Thousands flee Malaysia floods, dam wall broken

Terra Daily via AFP: Floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains in Malaysia forced almost 14,000 people to flee their homes and seek shelter at relief centres, the official Bernama news agency said Wednesday.

Heavy rain coinciding with high tide flooded hundreds of homes in three northeastern states -- Terengganu, Pahang and Kelantan -- with some 13,746 people moved to evacuation centres, it said amid forecasts of more downpours.

Bernama said the flood situation was deteriorating as the number of evacuees continued to rise and some major roads in Pahang were closed as rivers burst their banks.

Muhammad Helmi Abdullah, the meteorological department's weather forecast director, warned that there could be more rain in Terengganu, Pahang and southern Johor state in the next few days.

"We expect intermittent rain to heavy showers in (some parts of) the states," he told AFP, adding that the northeast monsoon season would last until March and the affected states could experience at least three more "heavy rain" episodes....

A scene from a 2007 flood in Malaysia, shot by Ab Rahman, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

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).

The first session on global perspectives on conservation included a diverse group of presenters, most notably, on renewable energy (Dr. Daniel Kammen, Energy and Resources Group, University of California-Berkeley), on the connections between people and forests (Dr. Tint Lwin Thaung, Executive Director, The Centre for People and Forests), and on the drivers of deforestation (Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay.com).

The second session introduced a new and complementary initiative called "Forever Sabah", which aims to transform Sabah's current trajectory into a diversified, conservation-based green economy. The multi-stakeholder panel was moderated by Darrel Webber (Secretary General, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) and included interventions from Sam Mannan (Director, Sabah Forestry Department), Cynthia Ong (LEAP), Anne Lasimbang (PACOS Trust), Dr. Glen Reynolds (the Royal Society's South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme), Jeffrey Horowitz (Avoided Deforestation Partners), and Abdullah Latiff Mohamad (WWF-Malaysia).

The bulk of the rest of the conference consisted of breakout sessions (which included presentations and  open discussions about next steps for Heart of Borneo) on the following five themes: forests and biodiversity; agriculture and plantations; infrastructure and energy development; community development; and tourism. When the groups presented their outcomes in plenary, a common thread throughout - bolstered by strong representation of Indigenous community members from across Sabah - was the need to recognise Native Customary Rights and land title and to ensure participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Heart of Borneo design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation process.

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).