Malaysia 's Sarawak state has failed to protect an Indigenous community from a timber company that logged without the community's consent and seeks to remove them from their land, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Similar rights abuses throughout Sarawak underscore the need for the government to regulate businesses and for international buyers of Malaysian wood products - including the European Union, the United States, and Japan - to enforce sustainability laws for timber imports.
The 54-page report, "Facing the Bulldozers: Iban Indigenous Resistance to the Timber Industry in Sarawak, Malaysia," details how the Malaysian company Zedtee, part of the Shin Yang Group timber conglomerate, logged in the ancestral territory of the Iban community Rumah Jeffery without their consent. Human Rights Watch found that Zedtee's conduct did not meet Sarawak's laws and policies, or the terms of the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme. Rather than hold Zedtee accountable, the Sarawak state government threatened to arrest protesters and demolish Rumah Jeffery's village.
"The Sarawak government should protect Rumah Jeffery's rights and ensure that Zedtee compensates the community for the harm suffered," said Luciana Téllez Chávez, senior environment researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Malaysia's federal government should enact and enforce laws protecting Indigenous rights to prevent these violations from recurring."
Rumah Jeffery is an Iban Indigenous community residing on the banks of Sarawak's Belawit River. Approximately 60 residents forage the surrounding rainforest for edible plants, harvest fruit trees, and trap fish in nearby streams. The community grows vegetables for their own consumption and cash crops they sell in local markets.
The Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (SADIA), an Indigenous organization that supports communities in defending their land rights, assisted Rumah Jeffery in mapping their ancestral territory. A map that Human Rights Watch obtained based on aerial photographs taken by the British air force in 1951 shows evidence of the community's presence on the land at the time.
"Rumah Jeffery meets all the requirements under the Sarawak Land Code for the government to legally recognize their customary rights over their ancestral land," said Nicholas Mujah, SADIA's general secretary.
The Sarawak government granted Zedtee two leases that completely cover Rumah Jeffery's territory. One lease is a logging concession, while the other is for a tree plantation. The logging concession is certified under the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme. The certification requires companies to respect Indigenous land rights. Community members said they never consented to relinquishing their land or forest resources to Zedtee. This discrepancy was not noted in the most recent audit of the logging concession, Human Rights Watch said.
While the Sarawak government requires tree plantations to be accredited under a sustainability certification program, Zedtee's tree plantation was not certified.
In 2022, Zedtee logged part of Rumah Jeffery's forest without their free, prior, and informed consent, a long-established principle of international law. The Rumah Jeffery village chief said that when protesters confronted the bulldozers, officials from the Sarawak Forest Department threatened to arrest them. Later, police threatened to demolish the community's longhouse.
Zedtee filed a complaint with the Forest Department against Rumah Jeffery. In October 2022, the Forest Department issued an eviction order against the community and five other Indigenous communities overlapping with Zedtee's lease. The community appealed to multiple government offices, without an official response thus far. The unenforced eviction order remains a constant source of anxiety for Rumah Jeffery.
Were the Sarawak Forest Department to evict the community, it would amount to a forced eviction in violation of Malaysia's international human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said. Relevant standards include the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which apply to both governments and companies.
Sarawak's laws and policies, while generally inadequate in regard to Indigenous rights, were not upheld in Rumah Jeffery's case. Sarawak's Land Code requires the state to "terminate" native customary land, or the community to "surrender" it and compensation paid before the land could be used.
Tree plantations - the leading driver of deforestation in Sarawak - feed into the state's timber exports, worth MYR 2.3 billion (US$560 million) in 2023. Zedtee's parent company, the Shin Yang Group, lists Japan, the EU, and the US on its website as markets for its wood products. Zedtee and the Shin Yang Group have not responded to multiple requests for comment.
The Forest Department said Zedtee's tree plantation was "managed and monitored in strict accordance with all applicable forest regulations, policies, and laws, "though it was never certified. The Certification Council responded that it had engaged Zedtee on the allegations and, more generally, that it was revising its standards. SIRIM, which audits Zedtee's logging concession, and the Sarawak Land and Survey Department have not responded.
Top buyers of wood from Sarawak, including France, the Netherlands, Japan, and the US, should enforce existing laws that regulate the trade of wood products: the EU Timber Regulation, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products, Japan's Clean Wood Act, and the US Lacey Act Amendment of 2008.
The Malaysian federal government should cap tree plantations as it has already done for oil palm plantations and make certification mandatory for all tree plantations, Human Rights Watch said. The Sarawak government should cancel long-term timber leases that are ineligible for sustainability certification, in line with its own policy.
"The international trade of wood products tainted by human rights abuses and deforestation is a shared responsibility between sellers and buyers," Téllez Chávez said. "They both need to clean up supply chains, protect rights, and safeguard nature."
