Final SUARA Community Filmmaking Workshop of 2014 held in Sabah

Credit: SUARA / BEFF

Since its inception in 2011, the Borneo Eco Film Festival (BEFF) has run a training programme for aspiring community filmmakers called SUARA ("voice" in Bahasa Malaysia). In 2014, four workshops were held throughout the year, culminating in a five-day intensive workshop from 29 October to 2 November at the Sabah Forestry Department's district office at Lok Kawi.

There were over 40 participants from 24 villages and towns across Sabah, who learned practical skills in storytelling, pre-production, filming, and post-production. By the end of the workshop, each of the seven groups conceptualised and produced their own short film (including on topics such as Indigenous Rungus beadwork and the journey of a young urban Indigenous man from the forests of northern Sabah). Two of the films have been selected for public screening at the upcoming Centenary celebrations of the Sabah Forestry Department in the week of 9 November 2014. Congratulations to all of the participants and thanks to the many sponsors, supporters, and volunteers. For more information, check out local media coverage in Sabahkini and the Daily Express.

Beluran District

cc Harry Jonas

Harry Jonas joined a delegation that visited communities in the Beluran District of Sabah (Malaysia) to discuss the linkages between community-based tourism and conservation. 

While each community was different in terms of ethnicity, and social and ecological characteristics, all spoke about common themes, which included their sense that fish catches were falling, that greater controls on fish catch and upstream activities were required, and that community-based tourism could be one means to incentivise such approaches while also delivering financial support. The next steps will be supported by Forever Sabah, among other groups and agencies.

Melangkap Community Protocol

cc Harry Jonas, 2014

A group of five Melangkap villages presented their protocol on the 6th of September, 2014 in Sabah, Malaysia. These  communities have developed a one page protocol that requires anyone entering the broader community for any purpose to submit their intentions in writing, and to abide by local customary law. Those laws, customs, practices, their hopes and aspirations have also been documented and are contained in a secondary document.

At the meeting, there were cultural dances, a film highlighting the process produced by the community was shown, and signed copies of the protocol were handed by the traditional chief to the village headmen. In attendance were members of all five Melangkap communities, Sabah Biodiversity Centre, UNDP Small Grants Programme, BC Initiative and Natural Justice, among others. 

Developing FPIC Guidance for Oil Palm Companies

Indigenous community representative from West Malaysia.

Though not without its critics, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is an important forum for developing voluntary certification standards and has the potential to tip the balance of the industry in favour of a more viable path for conservation and people, alongside economic development.

In 2008, Forest Peoples Programme published a guide to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for RSPO member companies. With the recent revision of the RSPO's Principles and Criteria, Forest Peoples Programme is accordingly updating the FPIC guidance in collaboration with Natural Justice and other members of the new Human Rights Working Group. As part of this process, the first of two stakeholder consultation workshops was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 30 June to 1 July. The objectives of the meeting were:

• To listen to the views of all parties on what constitutes a successful process for recognising the right of indigenous peoples, local communities and other users to give or withhold their FPIC to land acquisition for the establishment of oil palm plantings;
• To learn lessons from communities, companies, auditors and NGOs and from Social Impact Assessments, complaints and dispute resolution about what has and has not worked;
• To contribute insights into how the RSPO Guide for Companies on FPIC can be strengthened; and
• To examine more broadly FPIC in relation to the planning and establishment of oil palm holdings, including the possibility of joint ventures with communities, communities leasing lands, communities as smallholders and other options.

Participants included representatives of Indigenous peoples from West Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak, supporting NGOs, oil palm companies, and RSPO Secretariat staff. Holly Jonas (Natural Justice) presented on FPIC in international law. The outcomes of this and the second workshop in Jakarta (to be held in late July) will be incorporated into the revised guidance, release of which is planned for the next RSPO Roundtable in November. For any questions, please contact holly (at) naturaljustice.org.

Exploring the Oil Palm Landscape in the Telupid Forest Complex

Meeting participants in Telupid. Credit: Forever Sabah

Oil palm is one of the biggest commodities in Southeast Asia and is often considered the backbone of the Malaysian economy. However, it has also had an undeniable widespread impact on tropical forests and on the thousands of Indigenous peoples and communities who depend upon them for livelihoods and survival. At the same time, a growing number of communities have small-scale oil palm plantations and are seeking ways to balance environmental protection with income generation.

