the forest at Ulu Sungai Sesawa,” he said.
Prior to meeting reporters, Nicholas was at Wisma Sumber Alam to present a letter to the Forest Department Sarawak, calling for the department to intervene in the matter as soon as possible to ease the ground tension and prevent any untoward incident from happening.
Nicholas said they had wanted to personally hand over the letter to the Forestry Department Sarawak director, but was told the latter was ‘having a meeting outside’.
“So we presented the letter to the director’s secretary instead. Sadia has high expectation for the department to resolve the communities’ concerns by rescinding the licence – if it is indeed genuine – or take action against the two companies if they are found to possess fake licence.”
Meanwhile, Sadia mapping officer Matek Geram, who was present with Nicholas, said the logging activities will not only destroy the communities’ burial ground and other areas considered sacred, but also their cash crops such as rubber, engkabang , durian and rambutan trees, among others.
Furthermore, the logging operation would also destroy the pristine ecosystem of the area, such as the rivers, which the Iban people there heavily depend upon.
“We have gone to ground to verify the communities’ claim, and found that those areas are genuinely NCR land. The communities there had indeed practised good forest management and conservation which should be encouraged and supported.
“Their self- effort in implementing the ‘ tagang’ system is an achievement and hence, these communities should be assisted and protected by all means,” said Matek.
He added that for now, the logging activity had not started although the company workers have already used paint to mark the trees to be felled in the logging area, which is about 3,000 hectares.
Tuai Rumah Juil Ajong, who represents the three communities in the area, was among several others who joined Nicholas and Matek to hand over the letter to the Forestry Department Sarawak.