New projects must not encroach on native land

Saying no: Three native communities – Logan Entasan, Logan Kompeni and Sungai Brit A in Sarawak – protested the encroachment of the carbon-offsetting project on their land earlier this year. — Handout

IN conjunction with the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples that was marked on Aug 9, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) would like to call on the federal and state governments to ensure that indigenous customary territories in the country are not included in any carbon-offsetting projects without the free, prior and informed consent of impacted communities.

Central to this call is the principle that state governments and carbonoffsetting project proponents must not unilaterally determine the boundaries or size of indigenous customary territories, especially before it has been conclusively determined whether project areas overlap with community territories.