KUCHING, Sept 17: Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) urged the state government to exclude native customary rights (NCR) land, ‘pemakai menoa’ and ‘pulau galau’ (PMPG) from licences for planted forest (LPF) and provisional leases (PL) that has no approval from the native land owners in Kapit division.
SWP president Munan Laja claimed that one million hectares of LPF and PL were given to 11 private companies for the period of 60 years for forest plantation, of which he believed some are NCR and PMPG land.
“We want this land to be returned to the landowners in the form of title (titled land). We urge the state government and the Land and Survey Department to return this land as they are the parties responsible.
“I also urged the Persatuan Tuai-Tuai Rumah and community leaders to be sensitive over this issue. Make sure the NCR land is not encroached on by companies with LPF, as it will affect the future generations,” Munan said in a statement today.
He added that SWP is not against land development but the party pledges to fight against the wrongful means of land grabbing.
“Development as planting of forests and developing NCR land is good. However, we want everybody to play by the rules and come to develop NCR land with good policies, as the future of natives in the rural areas depend very much on their lands,” he said. — DayakDaily
