Sarawak rainforest and its indigenous peoples

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

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.

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Copyright: Nigel Dickinson
Image Size: 5760x3840 / 3.6MB; https://nigeldickinson.photoshelter.com/p/terms-conditions; https://nigeldickinson.photoshelter.com/contact; sarawak malaysia deforestation rainforest rain forest dam hydro-electric hydro electric forestry tree wood timber oil palm development habitat environment tribes indigenous land human rights biodiversity people kenyah kelabit penan iban dayak native survival hunter gatherer farmer destroyed destruction modern hardwood pipeline Bakun Murum Long Napir Limbang Belaga Rejang Baram Kuching sustainable sustainability threatened
Contained in galleries: Sarawak 'Then' 1989-91 and 'Now' 2012-2015, Borneo Revisited Selection, Sarawak: Borneo revisited 1989-2015

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 />
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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.