In the heart of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, the  25-year initiative Forever Sabah is working to bring together communities, smallholders, large oil palm companies, government agencies, and NGOs to address these and other issues in the Telupid Forest Complex. From 23-25 June, a multi-stakeholder team from PACOS Trust, LEAP, Natural Justice, the Drainage and Irrigation Department, and the Forestry Department held meetings with oil palm smallholders and with the managers of a large plantation with high conservation value areas and a mill, in order to identify constraints, bottlenecks, and opportunities for further improvement. An additional series of meetings is being planned for July to explore the issues in greater detail.

For more information, please see: http://forever-sabah.com/news/first-steps-in-telupid/ and follow Forever Sabah on Facebook.

UNIMAS Researchers to Respect Orang Asli’s Community Protocols

Holly Jonas (Natural Justice) was in Ba’kelalan, Sarawak, for the week of 19 January to participate in a workshop hosted by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) on its project “Implementing Telecentre Programme Among Orang Asli in West Malaysia”. This was a follow-up to a UNIMAS workshop from 6-7 January in Kuching, Sarawak, attended by Harry Jonas.

Participants at the workshop in Ba’kelalan included a team of UNIMAS researchers from a range of disciplines and around 40 community members from Indigenous (orang asli) villages in West Malaysia involved in the five-year project. The first day consisted of overviews of the project plans and proposed activities by UNIMAS’s project lead, Dr. Poline Bala (Department of Anthropology and Sociology), and other researchers who will lead activities related to information and communication technology, education, health, agriculture, traditional knowledge, and training.

Community Protocols in Malaysia

From 6-7 January,  Harry Jonas attended a two-day workshop hosted by University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) on the ‘Implementing Telecentre Programme Among Orang Asli in West Malaysia’ Project. 

Natural Justice has been asked by UNIMAS to assist it to integrate community protocols into the project as a means to ensure the equitable engagement between the researchers and the Orang Asli, who are Indigenous peoples living in West Malaysia. 

On the first day, participants heard reports back from the four clusters of villages in which the project will be focused. On the second day, Harry Jonas and Tariq Zaman focused on community protocols.  

National Conference on Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights Held in Sabah, Malaysia

Credit: Colin Nicholas

From 6-7 November 2013, a national land conference was held in Sabah, Malaysia, to further explore Indigenous peoples' land rights following from the National Land Inquiry report of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM). The conference was organised by Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS, the national Indigenous peoples' network of Malaysia) and Partners of Community Organisations (PACOS Trust) with the support of the Rainforest Foundation Norway and Rainforest Action Network.

The conference included several expert presentations, panel discussions, and a resolution based on a number of constructive recommendations suggested by participants. Topics addressed included, among others: Indigenous peoples' rights in international law (with particular emphasis on self-determination and free, prior and informed consent), jurisprudence on Indigenous peoples' land rights, issues with conflicting claims in forest reserves, conservation areas and palm oil plantations, and mechanisms for redress and remedy such as tribunals, national commissions, and compensation schemes. For detailed real-time coverage of the conference, please visit JOAS' Facebook page and Twitter feed. Additional coverage is available in Free Malaysia Today.

National Consultation in Sabah on Women's Rights in ASEAN

From 14-15 June, Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) attended a national consultation in Kinarut with women from East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak) on human rights in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. The consultation was organised by Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP) and the Women's Aid Organisation, with support from the Southeast Asian Women's Caucus in ASEAN (Women's Caucus).

The two-day consultation included the following topics and activities:

• Introduction to the Women's Caucus,
• Introduction to ASEAN and its human rights mechanisms, including the ASEAN Charter and Human Rights Declaration, ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, and ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers,

Spatial Planning for Conservation and Sustainable Development in Sabah

On 23 May, Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) attended a day-long meeting on spatial planning for conservation and sustainable development in Sabah, Malaysia, which was organised by Hutan and the Malaysian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Malaysia). With an overall emphasis on establishing the technical information-base for a holistic landscape approach to planning, participants highlighted the following points, among others:

• The need for a multi-stakeholder integrated approach with a common vision and concerted strategy that focuses on connectivity, viability, complementarity, target-setting, and cost-efficiency (known as 'systematic conservation planning'),
• The need to fill knowledge gaps in the spatial data such as location of 'good quality' forests, social-cultural values, and distribution of biodiversity and threats to it,
• The importance of providing technical inputs into the draft 20-year Sabah Structure Plan, including social safeguards in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and
• The importance of also planning for governance, management, implementation, and enforcement.

