Sarawak heritage ambush

Press, 9 December 1988, Page 13

Sarawak heritage ambush

Imagine living a nomadic life in a forest rich in food, medicine and shelter, a forest which has been home to you and your people for centuries. One day you hear about big trucks which bring people to chop down the trees. You and your tribe decide to act. A delegation is sent to the Government. After the meeting, there is no response. The trucks keep coming. You put up human barricades to stop them moving into the forest. Police arrive, and 42 of you are arrested. Taken away and locked inside buildings — inside buildings for the first time in your life. That is what happened to native people living in Sarawak, Malaysia, in 1987. The trial of the 42 people began recently. Politicians have started to take action. In July, the European Parliament voted to ban all further tropical timber imports from Sarawak. That is some consolation to a small group of Malaysians who live in Christchurch and are trying to draw attention to what is happening in Sarawak.

They and a few other Christchurch people formed a “rainforest action group” recently. They arranged a public meeting, held in the city on October 31, and a concert at the State Trinity Centre on November 19.

A spokesperson wants to remain anonymous for fear of difficulties on returning home to Malaysia. He says the native people of Sarawak are faced with losing their ancestral lands, the wildlife they depend on for food, and their unpolluted water. “A whole culture and lifestyle is being taken from these people. They may be settled into new areas, but their lives are harder than before, when they could hunt and fill their stomachs and were happy. “Resettled, they have no land and lose their

sustainable basis, and the introduction of massive reforestation. He thinks New Zealanders should support local conservation groups which are active in the struggle to save the forests, and talk to workmates and friends about the issue.

He says we have no great

cause for complacency. Just as deforestation in the Himalayan foothills was probably a cause of recent floods in Bangladesh, which left millions homeless, so deforestation in the North Island was a factor in the Bay of Plenty floods earlier this year.

traditions of planting and hunting. They lose their skills, and are forced into wage labour.” “A lot of it is money politics — politicians buying support through forestry concessions.” Countries who buy the timber, such as New Zealand, have to accept a degree of ityThe clear message from people in Sarawak is for New Zealand to stop buying the timber, says the spokesperson. “People in power argue: ‘lf you don’t buy, the people will suffer,’ but this is nonsense. It is not the jungle-dwellers who benefit from the sale of their forests.”

New Zealand should be planting its own special-purpose timbers, says Dr Andy Buchanan, of the University of Canterbury’s civil engineering department. “There’s no reason why we can’t be selfsufficient in the long term,” he says. “We shouldn’t have to import any tropical rainforest timber as we can plant here without any difficulty.” Now that New Zealand is slowing the exploitation of its own native forests, the timber industry should be planting special-purpose timbers such as eucalyptus, macrocarpa, black walnut and Tasmanian blackwood, he says. Dr Buchanan was a V.S.A. volunteer in Sarawak in 1966.

Bulldozers are marching into the forests and customary land rights are being ignored, he says. While Malaysian politicians and overseas companies reap the economic benefits, the quality of life of those living in the forest is destroyed. New Zealand is contributing to this violation of human rights by continuing to import timber from the area, he says; $1.6 million worth of timber from Malaysia was brought into the country in the first three months of this year.

Considering New Zealand’s own record for unwise logging which has caused horrific erosion problems, Dr Broady concedes that “rainforest countries could see it as arrogance for us to sit here and tell them what to do.”