By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, March 21: Dayak National Congress (DNC) has urged the state government to assist the natives to get back their native customary rights (NCR) land for oil palm plantations.
Its president Paul Raja, in a press statement, said many natives are now involved in palm oil as smallholders, ranging from a few acres up to thousands of acres.
With the recent development of IOI Corporation Bhd (IOI Corp) returning the NCR lands back to the owners, Paul is calling on the state government to help the natives to fast track the process of getting back their lands for development.
“Nowadays, many natives are involved in oil palm farming ranging from a few acres up to thousands of acres.
“This is a testimony that the natives are just as interested as any other community to participate in and benefit from any development,” he said.
Paul opined that the NCR lands that have not been brought to court should also be voluntarily returned to the owners.
He also hoped that more companies can follow the example shown by IOI Corp as a move that could reconcile all the communities in Sarawak.
Last Friday (Mar 19), IOI Corp in a statement said it had relinquished its interest over 5,000 hectares of NCR land in Miri to resolve the long standing land disputes in Sarawak.
It added that the state government had made a far reaching and unprecedented offer to declare that area of approximately 5,000 hectares of land a native communal reserve and subsequently granted the communities communal and individual land titles, giving better legal rights and protection to the communities than the NCR.
On another note, Paul said one of the requirements of the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification standard is that oil palm plantation or estates encumbered by NCR must not diminish or threaten those NCR land.
With that, he added there are many benefits for oil palm companies who comply with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standard and now the MSPO standard as their products are able to be exported to many overseas markets.
Paul asserted that IOI Corp is undergoing the RSPO and MSPO compliance.
“It is quite well-known in Europe that there are oil palm companies in Malaysia and especially Sarawak that encroach upon native customary lands of the natives. And that is one of the grounds they strongly use to fight our oil palm products entry into Europe.
“It has to be remembered that not only big oil palm companies benefit from a wider market range available but also the smallholders, including many native oil palm smallholders.
“Indeed, it is in the interests of the whole industry that NCR land claims be amicably settled,” he added. — DayakDaily