Participants also discussed unique considerations required for marine spatial planning, impacts of climate change (particularly on plant life), implications of different definitions of 'forests' (for example, if oil palm plantations were to be included), and the need to protect islands and mangroves from further developments.

Community Visioning Workshop in Melangkap

Harry Jonas (Natural Justice) worked with Lanash Thanda and Alice Matthew (Borneo Conservancy) from 8-10 February to facilitate a workshop in Melangkap, a cluster of villages in Sabah, Malaysia, to begin to explore the communities' futures. The participants looked ahead to Melangkap in 2030 to think through what might be the positive and negative changes, and to think through how to avoid the negative. The workshop and related meetings with the communities' Ketua Kampungs (leaders) constitute preparatory work ahead of assisting the communities to develop a community protocol and to engage external stakeholders.

International Conference on Heart of Borneo Initiative

The proposed Heart of Borneo boundary

(in yellow). Courtesy of WWF-Malaysia.

The island of Borneo is one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots, with thousands of plant and animal species found nowhere else on earth. It is politically divided into the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, the Indonesian provinces of West, Central, South, and East Kalimantan, and the state of Brunei Darussalam. In 2007, the three national governments signed the Heart of Borneo Declaration, a unified conservation vision for "maintaining Bornean natural heritage for the benefit of present and future generations". The Heart of Borneo initiative, which is facilitated by the Worldwide Fund for Nature-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia), aims to protect 22 million hectares of the largest contiguous forest in Southeast Asia through effective management of forest resources and a network of protected areas, productive forests, and other sustainable land uses.

From 6-7 November, Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) attended an international conference entitled "Heart of Borneo +5 and Beyond: Shaping and Nurturing Sabah's Future Together". Held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, the conference was organised by the Sabah Forestry Department and co-hosted by a range of other government agencies and non-governmental organisations, including the Sabah Biodiversity Centre, Partners of Community Organisations in Sabah (PACOS Trust) and Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP).

New IIED Article on Community Protocols

Credit: Nick Lunch

As delegates prepare for the 11th Conference of Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) from 8-19 October in Hyderabad, India, Krystyna Swiderska of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has prepared an article tracing the community protocols developed by two communities, the Raika of Rajasthan, India and the Dusun of Sabah, Malaysia to claim rights guaranteed by the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol  on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the CBD. 

The article notes that “although they have conserved important biodiversity of the regions where they have lived for generations, many communities are struggling to safeguard their biodiverse resources.” It presents community protocols as a way that communities are asserting their rights and engaging with outside actors. It then details, with text and photos, the unique ways of life of the Raika and Dusun and how they are using community protocols to protect their rights. 

The article can be found here. IIED’s recent publication on community protocols, rights and consent, drafted and edited in partnership with Natural Justice, can be found here in English and here in Spanish.

Imbak Canyon Ethno-forestry

Harry Jonas of Natural Justice presented on "ABS: From International Law to Local Realities" at a workshop hosted by Yayasan Sabah and Petronas in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The workshop focused on how best to develop and implement an ethno-forestry study in Imbak Canyon. The study is "a long term project leading towards the positioning of Imbak Canyon as the centre of learning for indigenous communities in biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, for gene bank conservation and the exploration of pharmaceutical and biotechnological potentials." Other presenters included Dr Agnes Lee Agama (Global Diversity Foundation) and Dr Charles Vairappan (University Malaysia Sabah).

REDD+ Readiness Workshop in Sabah

From 31 July to 1 August, Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) participated in a workshop on Malaysia's emerging national institutional framework for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+). The meeting, held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, was part of a three-year "REDD+ Readiness" joint project between the United Nations Development Programme and the federal Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE).

The workshop included presentations on the following topics:

• "Introduction to REDD" by Dr. Elizabeth Philip, head of REDD+ Unit, NRE;
• "Sabah REDD+ Preparedness Roadmap" by Fred Kugan, Sabah Forestry Department;
• "Draft Recommendations for Institutional Framework" by Lee Kian Foh, project consultant; and
• "Free, Prior and Informed Consent within REDD+" by Maximilian Conrad, REDD+ Unit, NRE.

The workshop also included breakout groups and subsequent plenary discussions on social and environmental safeguards, financing and sharing of benefits, and measuring, reporting and verification. Natural Justice participated in the safeguards group alongside local organisations such as Partners of Community Organisations (PACOS) Trust and Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS), the Indigenous Peoples Network of Malaysia.

More information, news and analysis of REDD+ is available at: www.redd-monitor.org.

