Forest Land Use Development and its Benefits toIndigenous Peoples

Abstract

The Malaysian Criteria and Indicators (MC&I) for Forest Management Certification is the standard used for assessing forest management practices for the purpose of certification. The MC&I (2002) is a result of the collaboration between the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) which was initiated in 1999.This criteria was formulated to ensure forest management and development shall not threaten or diminish, either directly or indirectly, the resources or tenure rights, an existing ecosystem and indigenous peoples, where forest harvesting commenced area appropriate to the scale and intensity of forest management operations. Among of the principle of the MC&I related to forest land and indigenous are stated in principle number three and number five, where the legal and customary rights of indigenous peoples to own, use and manage their lands, territories, and resources shall be recognized and respected, and forest management operations shall encourage the efficient use of the forest’s multiple products and services to ensure economic viability and a wide range of environmental and social benefit. Mutual understanding among indigenous people and forest developer or other stakeholders offer substantial promise as a way of dealing with natural resource benefits in equitable manner. This paper analyse timber harvesting operations and its benefit to the community of indigenous peoples in Ulu Jelai Forest Reserve (F.R). Through global positioning system (GPS) techniques and geographical information system (GIS) compatible format, the areal extent of forest area opening can be analyzed and interpreted in a quick way. Results indicated that from 4,592 ha of study area about 3.7 percent was logged in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Meanwhile 3.5 percent in compartment 472 and 484 is still under operations with reduced impact logging (RIL) practices. In that area about 34 percent was resided by indigenous peoples namely Simoi’s village since 1990. Serious efforts are undertaken on timber harvesting activity to ensure sustainable forest management (SFM), Multi Criteria and Indicator (MC&I) standards compliance and protection to indigenous peoples. Proper constructed forest road and mechanized harvesting used are awareness undertaking by forest concessionaire to avoid sedimentation into stream and effect to water quality. The benefit from the best management practices by concessionaires providing services to improve their socio-economic status are discussed.