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Logging reaches Sarawak’s ‘last frontier’ However, they said the preventive actions will be carried out in a ‘non-confrontational manner’. Locals have already sighted machineries and employees of Samling, one of the state’s biggest logging companies, in many parts of the highland areas. Samling is said to have received a huge concession starting from Bario right up north towards Limbang and extending to the border with Kalimantan Borneo. This is believed to amount to millions of hectares. A tell-tale signs of commercial logging reaching the highland areas, is the roads being constructed by the company from Long Akah towards Bario and Limbang. Last frontier The highland area, according to Orang Ulu lawyer Baru Bian, is the last-frontier for timbermen. “Because of its isolation and remoteness, there are virgin jungles and the trees are huge which makes it attractive,” he told malaysiakini today. American anthropologist Dr Sarah L Hitcher from University Georgia, who carries out field research and studies, said the small Kelabit settlement at Pa'Lungan near Bario are worried as logging is taking place almost at their doorsteps. There is a private initiative involving the academia and educated members of the local communities to look at the possibilities of enlarging the new 59,000-ha Pulong Tau National Park by creating what has been described as a ‘transboundary protected area’ extending from east of the park right up to the border areas. The idea behind the initiative is for the local communities to be involved in a biodiversity conservation and eco-tourism project, taking into account the evidence of past settlements dating many centuries and megaliths, burial sites which offers potentials for promoting trekking through the forest areas. Malaysiakini learnt that Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud signed the necessary papers in January and two months later, the Palong Tau National Park was gazetted. However, natives claim that some logging activities are taking place on the fringes of the park boundary and within the park itself. “What the authorities say and what people find on the ground are two different things,” said a Lun Bawang, who declined to be named. “It can only be the work of illegal loggers,” he added. Growing conflicts Locality maps and satellite pictures shown to malaysiakini indicate many forest concessions have been issued and that logging is already taking place near or within the highland forest areas, including the newly-gazetted national park. Some Penans who still lead a nomadic life living within areas close to the Bario Highlands have protested the inclusion of their NCR land within the national park area and have even called on the government to de-gazette the area, as they fear their NCR rights will be automatically extinguished with the gazette notification. This has resulted in growing conflicts on the ground with ethnic groups, mainly the Penan settlement in Upper Tutoh, but now such commercial activities area penetrating the highland areas towards the Borneo where the Kelabits, Lun Bawang, Saban and Penan dwell.
11th July 2005 The Bario House at Church Camp on Mount Murud The Bario house at Church Camp on Mount Murud is now complete. Located some distance away from all the houses, it can be found just behind the large church. Peter Paran Matu and Pun Ritai from Bario Asal were there to oversee the final touches and and make some necessary corrections and improvements. They also have fitted the energy-saving lights in both rooms, the power source being the generator for the church. The house is now ready for occupation.
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