Exploring Native Land Rights in Sabah

Harry Jonas and Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) attended a symposium entitled "Sabah Native Land Rights: Issues, Challenges and the Way Forward". Chaired by Dr. Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan (UMS Kadazandusun Chair), it was hosted by the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) School of Social Sciences from 30-31 January in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The opening keynote was delivered by YAA Tan Sri Richard Malanjum (Chief Justice, High Court of Malaysia). Highlights of the paper presentations included:

• Overview of Native Customary Land Laws in Malaysia (Dr. Ramy Bulan, Centre for Legal Pluralism and Indigenous Law, University of Malaya)
• Governance of Customary Land and Natural Resources in Sabah (Datuk Osman Jamal, Director, Sabah Lands and Surveys Department)
• Land Rights, Native Rights, and Human Rights (Tan Sri Simon Sipuan, Former Vice Chairman, Human Rights Commission of Malaysia)
• Selection of Village Headmen in Sabah (Dr. Paul Porodong and Dr. Gaim Lunkapis, UMS)

As in many former British colonies, the legal landscape in Sabah consists of a mosaic of statutory, common, and customary law. Drawing on a burgeoning global jurisprudence in support of Indigenous peoples' rights, many presenters called for greater legal pluralism, effective reform of decades-old legislations, and a national tribunal to address violations and the backlog of an estimated 300 000 native title applications.

Kinabalu Project Planning Meeting

On 13 January, Harry Jonas and Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) joined partners Borneo Conservancy Initiative (BC Initiative) and Sabah Biodiversity Centre (SaBC) for a full-day planning meeting about the Kinabalu Biocultural Law Project, which is set to begin local work soon. Dr. Jamili Nais (Sabah Parks) and Dr. Agnes Lee Agama also joined the meeting for specific topics.

Presentations and topics discussed throughout the day included: Projek Etnobotani Kinabalu; international framework for access and benefit sharing (ABS); Sabah's framework for ABS; project aims, activities, outputs, and outcomes; proposed workplan for the first year; and linkages with other related initiatives around Mount Kinabalu (including a proposed wildlife corridor, Biosphere Reserve, and collaborations between Kinabalu Park and surrounding communities). Natural Justice thanks all of the participants as well as SaBC for hosting the meeting.

Kinabalu Biocultural Law Project

On the 20th of December, Natural Justice and Borneo Conservancy entered into a Memorandum of Understanding relating to the Kinabalu Biocultural Law Project. The project will be undertaken in partnership with the Sabah Biodiversity Centre and will explore with a number of Dusun communities living around Kinabalu Park (Sabah, Malaysia) innovative ways of engaging with laws towards protecting their biological and cultural diversity. The project will build on the work undertaken by partners to the Projek Etnobotani Kinabalu (Kinabalu Ethnobotany Project) and a recent study on traditional ecological knowledge and Indigenous peoples' and community conserved areas (some outputs of which are available online). The project will also benefit from input from Dr. Agnes Lee Agama (South East Asia Coordinator of the Global Diversity Foundation) acting in her personal capacity. Natural Justice looks forward to working with the communities and team on the project.

L-R in the photo: Dorothy Lim, Lanash Thanda, Alice Mathew, and Daniel Doughty (Borneo Conservancy); Holly Shrumm and Harry Jonas (Natural Justice).

Reviewing Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas in Malaysia

The Global Diversity Foundation (GDF) is managing a project in Sabah entitled: Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Sabah, a Consolidation of Issues and Experiences in Relation to Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Resource Use. Component 2 of the project aims to compile a state-wide review of indigenous and community conserved areas (ICCAs) in Sabah, emphasising the identification of existing and potential ICCAs, and documenting communities’ experiences in establishing and managing ICCAs. One of the specific aims is to promote the traditional ecological knowledge and customary practices that are used or can be applied in the management of ICCAs, and inform the access and benefit sharing processes in the context of ICCAs and protected areas in general. In that context, Holly Shrumm and Harry Jonas met with leaders of the Bundu Tuhan community (who live adjacent to the Kinabalu National Park - pictured) to discuss their twin concerns about the possible designation of their community forests as a Forest Reseve, and their work towards the recognition of their land as an ICCA. The meeting addressed bio-cultural community protocols, the community's development plan and the proposal to include the community's land in a wildlife corridor. Natural Justice was subsequently invited to provide further input to the ICCA work, specifically to explore with GDF how the communities with which GDF is working can provide evidence to support the designation of their villages and/or surrounding areas as ICCAs.