Logging threatens Bornean forest earmarked for Indigenous Peace Park

The Upper Baram Forest Area in Malaysian Borneo, proposed over 15 years ago as a community-led conservation zone involving 32 Indigenous villages, has instead become an active commercial logging concession, according to a report from the Swiss nonprofit Bruno Manser Fonds. The Sarawak state government secured $1.4 million in 2021 from the International Tropical Timber Organization to develop the planned Baram Peace Park, then granted a 170,000-hectare timber concession to Borneoland Timber Resources in 2024.

Community observers tracked more than 160 logging trucks monthly exiting the concession between March and May 2025, hauling an estimated $2.6 million in timber per month, with logging roads reaching core forest near a peak central to Penan cultural heritage. Affected villagers allege loggers bulldozed land and destroyed ancestral fruit trees, threatening species including helmeted hornbills and Sunda clouded leopards.

Sarawak's forest department director disputed the characterization of events, saying the project was always meant to allow timber licensing alongside conservation and community use, and pointed to a court ruling dismissing an Indigenous legal challenge as vindication. He acknowledged recent blockades by residents but said not all local communities oppose the logging.

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