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Sarawak: Borneo revisited 1989-2015

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  • Apocalyptic scenes. Vast red tracts of land, long dusty roads, scar the green rainforest, carrying a constant cargo of logging trucks moving down, whilst construction machinery moves upwards for the Murum Dam project. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. <br />
<br />
The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses<br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done ir
    01_ngd_039_borneo_1F2C9714.JPG
  • Vast red tracts of land, long dusty roads, scar the green rainforest, carrying a constant cargo of logging trucks moving down, whilst construction machinery moves upwards for the Murum Dam project. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. <br />
<br />
The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses<br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological
    02_ngd_003_borneo_1F2C0057.JPG
  • Vast red tracts of land, long dusty roads, scar the green rainforest, carrying a constant cargo of logging trucks moving down, whilst construction machinery moves upwards for the Murum Dam project. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. <br />
<br />
The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses<br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological
    12_ngd_010_borneo_1F2C9695.JPG
  • The Bakun Dam with overflow and power turbine installation. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012..Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. ..The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region.
    029_borneo_1F2C9512.JPG
  • The Bakun Dam with overflow and power turbine installation. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012..Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. ..The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region.
    032_borneo_1F2C9544.JPG
  • August 2012: Once primary rainforest, but no more, petrified trees surround the artificial lake shore of the Bakun Dam reservoir. Millions of trees are dying underneath the water. Once home to the Kenyah native people at Long Geng and many other communities, and a diverse ecosystem of flora and fauna. Belaga district, Sarawak, Borneo <br />
<br />
The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region.
    075_borneo_1F2C9608.JPG
  • August 2012: Settled Penan, Baru and Menit, formerly nomadic, but still living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, deep in the rainforest near the Kalimantan border. Forced to leave their traditional hunting grounds as they have been logged and destroyed. Limbang district, Sarawak, Borneo<br />
<br />
The sound of chainsaws is not too distant, oil palm plantations are looming and the pipeline is right next door. Long Adang and Long Gita, Limbang Sarawak, Borneo. New roads are being built, though much of the transport follows the existing roads and infrastructure created by logging. Whilst the government heralds the project as a source of jobs for local people, it is unlikely to bring much but wanton damage to rainforest habitat and paving the way for further deforestation by oil palm plantations. Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region...
    134_borneo_1F2C1944.JPG
  • The family of Along Sega, a hard fighting resistance fighter who died a decade before. The Penan native people are learning to live a sedentary lifestyle which includes living in wooden houses, farming and fishing. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. These days they have become forcibly settled as their hunting grounds have been largely destroyed by logging concessions and palm-oil plantations. Limbang Sarawak Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
There are only a few, difficult to find, scarce communities of semi-nomadic Penan nowadays, who live like of those of old, hidden away deep in the tropical forest, hunter-gathering, wearing loin cloth ‘chawats’, hunting wild boar with blowpipes and poison arrows, and extracting sago-root flour, their staple carbohydrate, by hand.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Twenty three years ago: Baru and Banai Tebai standing in front of a temporary 'sulap' structure, made from a mixture of timber, bamboo and rattan. Semi-nomadic Penan, indigenous hunter-gatherers, dressed in traditional 'chawats' loincloth. Long Tegang, Limbang district, Sarawak, Borneo 1989<br />
<br />
Semi-Nomadic Penan, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia. Penan men with their sulap settlement  . Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo162.jpg
  • Twenty three years later: Penan natives, Baru standing with the brother of Banai Tebai. They lived twenty years ago in Long Tegan, but since the area was so thoroughly deforested, they moved upriver and now live in Long Gita. In a permanent traditional native design hardwood house on stilts. Limbang district, Sarawak, Borneo 2012<br />
<br />
Nomadic decades ago, now settled, far from their original hunter-gatherer grounds.<br />
<br />
The huge Petronas Sabah-Sarawak pipeline is being built across the Borneo rainforest through native areas. Petronas is the government cash cow which funds about 45% of its budget. New roads are being built, though much of the transport follows the existing roads and infrastructure created by logging. Whilst the government heralds the project as a source of jobs for local people, it is unlikely to bring much but wanton damage to rainforest habitat and paving the way for further deforestation by oil palm plantations. ..Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. ..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done ir
    116_borneo_1F2C2362.JPG
  • PENAN SULAP, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Penan family in sulap settlement. Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo309.jpg
  • Twenty three years ago: Seventeen year old Den Along (LHS) daughter of Along Sega the renowned resistance fighter, with her daughter Senorita, 1yr old (child in the middle). They are indigenous Penan native people, living as semi-nomadic hunter gatherers. Long Tegang, Limbang district, Sarawak, Borneo 1989<br />
