Borneo Natives Proclaim Tropical Forest Reserve 16 December 2009
| News story Penan Peace Park" is aimed at protecting the last
primeval rainforests of Sarawak´s Upper Baram region and is
challenging the official logging plans – the Penan wish to
develop tourism and to protect their native rights. Seventeen
indigenous Penan communities have proclaimed a new tropical
forest reserve on their native lands in the jungles of Borneo.In
an official opening ceremony held last week at the remote jungle
village of Long Ajeng in the upper reaches of the Baram river,
the Penan leaders unanimously declared their intention of
conserving their last remaining primeval forests as a nature
reserve. The Penan wish to develop tourism in their region and
insist on the protection of their native customary rights James
Lalo Kesoh, the former penghulu (regional chief) of the Upper
Baram region, said at the inauguration ceremony for the ´Penan
Peace Park´: "As nomadic hunter-gatherers, we Penan people have
been roaming the rainforest