Indigenous Forest Defenders put their bodies on the line to
blockade encroaching palm oil plantations in the beautiful Ulu
Belaga forest in Malaysian Borneo. Then, they were hauled into the
police station and forced to sign documents agreeing to their own
arrest.
It’s an outrageous act designed to intimidate and silence locals
just trying to protect their land from being destroyed by giant
palm oil company Sin Heng Chan.
Indigenous Kenyah and Penan communities depend on the Ulu
Belaga forest for their livelihoods. It’s a source of
traditional medicines, rattan, wood and palm hearts. The pristine
river that runs through it provides fish to eat.
Let’s demand that Sin Heng Chan stops the deforestation for palm
oil by making this a massive global issue that’s too big for them to
ignore.
Sign the petition: Sin Heng Chan stop
the deforestation of the Ulu Belaga forest.
Sin Heng Chan’s Urun palm oil plantation is sustainably certified
which is meant to ensure that there has been no new deforestation
since December 2019. But satellite data and footage from drones
(that Ekō members chipped in for) shows that almost 700 football
fields worth of forest were destroyed between September 2023 and
December 2024 and it isn't slowing down.
One local described the sound of trees being cut down as the
“sound of death”.
Villagers have been fighting back against the deforestation of
their native forest – signing an open letter to the government and
corporation calling on them to remove their land from the plantation
license. And the mounting pressure resulted in a Malaysian
Senator calling for a stop to the plantation’s deforestation
activities. Now, let’s really turn up the heat and back in what
local communities and the Senator are calling for.
Add your name to the petition and help
protect the Ulu Belaga forest.
Together we’ve taken on big corporations destroying forests and
won. We supported Forest Defenders who were hit with a defamation
lawsuit by Samling for exposing illegal logging. After global
pressure from thousands of people, Samling dropped its lawsuit
and stopped its illegal logging in Sarawak.
Let’s do it again and stop Sin Heng Chan from chopping down
the Ulu Belaga forest.
