Malaysia’s indigenous Orang Asli call for end to logging amid fears for endangered tigers
- The Pahang government has leased a tract of forest to private company YP Olio, which plans to turn the site into an oil palm plantation
- Logging has pushed tigers from their natural habitats and prompted indigenous Orang Asli villagers in Pahang to build a blockade against the loggers
For 16 months, indigenous Orang Asli villagers of Kampung Mesau in Malaysia have been living at a fork in a logging road. In the Chini-Bera forests in Pahang, they have built a wooden blockade to stop loggers from entering the thick forests north of the fork.
South of the fork, however, are shrubs and silt as far as the eyes can see. Loggers have cleared the forests there. There are no monkeys to hunt, wood to collect, or herbs to gather. Locals say it is open and plain, and not fit for the Orang Asli’s traditional lifestyle.
The villagers sleep and eat by the blockade. They are defiant but wary of the dangers they face. One tiger, perhaps more, lives nearby. Residents spotted a set of paw prints on the bank of a pond near the blockade in May.
In Malaysia, forest plantations are upending the way of life for Orang Asli
Tigers used to keep to themselves in the forests, says Omar Rani, the de facto leader of Kampung Mesau’s resistance against logging. He thinks the tigers’ prey, like deer, wild boars and monkeys are starving as forest fruit trees are cut and replaced by oil palm. Depleted forests have forced tigers to hunt closer to villages. He saw a tiger crossing a logging road there in 2021.
“The monkeys used to be fat,” says Omar’s cousin, Aminah Tan. She presses her arms to her sides. “Now they are skinny!”
Race against time
Time is running out for the forests and their dependents. The Pahang government has leased an 8,498-hectare (21,000-acre) site in the forest to private company YP Olio Sdn Bhd, which has directors from the Pahang royal family and a Thai energy conglomerate. In September, YP Olio received approval from the federal Department of Environment to turn the site into oil palm plantation.
With this project, YP Olio is undoing national policies to protect the endangered Malayan tiger and jeopardising already-strenuous efforts to make Malaysian oil palm sustainable. Conservationists have implored the company and state government to drop the project for profitable and ecological alternatives.
YP Olio’s project began in December 2019 when the company registered a 99-year land title of the 8,498-hectare site from the Pahang state government that allowed the company to plant oil palm in the forests. Logging started immediately, though it was still part of a forest reserve.
Between January 2020 and June 2021, loggers who applied for permits to log “private land” cleared about 2,600 hectares of the site. The site lost its forest reserve status in November 2020. Logging stopped after June 2021, perhaps due to the Orang Asli’s resistance.
YP Olio’s directors did not respond to questions.
YP Olio will profit significantly from the project, first from timber and then oil palm. The company could cut the remaining forested 5,900 hectares on its site – the timber would sell for more than 166 million ringgit (US$35.2 million), according to an estimate by an experienced Malaysian logger independent of YP Olio, based on current market prices and photos of logs in the area.
Ecological costs
In Malaysia, forest plantations are upending the way of life for Orang Asli
By approving a huge oil palm plantation inside the Chini-Bera forests, the Pahang government and the federal Department of Environment have enabled YP Olio to degrade the CFS and hurt tiger numbers.
Alarmed by the project’s threat to biodiversity, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia rejected the project in an invited review in 2021. After revisions, the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) report was eventually approved by the Department of Environment in September 2022. The department said “the mitigation methods in the EIA report are sufficient to reduce environmental impact”.
Forestry consultant Christine Fletcher said the YP Olio project shows that decision-makers and agencies fail to understand the CFS master plan. Another forestry consultant, Surin Suksuwan, who is also a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, added that fragmenting forest blocks would render ecological linkages useless. Conservationist biologist Badrul Azhar also warned that drastic landscape changes could wipe out species that cannot adapt. At the same time, monoculture plantations cannot sustain most native wildlife.
Role of politicians, monarchy
The project’s ecological damage is particularly ironic because YP Olio’s directors and shareholders, the Pahang government, and the Pahang monarchy are associated with prominent tiger conservation efforts.
For one, YP Olio’s top shareholder and director, Tun Putera Yasir Ahmad Shah bin Mohamed Moiz, is a cousin to Pahang’s prince-regent, Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah. Tengku Hassanal leads the NGO Save the Malayan Tiger. Both Tengku Hassanal and Pahang’s chief minister have promised to protect tiger habitats in the state.
YP Olio’s current and past directors also included senior representatives from Thai energy company B.Grimm Power PCL. B.Grimm has long partnered with WWF Thailand to protect tigers. Shareholding documents suggest that the Link family, who owns B.Grimm also owns about 30 per cent of YP Olio.
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Although YP Olio can clear the forest now that the department has approved its project, it faces new hurdles. For one, its future oil palm would most certainly fail the mandatory Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil certification after revised standards prohibited “conversion of natural forests” from December 31, 2019.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Board, which regulates the palm oil industry, says it disagrees with planters clearing forests. It adds that the federal government has already banned the conversion of forest reserves for oil palm.
The other hurdle is legal. The resident Orang Asli, led by Omar, are suing YP Olio, the Pahang government, and other government agencies involved. The suit filed on September 27 at the Kuala Lumpur High Court accuses the defendants of breaching Orang Asli customary rights. Omar’s community has claimed the surrounding land as their customary land, most of which falls within YP Olio’s site.
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But profitable alternatives exist to avoid these hurdles, say conservationists.
YP Olio and the Pahang government could choose to keep the forests and plant oil palm on idle agricultural land, said a the Malaysian Nature Society, adding YP Olio should replant idle land rather than “cutting pristine forests because pristine forests need to be kept”.
Another environmental NGO, Sahabat Alam Malaysia, advised YP Olio to invest in “community-based forest conservation and restoration”, such as the governmental Forest Conservation Certification scheme. That would help build the company’s long-term value now. And the Pahang government could tap into international climate funds for conservation.
For the Orang Asli by the blockade, they have decided to stand their ground, despite better compensation offers from YP Olio. Cutting the forest doesn’t hurt just the Orang Asli, says Rani, an elder in the village. “The government also loses out.”
This story was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Centre’s Rainforest Investigations Network initiative. A longer version of this story was first published on Macaranga.org.
