OneWorld.net (U.S.)

OneWorld.net note: At least a thousand indigenous people in the Malaysian state of Sarawak may lose their homes as the company Sarawak Energy Berhad plans to build hydroelectric dams that would submerge local villages and part of a World Heritage site.

• Kelabit girl: In the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak © magnusvk (flickr)Last year, Penan leader Kelesau Naan, who was known to be an anti-logging advocate, died under mysterious circumstances. The Penan have called for a full investigation of the circumstances of Naan's death.
• Swiss photographer Bruno Manser has taken thousands of pictures of the Penan people and their environment. He went missing in 2000 and is presumed dead. His pictures of the Penan can be found here.*
• The Mulu National Park -- now threatened by the Sarawak Energy Berhad's plans -- was listed as a World Heritage site in November 2000. The Park contains, among other environmental phenomena, the world's largest cave corridor.

Secret plans revealed to submerge Penan villages

From: Survival International

A secret document accidentally posted on the internet reveals plans to build a series of massive hydroelectric dams in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, submerging the homes of at least a thousand Penan, Kelabit and Kenyah tribal people.

View a map of the proposed dam sites

The document is a presentation by the managing director of the company Sarawak Energy Berhad, and gives the location of twelve proposed hydroelectric power projects to be constructed between now and 2020. Sarawak Energy Berhad controls the production and distribution of electricity within the state.

Penan, Sarawak, Malaysia.
©Robin Hanbury-Tenison/Survival

The dams would submerge several Penan, Kelabit and Kenyah villages, displacing at least a thousand people. One dam would also submerge part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Mulu National Park.

The dams are projected to produce far more electricity than Sarawak uses.

The Penan have been fighting for twenty years to prevent logging companies, including the Malaysian timber giant Samling, from cutting down their forests. But the companies, with the backing of the Malaysian government, have devastated much of the tribe’s land.

The Penan are nomadic hunter-gatherers. Many have now been settled, but continue to rely very much on the forest for their existence. About 300 still live a completely nomadic life.

The Sarawak Energy Berhad presentation was posted on a Chinese website and has now been removed.

Download the document from Survival's website.

To write a letter in support of the Penan, click here.

*To see Manser's pictures of the Penan, select Indigenous in the first drop-down menu and select Penan in the second drop-down menu that appear on this Web site.