<br />
<br />
PENAN SULAP, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Penan family in sulap settlement. Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo333.jpg
  • Twenty three years later: Forty year old Den Along (RHS) daughter of Along Sega, with her daughter Senorita (LHS), who is now 24 yrs old, and Senorita's two year old son Dimas. They are indigenous Penan native people, who were once nomadic hunter gatherers and are now settled. Long Gita, Limbang district, Sarawak, Borneo 2012<br />
<br />
Nomadic decades ago, they have since been forced to move up-river, to settled accomodation, far from their original hunter-gatherer grounds. The sound of chainsaws is not too distant, oil palm plantations are looming and the pipeline is right next door. What will the future hold for them? Long Adang and Long Gita, Limbang Sarawak, Borneo..The huge Petronas Sabah-Sarawak pipeline is being built across the Borneo rainforest through native areas. Petronas is the government cash cow which funds about 45% of its budget. New roads are being built, though much of the transport follows the existing roads and infrastructure created by logging. Whilst the government heralds the project as a source of jobs for local people, it is unlikely to bring much but wanton damage to rainforest habitat and paving the way for further deforestation by oil palm plantations. ..Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. ..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair.
    144_borneo_1F2C2155.JPG
  • Baru's family at Long Gita. Penan indigenous native people, nomadic decades ago, have been forced to move up-river, to settled accomodation, far from their original hunter-gatherer grounds. The sound of chainsaws is not too distant, oil palm plantations are looming and the pipeline is right next door. What will the future hold for them? Long Adang and Long Gita, Limbang Sarawak, Borneo..The huge Petronas Sabah-Sarawak pipeline is being built across the Borneo rainforest through native areas. Petronas is the government cash cow which funds about 45% of its budget. New roads are being built, though much of the transport follows the existing roads and infrastructure created by logging. Whilst the government heralds the project as a source of jobs for local people, it is unlikely to bring much but wanton damage to rainforest habitat and paving the way for further deforestation by oil palm plantations. ..Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. ..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region...
    131_borneo_1F2C1922.JPG
  • DAYAK, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia. Dayak, 'Kenyah', woman and child in papoose. Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo158.jpg
  • The family of Along Saga, a hard fighting resistance fighter who died a decade before. The Penan native people are learning to live a sedentary lifestyle which includes living in wooden houses, farming and fishing. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. These days they have become forcibly settled as their hunting grounds have been largely destroyed by logging concessions and palm-oil plantations. Limbang Sarawak Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
There are only a few, difficult to find, scarce communities of semi-nomadic Penan nowadays, who live like of those of old, hidden away deep in the tropical forest, hunter-gathering, wearing loin cloth ‘chawats’, hunting wild boar with blowpipes and poison arrows, and extracting sago-root flour, their staple carbohydrate, by hand.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • MEDICINAL HERBS AND PLANTS, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo144.jpg
  • Penan elderly woman, Sigangsey, in rice paddy. The Penan native people are learning to live a sedentary lifestyle which includes living in wooden houses, farming and fishing. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. These days they have become forcibly settled as their hunting grounds have been largely destroyed by logging concessions and palm-oil plantations.<br />
<br />
There are only a few, difficult to find, scarce communities of semi-nomadic Penan nowadays, who live like of those of old, hidden away deep in the tropical forest, hunter-gathering, wearing loin cloth ‘chawats’, hunting wild boar with blowpipes and poison arrows, and extracting sago-root flour, their staple carbohydrate, by hand.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • PENAN, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Penan with blowpipe, hunting animals in forest.Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo180.jpg
  • PENAN, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Penan with blowpipe, hunting animals in forest canopy, 1991<br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo177.jpg
  • PENAN, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Penan with blowpipe and hunting dogs.Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo187.jpg
  • August 2012: Penan native hunters with deer shot with blowpipe, the body was preserved in cold river water overnight and collected by the family the next day. Near Long Gita, Limbang district, Sarawak, Borneo<br />
<br />
The sound of chainsaws is not too distant, oil palm plantations are looming and the pipeline is right next door. What will the future hold for them? Long Adang and Long Gita, Limbang Sarawak, Borneo..The huge Petronas Sabah-Sarawak pipeline is being built across the Borneo rainforest through native areas. Petronas is the government cash cow which funds about 45% of its budget. New roads are being built, though much of the transport follows the existing roads and infrastructure created by logging. Whilst the government heralds the project as a source of jobs for local people, it is unlikely to bring much but wanton damage to rainforest habitat and paving the way for further deforestation by oil palm plantations.Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region...
