Part of a forest in Malaysian Borneo that Indigenous communities had envisioned co-managing and self-governing has been turned into an active commercial logging concession, according to a recent civil society report.
The 283,500-hectare (700,500-acre) Upper Baram Forest Area, in the northeastern part of the state of Sarawak, was proposed as a community-led conservation area more than 15 years ago.
In 2021, the Sarawak Forest Department secured $1.4 million from the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), which promotes the sustainable use of forests, to develop a conservation initiative with 32 Indigenous villages, called the Baram Peace Park. However, the state government subsequently granted a 170,000-hectare (420,000-acre) timber concession in 2024 to a company called Borneoland Timber Resources Sdn. Bhd., overlapping key cultural and ecological zones, reports contributor Danielle Keeton-Olsen for Mongabay.
According to a report from Swiss-based nonprofit Bruno Manser Fonds, a key funder of the Baram Peace Park project, between March and May 2025, community observers tracked more than 160 logging trucks exiting the concession monthly. These trucks hauled an estimated 10.5 million ringgit ($2.6 million) in timber per month.
Logging paths have penetrated core primary forest around Gunung Murud Kecil, a peak central to the Indigenous Penan heritage, threatening protected species including helmeted hornbills (Rhinoplax vigil), sun bears (Helarctos malayanus), and Sunda clouded leopards (Neofelis diardi). Affected villagers allege loggers have violated native customary rights by bulldozing land and destroying ancestral fruit trees.
Komeok Joe, CEO and founder of the Penan rights organization Keruan, said local communities are actively monitoring and mobilizing to defend their forests. “If the logging doesn’t stop this year, the forest might be finished in those two areas,” he said.
State authorities, however, defend the timber concession. Hamden Mohammad, director of the Sarawak Forest Department, told Mongabay that Bruno Manser Fonds held a “misunderstanding — or misrepresentation — of the project’s original concept and objectives.” He added the project was always intended as an “integrated landscape management area” that permitted timber licensing alongside community use and conservation.
Mohammad also pointed to a decision by the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak, dismissing an Indigenous-led challenge, as an indication that there were no irregularities with the timber concession.
“Accordingly, assertions that the concession was improperly granted solely because it was not subject to a public tender process are not supported by the relevant legal requirements or the Court’s findings,” he said.
Mohammad added that not all communities in Upper Baram are opposed to Borneoland’s logging activities. However, he acknowledged the recent blockades held by some residents were a sign that Indigenous communities were frustrated with the concession.
Read the full story by Danielle Keeton-Olsen here.
Banner image: Timber is chopped and tagged for transport at a logging area near the site of the former Baram dam blockade on Aug. 22, 2023. Image by Danielle Keeton-Olsen for Mongabay.
