"Cautious win for Indigenous groups in Malaysia as palm oil firm pauses forest clearing", 11 November 2025

Indigenous activists in central Sarawak state in Malaysian Borneo have declared victory, at least temporarily, after palm oil firm Urun Plantations agreed to a moratorium on clearing land in a disputed area.

Penan and Kenyah residents of the Long Urun region alleged that the plantation, which is certified as sustainable, was clearing natural forest that should remain standing — even as the plantation company maintains any land clearing was within legal guidelines.

According to a press release from Indigenous rights and environmental protection NGO SAVE Rivers, community leaders reported that the Glenealy/Samling Belaga Mill, the last remaining mill within 50 kilometers (30 miles) still buying palm fruit from Urun Plantations, has suspended sourcing from the plantation.

… Eileen Clare Ipa, a resident of Long Urun’s Uma Pawa village, told … she was glad the company had stopped cutting trees, but she saw them still planting oil palm and doing maintenance on the cleared area. Ipa said she wants the company to leave that area to return to forest.

“I’m happy to hear that but at the same time I feel the moratorium, it is temporary, it is not permanent, so who knows? Three months, one year later, they could cut [the forest] down again,” she said.

… Satellite imagery from Global Forest Watch shows substantial clearing directly east of Urun Plantations’ site headquarters, in an area roughly 3 km (about 2 mi) wide, which increased in 2023 and 2024. The Borneo Project also shared photos of deforestation in a similar location, east of Urun Plantations’ site office.

In a response …, prior to the announcement of the moratorium, Urun Plantations told … that its workers were replanting land that was not natural forest, but rather an area previously developed between 1999 and 2009. In an email, Henry Choo, group general manager for parent company Sin Heng Chan (Malaya) Sdn. Bhd., added the company had investigated the complaint this year, in line with a company policy to investigate all complaints regarding customary land claims. [View Urun Plantations’ full response here.]

… Residents from Long Urun also filed a letter of complaint to the MSPO’s dispute resolution board in May, alleging the forest clearing was illegal and occurred without sufficient community input…

Residents have taken their dispute further, filing a lawsuit at Sarawak’s High Court in Bintulu in late June, alleging that both Urun Plantations and local officials have disrespected local Indigenous rights in the Long Urun area.

According to a disclosure to investors by parent company Sin Heng Chan, the lawsuit, filed by a law firm led by Senator Anyit, calls into question the company’s entire provisional lease, suggesting that it has conflicted with the community’s native customary land rights that span 54,478 hectares (134,618 acres), and thus ordering an injunction on development activity in the region.

The lawsuit also alleges that local officials — including from the Sarawak state government, land survey department, village headmen and village security and development committee — violated residents’ rights and deceived them…