    136_borneo_1F2C1974.JPG
  • PENAN, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Penan hunter with wild boar.Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo182.jpg
  • PENAN SAGO, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia. Baru's family, nomadic Penan retrieving flour from the sago root, 1989<br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo272.jpg
  • PENAN SAGO, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Nomadic Penan retrieving flour from the sago root. Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo271.jpg
  • PENAN SAGO, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Baru, a semi-nomadic Penan retrieving flour from the sago root, 1989<br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo268.jpg
  • Baru, a semi-nomadic Penan, indigenous hunter-gatherer, searching for sago and wild boar. Dressed in traditional 'chawats' loincloth, searching for sago from the forest. In the rainforest near Long Tegang, Limbang district, Sarawak, Borneo 1989<br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo154.jpg
  • August 2012: Baru living a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, with blowpipe and rattan rucksack, in primary rainforest twenty years later. Penan indigenous native, who was nomadic decades ago, have been forced to move up-river, to settled accomodation, far from his original hunting-gathering grounds. Near Long Gita, Limbang district, Sarawak, Borneo<br />
<br />
The sound of chainsaws is not too distant, oil palm plantations are looming and the pipeline is right next door. What will the future hold for them? Long Adang and Long Gita, Limbang Sarawak, Borneo..The huge Petronas Sabah-Sarawak pipeline is being built across the Borneo rainforest through native areas. Petronas is the government cash cow which funds about 45% of its budget. New roads are being built, though much of the transport follows the existing roads and infrastructure created by logging. Whilst the government heralds the project as a source of jobs for local people, it is unlikely to bring much but wanton damage to rainforest habitat and paving the way for further deforestation by oil palm plantations.<br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth
    133_borneo_1F2C1942.JPG
  • Primary rainforest. Penan indigenous native people, nomadic decades ago, have been forced to move up-river, to settled accomodation, far from their original hunter-gatherer grounds. The sound of chainsaws is not too distant, oil palm plantations are looming and the pipeline is right next door. What will the future hold for them? Long Adang and Long Gita, Limbang Sarawak, Borneo..The huge Petronas Sabah-Sarawak pipeline is being built across the Borneo rainforest through native areas. Petronas is the government cash cow which funds about 45% of its budget. New roads are being built, though much of the transport follows the existing roads and infrastructure created by logging. Whilst the government heralds the project as a source of jobs for local people, it is unlikely to bring much but wanton damage to rainforest habitat and paving the way for further deforestation by oil palm plantations. ..Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. ..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region...
