Sarawak - Articles Natives resist pulp and paper project Plantation covers 5 times size of Singapore Borneo Pulp and Paper One of the largest pulp and paper project in the world. Project Proponent: Borneo Pulp & Paper Sdn Bhd. Production capacity is at 750,000 tons per year. Project area covers 6,200 hectares Forest Plantation area covers 373,700 hectares (more than 5 times the size of Singapore) Project cost at RM3.3 billion 12 longhouses in the area would be affected. Land claims and crops compensation for the average estimate of 30 acres per household for the 277 affected families were not detailed. Detailed survey of the area was not revealed. Three longhouses were to be resettled, but no resettlement plan was revealed. There is ongoing arbitration regarding the inadequate compensation given for the NCL. TYPICAL of projects that involve large areas of NCL and necessitate the extinguishment NCR, the Borneo Pulp and Paper (BPP) project has also brought about a tremendous amount of distress for the pribumi of Sarawak. Five longhouses from the Sg Bawang area, and four longhouses from the Sg Kemena area are now caught up in a lengthy legal process, fighting against encroachment onto their land for the planting of the acacia plantations. The development of the forest plantation would extinguish NCR on about 7,000 hectares of land in Sg Bawang and about 6,000 hectares of land in Sg Kemena. One of the plaintiffs, TR Lipu claims that he has spent RM20,000 already on the ongoing struggle against BPP. Lipu and the people in his longhouse began facing the problems in October 1997 when BPP began planting acacia trees in their menoa (land that is their ancestral domain, used for hunting and gathering) without notifying them. This sparked the beginning of the lengthy process involved in demanding adequate compensation. At the end of 1998, with the cooperation of the District Officer and the Penghulu, the pribumi managed to demand at least RM30 per family to compensate for the planted area. BPP agreed verbally to this demand. However, later, BPP made an about turn and asserted that the pribumi had no rights over the land and refused to pay any compensation. In response, Lipu made police reports and collected the signatures of all the people in his longhouse, which were included in his plea to the Chief Minister and the State Council Member. In line with this resistance, the people in Lipu's house put up a blockade in 1998 to stop BPP from entering their land. This brought about a meeting between the pribumi, and the DO, the police, the Penghulu, and the lawyers. BPP ignored this meeting. Now, after three years of endless demands and struggle, and after all the fruit trees in the designated area have all been cut down, the pribumi in this area have managed to obtain an order which stops BPP from entering into their NCL. But the project will still go on.