An Indigenous Peoples group in Malaysia’s Pahang state has filed a court case against a palm oil plantation firm as well as the state and federal governments over a proposed palm oil project it says breaches their land rights and endangers wildlife.

Orang Temoq of Berengoi and Mesau villages have sued palm oil company YP Olio along with other state and federal actors, arguing that the palm oil project will have detrimental effects to the environment and the state’s biodiversity, including endangered species such as the Malayan tiger, environmental watchdog Rimbawatch said in an announcement Monday.

The conflict began in 2019 when the Pahang government leased 8,500 hectares of land in Bukit Ibam reserve to YP Olio for palm oil cultivation, local media outlet Macaranga posted on social media platform X.

By 2021, YP Olio had cleared 2,600 ha and currently the project site occupies about 83% of the customary land claimed by the Orang Asli of the two villages, it added.

According to the investigation from Macaranga, the proposed 8,500 ha of project site would have serious implications on the biodiversity and would displace the Orang Asli who live within the site.

Meanwhile, the group argues that the company breached its statutory duty by commencing logging activities in the area before it obtained approval for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) from the Department of Environment (DOE).

The group has sued the governments for failing in their duties to protect the community’s aboriginal rights.

BACKGROUND

After guarding their forest area against loggers for more than a year, the Temoq Asli group filed a civil suit in Sep. 2022 to fight for its land rights.

Areas within the forests of Bukit Ibam form a key component of Malaysia’s Central Forest Spine (CFS) Masterplan, which introduces 37 vital ecological corridors within the northern and southern parts of Peninsular Malaysia.

The Orang Temoq rely on these forests for their incomes, subsistence, and have been custodians of this forest area for generations.

YP Olio’s first EIA recognised that the site is located in the CFS and that it is inhabited by several endangered animals. It also admitted that most declining tiger populations are threatened, primarily, by habitat loss and fragmentation, commercial poaching, human-tiger conflict, declining prey base, and the lack of science in the monitoring of tiger and tigers’ prey.

It accepted that without these forest corridors, tigers are either killed or forced into inhospitable habitats, and that without proper development planning, the project will cause habitat fragmentation.

However, the government rejected that EIA.

It was later discovered that following the Temoq’s decision to go to court, YP Olio had filed a second EIA report which was approved by the government without informing the Indigenous group. The content of the approved EIA is not publicly available.

The Temoq have also filed for a judicial review against the government’s decision to approve the company’s second EIA, which they say was in breach of their right to a clean, safe, and sustainable environment as guaranteed under the Federal Constitution.

As well, the group claimed that both the state and federal governments alienated and leased the 8,500 ha of forest land to YP Olio even before the area was degazetted, making the lease to the palm oil firm “legally invalid”.

The first EIA had further recognised that an oil palm plantation would store less carbon on a per hectare basis compared to a forest, leading to the argument that the project site will result in Malaysia losing an important carbon sink, Rimbawatch added.

WATCHDOG’S WISHLIST

According to the federal government of Malaysia, conservation methods to save Malayan tigers have been intensified, mostly due to the efforts of armed forces veterans, police, Orang Asli, and local communities.

Currently, only 150 Malayan tigers – native to Peninsular Malaysia – are estimated to be left in the country. The tigers are now critically endangered due to habitat loss, poaching, and decline in prey.

The Central Forest Spine (CFS) is highly significant for the conservation of country’s tiger population and the country cannot afford to lose more forests and core tiger habitats, the watchdog said.

Conservationists have suggested companies use abandoned rubber plantations for their projects rather than cutting down forests and destroying wildlife.

Meanwhile, Rimbawatch has demanded that the all the entities involved including the plantation company YP Olio and the governments must take necessary action to protect the forests and the rights of Temoq living in these forests.

The customary lands of these groups must be recognised and gazetted in order to avoid logging, it added.

By Nikita Pandey – nikita@carbon-pulse.com

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