    098_borneo_1F2C2633.JPG
  • Pristine tropical primary rainforest interior, with huge trees and many youthful saplings bursting from the forest floor. Supporting a diverse ecosystem in the world's oldest rainforest. Belaga district, Sarawak, Borneo 1991<br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo138.jpg
  • PRIMARY TROPICAL RAINFOREST, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Interior, trees, roots, undergrowth, forest floor. Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo132.jpg
  • Logging huge tropical hardwood trees in a Daiya Malaysia concession, a Japanese multinational working in Sarawak during the early nineties. Rejang, Belaga district, Sarawak, Borneo 1991<br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo001.jpg
  • Logging carries on unabated 24hrs a day. Heavy trucks removing their huge cargos of logs from the rainforest. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. <br />
<br />
The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses<br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    03_ngd_008_borneo_1F2C1237.JPG
  • The family of Along Sega, a hard fighting resistance fighter who died a decade before. The Penan native people are learning to live a sedentary lifestyle which includes living in wooden houses, farming and fishing. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. These days they have become forcibly settled as their hunting grounds have been largely destroyed by logging concessions and palm-oil plantations. Limbang Sarawak Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
There are only a few, difficult to find, scarce communities of semi-nomadic Penan nowadays, who live like of those of old, hidden away deep in the tropical forest, hunter-gathering, wearing loin cloth ‘chawats’, hunting wild boar with blowpipes and poison arrows, and extracting sago-root flour, their staple carbohydrate, by hand.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Aerial photography overlooking thousands of hectares of palm oil plantations. This was originally unspoilt primary rainforest. Near Long Akah, Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
These regions were were part of the world's oldest rainforest, which dates back 160 million years. The indigenous native communities’ survival depends on sustainable development of primary rainforest, a biodiversity resource, with countless insects, an array of birds and endangered species, which support one of the most diverse tropical ecosystems in the world. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Ground level view across thousands of hectares of palm oil plantations. This was originally unspoilt primary rainforest. Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
These regions were were part of the world's oldest rainforest, which dates back 160 million years. The indigenous native communities’ survival depends on sustainable development of primary rainforest, a biodiversity resource, with countless insects, an array of birds and endangered species, which support one of the most diverse tropical ecosystems in the world. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Aerial photography overlooking thousands of hectares of palm oil plantations. This was originally unspoilt primary rainforest. Near Long Akah, Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
These regions were were part of the world's oldest rainforest, which dates back 160 million years. The indigenous native communities’ survival depends on sustainable development of primary rainforest, a biodiversity resource, with countless insects, an array of birds and endangered species, which support one of the most diverse tropical ecosystems in the world. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Aerial photography overlooking thousands of hectares of palm oil plantations. This was originally unspoilt primary rainforest. Marudi, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
These regions were were part of the world's oldest rainforest, which dates back 160 million years. The indigenous native communities’ survival depends on sustainable development of primary rainforest, a biodiversity resource, with countless insects, an array of birds and endangered species, which support one of the most diverse tropical ecosystems in the world. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Aerial photography overlooking thousands of hectares of palm oil plantations. This was originally unspoilt primary rainforest. Marudi, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
These regions were were part of the world's oldest rainforest, which dates back 160 million years. The indigenous native communities’ survival depends on sustainable development of primary rainforest, a biodiversity resource, with countless insects, an array of birds and endangered species, which support one of the most diverse tropical ecosystems in the world. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Ground level view across thousands of hectares of palm oil plantations. This was originally unspoilt primary rainforest. Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
These regions were were part of the world's oldest rainforest, which dates back 160 million years. The indigenous native communities’ survival depends on sustainable development of primary rainforest, a biodiversity resource, with countless insects, an array of birds and endangered species, which support one of the most diverse tropical ecosystems in the world. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Ground level view across thousands of hectares of palm oil plantations. This was originally unspoilt primary rainforest. Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
These regions were were part of the world's oldest rainforest, which dates back 160 million years. The indigenous native communities’ survival depends on sustainable development of primary rainforest, a biodiversity resource, with countless insects, an array of birds and endangered species, which support one of the most diverse tropical ecosystems in the world. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Beginnings of oil-palm cash crops, plantations in Sarawak, MALAYSIA 1989<br />
<br />
Tropical primary rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, cash crops and plantations, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous native tribal peoples.  World Bank project.
    sarawak_borneo108.jpg
  • Logging carries on unabated 24hrs a day. Heavy trucks removing their huge cargos of logs from the rainforest. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012..Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. ..The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region.
