"We, the Penan representatives of 18 villages, have collectively worked out this proposal during various meetings both within and between communities"

Executive Summary
We, the Penan representatives of 18 villages, have collectively worked out this proposal during various meetings both within and between communities that began in 2009 and continue.
The Penan Peace Park (PPP) is a pro-active proposal coming from 18 Penan communities of the upper Baram region of Sarawak in Malaysia. The PPP as contained in this proposal was finally agreed upon at the end of 2011. As the Native Customary Rights land owners of the PPP, we recognize our responsibility for the development of our ancestral territories and want to actively make decisions referring to them in a self-determined manner.
In essence, we recognize and have decided to be pro-active in fulfilling our collective responsibilities for our current and future generations and we also want to demonstrate our responsibilities to Sarawakians, Malaysians and the global community.
We outline the vision of a sustainable PPP management within the Penan Peace Park Charter (see appendix) in which we have targeted improvement in three main issues: indigenous rights and self-determination, respect and protection of the natural environment and to capture economical development opportunities. All these three are among the core values of the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in which Malaysia as a nation has subscribed to.
The PPP will be a place where humanity and nature are living in harmony, where the quality of life and livelihood are secured for both present and future generations, and a place where economic and human development are socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable.
In order to realize this vision, a total of four programs and 16 projects have been proposed. Six projects for the program “Conservation of the Penan cultural heritage”, six projects for the program entitled “Conservation of nature and biodiversity”, two projects for “Economic development” and a final two projects for “Institutional development”. Some outputs for these projects are briefly described in this proposal but are not to be considered as a definitive list. Something of the scale of the proposed PPP provides important opportunities for partnership and we actively seek potential partners, especially the governments of Sarawak and Malaysia, and those who wish to support us, to create history in Sarawak for a Community-Public- Private partnership on our collective future.
In accordance with the United Nations Declaration on The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, we want to call on the government of Sarawak and Malaysia and other national and international organizations to support us by taking part in this proposal.

The Penan Peace Park

Our project, the proposed Penan Peace Park (PPP), is lying between 2o50’0’’ and 3o30’0’’ N and 114o50’0’’ and 115o30’0’’ E. It is located within the mountainous part of the Miri division, one of the eleven administrative divisions of Sarawak. Most of the surface area belongs to the upper Baram region, with a small part belonging to the upper Tutoh (its sources) and upper Akah. The mountainous topography ranges from an altitude of 154 to 2086 meters above sea level.

The PPP covers an area of 1628 km2. In a natural state, the lowland primary tropical rain forest (lowland and hill dipterocarp forest types) would cover about 63% or 1022 km2, the most dominant forest formation within the PPP. The lower montane primary tropical rainforest would cover about 36% or 591 km2. With just 15 km2 or 1%, the smallest forest formation is the upper montane primary tropical rainforest.

In 2007 (see Appendix), just about 56% of the PPP area was covered with primary tropical rainforest (31% lowland, 24% lower montane, 1% upper montane). The primary tropical lowland rainforest is the most endangered. The remaining 44% of the PPP area are covered with secondary tropical rainforest (27% has been transformed by logging, 12% by farming and 5% by forest fire).

The PPP and its surroundings play a very important role with regard to fauna as well. According to a survey report done by ITTO for the Pulong Tau National Park, which is adjacent to the PPP, it represents a “biological hotspot”. More than 300 species have been found; these include fish, amphibians, mammals, birds and many more. At least 56 of the documented animal species are endemic in Borneo and 52 are listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The whole PPP area covers the living space of 18 Eastern Penan villages: Long Lamam, Long Ajeng, Long Murung, Ba Mubui, Ba Sepateu, Ba Data Bila, Ba PengaranIman, Ba PengaranKelian, Ba Benali, Long Kepang, Long Sait, Long Kerong, Long Sepigen, Long Lamai, Ba Jawi, Ba Lai, Long Sabai and Ba Kerameu. It is worth noting that two Kenyah villages are also in the vicinity of the park.The PPP has a current total population of approximately 1800Penan.

We claim our Native Customary Rights (NCR) in this area, as our ancestors have been living there for centuries and following our tradition. At the same time, the logging companies assert that the whole area forms part of the governmental “forest reserves from permanent forest estates” and can therefore be used by the concession-holders. The following five logging companies operating inside the PPP are: Samling Plywood (Baramas) Sdn. Bhd. [T/0411, T/0412], Samling Plywood (Miri) Sdn. Bhd. [T/0413], MerawaSdn. Bhd. [T/0390], S.I.F. Management Sdn. Bhd. [T/9082] and Sara Tourism & Leisure Sdn. Bhd [T/9155]. Three Belian plantation companies are also involved: Syarikat Samling Timber Sdn. Bhd. [BT/9150], Pangaranmas Enterprise [BT/9001] and Monica LambangKayang [BT/9159].

In order to defend our rights on our NCR land, we started filing court cases against the logging and plantation companies. At present, three such court cases are pending: one concerning the Selungo and Sela’an area (pending since 1998; SUIT No. 22-46-1998), another concerning the Long Lamai area (pending since 2007; SUIT No. 22-21-07) and the last one concerning the Ba Jawi area (pending since 2010; SUIT No. MR-21-07-2010).