An environmental group, Sahabat Alam Malaysia, today urged the Sarawak government to abandon its plan to convert traditional Penan lands into forest reserves.

A number of Penan communities in the remote interior of Batam District, Miri Division, have appealed to the authorities to stop carrying out survey works on their lands.

In a petition which was jointly signed by 10 headmen, the Penans said that by going ahead with the survey works, the government reflected lack of respect for the customs and rights of the indigenous group to their lands over which they have lived for generations.

The affected Penans also claimed that at the time of the notification to constitute the forest reserves and protected forests in 1998, they had send letters to the government stating their claims to the lands and objected to the proposal to include their communal customary lands for the forest reserves.

These objections, they added, have been totally ignored and the Penans have yet to receive any response from the state government.

In view of the ongoing concerns and objections voiced by the Penans, SAM president SM Mohamed Idris has called for the government to review laws and policies which allow the quashing of native customary rights before any forest areas are constituted as reserves.

"Until such laws and policies are reviewed, the creation of more and more permanent forest estates in the state will be perceived as a formula to deliberately increase the number of conflicts or disputes between the government and the communities, and between the communities and the timber and plantation companies," he said.

Mohamed added that the survey works and the forest reserves will gravely affect the ability of the Penans to have free access to their customary lands and resources.

"Our investigations also showed that most, if not all the so-called protected forests and forest reserves which were previously constituted have been licensed out to timber companies or used for other development purposes," he said.

According to a SAM representative based in Sarawak, Thomas Jalong, the land survey works began in April this year.

"More than 20 Penan communities are being affected as the area involved is very large. These indigenous people have been living on the land for generations. It is where they make a living," Jalong told malaysiakini .

The Penan, of which only 400 are nomadic, make up 10,000 of the Orang Ulu population in Sarawak. They are believed to be one of the last tribes of nomadic hunter-gatherers in the world.