    012_borneo_1F2C0004.JPG
  • Slash and burn cultivation by native peoples to plant subsistence crops, mainly wild mountain rice. Unfortunately the Sarawak government mostly doesn't recognise pristine rainforest as ancestral lands; it is only when the settlers cut down the forest for farming, that it is recognised as their own native lands. Limbang, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Slash and burn cultivation by native peoples to plant subsistence crops, mainly wild mountain rice. Unfortunately the Sarawak government mostly doesn't recognise pristine rainforest as ancestral lands; it is only when the settlers cut down the forest for farming, that it is recognised as their own native lands. Limbang, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Concrete replaces wood. Sungai Asap Longhouse community where Long Geng Kenyah community was forcibly resettled after their homes where flooded by the Bakun Dam. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. <br />
<br />
The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses<br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    07_ngd_044_borneo_1F2C9316.JPG
  • Kelabit sedentary Dayaks, living in longhouses, rely on fishing, hunting and farming to survive. New style longhouse with aspirational lifestyle that comes with development. Limbang, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • August 2012: Kelabit Native family household, who have Penan neighbours. The writing is on the wall when they hang up Penan blowpipes and other traditional native paraphenalia, on their lounge wall. Decades ago these blowpipes would have been used for hunting, even by the Kelabit natives. Long Napir, Limbang district, Sarawak, Borneo<br />
<br />
Kelabit native people facing threats to lose their traditional lands, ancestral burial grounds, culture and habitat, once a hydro-electric dam project floods their lands. The Limbang valley including Long Napir, a cluster of four settlements of Penan and Kelabit people, is threatened by a new hydro-electric project which will flood the entire area, displacing thousands of native people. The Murum Hydro-electric project already underway affecting the Rejang region, will displace over 24,000 Dayak native residents, destroying their longhouses and forest habitat. The dam site is located on the Murum River, in the uppermost part of the Rajang River basin, 200 km from Bintulu. Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region.
    104_borneo_1F2C1556.JPG
  • Native men in pool room café on the side of the road. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012..Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. ..The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region.
    088_borneo_1F2C1209.JPG
  • Kelabit man with gun and fourwheel drive vehicle. Sedentary Dayaks, living in longhouses, they rely on fishing, hunting and farming to survive. Limbang, Sarawak, Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Kelabit native people, sedentary Dayaks. Father and children in four-wheel drive vehicle during hunting expedition. Long Napir, Limbang, Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Kelabit native people, sedentary Dayaks. Hunting for spoor tracks of wild boar in forest at night with torches. Long Napir, Limbang, Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Penan elderly couple with cat, the man still wears the old style chawat loincloths. They where nomadic a few decades ago. The Penan native people are learning to live a sedentary lifestyle which includes living in wooden houses, farming and fishing. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. These days they have become forcibly settled as their hunting grounds have been largely destroyed by logging concessions and palm-oil plantations. Long Napir, Limbang, Sarawak Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
There are only a few, difficult to find, scarce communities of semi-nomadic Penan nowadays, who live like of those of old, hidden away deep in the tropical forest, hunter-gathering, wearing loin cloth ‘chawats’, hunting wild boar with blowpipes and poison arrows, and extracting sago-root flour, their staple carbohydrate, by hand.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Using petrol generators, the Penan can afford to have electricity at night. The children like to watch bollywood movies even though they don't understand the words. The Penan native people are learning to live a sedentary lifestyle which includes living in wooden houses, farming and fishing. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. These days they have become forcibly settled as their hunting grounds have been largely destroyed by logging concessions and palm-oil plantations.<br />
<br />
There are only a few, difficult to find, scarce communities of semi-nomadic Penan nowadays, who live like of those of old, hidden away deep in the tropical forest, hunter-gathering, wearing loin cloth ‘chawats’, hunting wild boar with blowpipes and poison arrows, and extracting sago-root flour, their staple carbohydrate, by hand.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Sinan eats sago the traditional way whilst his granddaughter sucks a lolipop. The Penan native people are learning to live a sedentary lifestyle which includes living in wooden houses, farming and fishing. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. These days they have become forcibly settled as their hunting grounds have been largely destroyed by logging concessions and palm-oil plantations.<br />
