Bulldozed by Globalization, Daily Brief May 5, 2025

Sometimes when outsiders hear about an Indigenous community living by traditional ways, they imagine an isolated natural idyll. They perhaps jealously envision people enjoying some kind of timeless, off-grid paradise, free from the anxieties of globalized existence.

The reality is usually very different, of course. Too often, in fact, such folks are very much on the frontlines of globalization. They can be literally face-to-face with the bulldozers gobbling up their land to provide products for worldwide markets.

The community of Rumah Jeffery lies deep in the rainforest of Sarawak, on the uniquely biodiverse island of Borneo, Malaysia. This Indigenous Iban community lives in a traditional longhouse, presided over by a village chief.

The people of Rumah Jeffery live from the forest. They forage. They fish. They hunt. They harvest fruit trees planted by their ancestors. The forest provides rattan vines, which weavers use to produce mats, baskets, and backpacks.

There are things the people of Rumah Jeffery notably don’t have. Similar to many Indigenous communities in the region, they’re not connected to a water supply nor the electricity grid.

Most importantly, however, they do not have a land title that signals formal recognition by the government of their customary land rights. This is the case even though they’ve been living there and in this way for as long as anyone can remember.

This has made Rumah Jeffery vulnerable to encroachment and harassment by a Malaysian logging company, called Zedtee. It’s a member of the timber giant Shin Yang Group.

In 2022, Zedtee logged part of Rumah Jeffery’s forest. They did so without the community’s free, prior, and informed consent – a long-established principle of international law.

The company felled valuable fruit trees the community had cared for and harvested for decades. The community lost many acres of tree cover.

Government authorities have been less than helpful.

When local protesters confronted the bulldozers, telling the operators to stop the logging, officials from the Sarawak Forest Department threatened to arrest them. Later, police threatened to demolish the community’s longhouse.

The company has sought to evict the community. The government – rather than fulfilling its obligations to the Indigenous community under national and international laws – has supported the company.

An eviction order now hangs over the community. Forcibly evicting Rumah Jeffery would uproot them and leave them destitute.

Theirs is not an isolated case. Numerous Indigenous communities across Sarawak, Malaysia, face similar situations.

And while it may seem this is all happening thousands of miles away, many of us are on the frontlines, too, in a way. Top buyers of wood from Sarawak include EU countries, Japan, and the US.

The international trade of wood products is too often tainted by human rights abuses and deforestation. Fixing the problem – that is, cleaning up the supply chains – is the shared responsibility of sellers and buyers.

For its part, the Malaysian government should adopt federal legislation to protect Indigenous rights – and protect Rumah Jeffery from encroachment.

And as a new Human Rights Watch report also makes clear, the governments of importing countries have laws in the books to help address these things. They need to enforce them.