<br />
There are only a few, difficult to find, scarce communities of semi-nomadic Penan nowadays, who live like of those of old, hidden away deep in the tropical forest, hunter-gathering, wearing loin cloth ‘chawats’, hunting wild boar with blowpipes and poison arrows, and extracting sago-root flour, their staple carbohydrate, by hand.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Using petrol generators, the Penan can afford to have electricity at night. The children like to watch bollywood movies even though they don't understand the words. The Penan native people are learning to live a sedentary lifestyle which includes living in wooden houses, farming and fishing. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. These days they have become forcibly settled as their hunting grounds have been largely destroyed by logging concessions and palm-oil plantations.<br />
<br />
There are only a few, difficult to find, scarce communities of semi-nomadic Penan nowadays, who live like of those of old, hidden away deep in the tropical forest, hunter-gathering, wearing loin cloth ‘chawats’, hunting wild boar with blowpipes and poison arrows, and extracting sago-root flour, their staple carbohydrate, by hand.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Penan elderly couple, the man still wears the old style chawat loincloths. They where nomadic a few decades ago. The Penan native people are learning to live a sedentary lifestyle which includes living in wooden houses, farming and fishing. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. These days they have become forcibly settled as their hunting grounds have been largely destroyed by logging concessions and palm-oil plantations. Long Napir, Limbang, Sarawak Malaysia 2015<br />
<br />
There are only a few, difficult to find, scarce communities of semi-nomadic Penan nowadays, who live like of those of old, hidden away deep in the tropical forest, hunter-gathering, wearing loin cloth ‘chawats’, hunting wild boar with blowpipes and poison arrows, and extracting sago-root flour, their staple carbohydrate, by hand.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • LOGGING DAYAK BLOCKADE, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Night-time, sitting around oil burner. Kenyah and Penan blockading logging road, 1991 <br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo355.jpg
  • DAYAK DANCE, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Dayak, 'Kenyah', dances brave warrior dance on longhouse  verandah. Chasing away  evil spirits and recounting courageous hunting expeditions, 1991 <br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo299.jpg
  • Kenyah elderly couple from Long Lawan in floating longhouse on the Bakun Dam reservoir. Home of the Kenyah native people who once lived in Long Geng, which was flooded by the Bakun Dam. Their community is now dispersed between Sungai Asap, Long Lewan and floating longhouses on the Bakun reservoir. Bakun Belaga region, Sarawak Borneo 2012<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. <br />
<br />
The Bakun hydro-electric dam, which covers 700km². Construction of the dam required the relocation of more than 9,000 native residents, mainly Kayan and Kenyah indigenous peoples who lived in the flooded area. Many Sarawak natives have been relocated to a longhouse settlement named Sungai Asap in Bakun. Most of them were subsistence farmers. Each family were promised only 3 acres of land, insufficient to survive, and many families still have not been compensated for the loss of their longhouses<br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    04_ngd_081_borneo_1F2C0343.JPG
  • August 2012: Penan natives watch as their homes are threatened yet again by so-called development. Petronas Sabah-Sarawak gas pipeline is being excavated across the Borneo rainforest ravaging native areas. Close to Long Adang, Belaga district, Sarawak, Borneo<br />
<br />
Penan indigenous native people, nomadic decades ago, have been forced to move up-river, to settled accomodation, far from their original hunter-gatherer grounds. The sound of chainsaws is not too distant, oil palm plantations are looming and the pipeline is right next door. <br />
<br />
Petronas is the government cash cow which funds about 45% of its budget. New roads are being built, though much of the transport follows the existing roads and infrastructure created by logging. Whilst the government heralds the project as a source of jobs for local people, it is unlikely to bring much but wanton damage to rainforest habitat and paving the way for further deforestation by oil palm plantations. ..Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991-2012. ..Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere e
    158_borneo_1F2C2569.JPG
  • A Penan chief standing next to a 'nailed' tree, marked with a tin can nailed to the tree, in Sarawak's Primary rainforest. They nail the tree with hundreds of 15 cm long nails making it impossible for the tree to be cut down with a chainsaw. Any attempt to cut the tree and it will break the chainsaw and hurt the logger. The Baram Penan indigenous people have successfully blockaded their forest from logging. They are settled since 60 years and resisted against the government logging companies longer than any other native peoples. They founded the "Penan Peace Park", their name for the rainforest territory around their longhouse settlements, which is still virgin primary rainforest, uncut by loggers. Baram, Sarawak 2014 <br />
<br />
L’image monte un chef de Penan avec un arbre plein des clous. Les centaines des clous dans les arbres arrêtent des bucherons d’abattre des arbres, au risque d'exploser leur tronçonneuse et se blesser. L'arbre est marqué avec un canette boisson écrasés attaché avec un clou à l'arbre.<br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015.  <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, speci
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • LOGGING & INDIGENOUS DAYAKS, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Along Sega (lhs) Penan, Kelabit Jangin Taibilung, and Penan Aweng, all three activists fighting for landrights issues in the face of commercial logging, 1989 <br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo276.jpg
  • LOGGING DAYAK BLOCKADE, MALAYSIA. Sarawak, Borneo, South East Asia.  Dayaks blockading logging road. Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo347.jpg
  • Kenyah native people blockading a logging road, which they manned for two years continuously against logging companies. Several groups of people rotated every few weeks. They were also supported by people from Long Geng. Near Long Lewan, Sarawak, Borneo 1991<br />
<br />
Tropical rainforest and one of the world's richest, oldest eco-systems, flora and fauna, under threat from development, logging and deforestation. Home to indigenous Dayak native tribal peoples, farming by slash and burn cultivation, fishing and hunting wild boar. Home to the Penan, traditional nomadic hunter-gatherers, of whom only one thousand survive, eating roots, and hunting wild animals with blowpipes. Animists, Christians, they still practice traditional medicine from herbs and plants. Native people have mounted protests and blockades against logging concessions, many have been arrested and imprisoned.
    sarawak_borneo349.jpg
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the  Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Demonstration at blockade site. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the  Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the  Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Night blockades. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the  Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Baram resistance meeting at night. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the  Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Baram resistance meeting at night. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the  Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Prayers at Baram blockade site. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Community leaders at site of Baram dam. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Community leaders at site of Baram dam. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the  Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Blockade and international protest at Baram Dam site. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
  • Blockades against the Baram Dam have been a huge success, after years of campaigning and protest, the  Baram Dam in Sarawak has now been shelved. Native leaders including Peter Kallang (white hat) from "Save Rivers" in longboat on Baram river. Baram Sarawak 2015<br />
<br />
The first of 12 mega-dam projects, was the Bakun Dam, which produced a reservoir of 700 sqkm, the size of Singapore, whose flooding began in 2010 and displaced around 10,000 Kenyah people, in Rajang and Belaga. The second phase at Murum would displace a further 24,000 native people, and Baram some 30,000. This huge development program has been overseen by Sarawak's former Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is now under investigation by Malaysian authorities for corruption, and who has amassed a personal fortune of more than 35 billion US dollars. <br />
<br />
Borneo native peoples and their rainforest habitat revisited two decades later: 1989/1991 and 2012/2014/2015. <br />
<br />
Sarawak's primary rainforests have been systematically logged over decades, threatening the sustainable lifestyle of its indigenous peoples who relied on nomadic hunter-gathering and rotational slash & burn cultivation of small areas of forest to survive. Now only a few areas of pristine rainforest remain; for the Dayaks and Penan this spells disaster, a rapidly disappearing way of life, forced re-settlement, many becoming wage-slaves. Large and medium size tree trunks have been sawn down and dragged out by bulldozers, leaving destruction in their midst, and for the most part a primary rainforest ecosystem beyond repair. Nowadays palm oil plantations and hydro-electric dam projects cover hundreds of thousands of hectares of what was the world's oldest rainforest ecosystem which had some of the highest rates of flora and fauna endemism, species found there and nowhere else on Earth, and this deforestation has done irreparable ecological damage to that region
    borneo_revisited_nigel_dickinson_201...JPG
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Nigel Dickinson

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