(KUCHING/ SARAWAK) This week, the International Peat Congress (IPC) is taking place in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, and thus for the first time outside Europe and North America. Unfortunately, the congress missed the opportunity to include civil society voices and land rights issues.

The conference is designed for researchers, academics and practitioners. “The high admission costs exclude local people from joining the conference,” criticizes land rights activist Nicholas Mujah, the head of the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association SADIA. “The Peat Congress should be opened up for local people, considering the fact that their land rights are often neglected when peatlands are converted in oil palm plantations.” Scientific studies have shown that local livelihoods of people depend on peat swamp forests and that indigenous peoples possess traditional knowledge in preservation as well as sustainable use of peatlands.

Given that Sarawak holds a substantial amount of Southeast Asia’s peatland, it is no coincidence that the International Peat Congress (IPC) is being held in the largest Malaysian state. However, Sarawak’s peatlands are under serious threat. According to Wetlands International, Sarawak has the highest oil palm development on peatland in Southeast Asia.
“It is well known that peatlands serve as one of the most valuable storages for carbon. The drainage of peatlands is an environmental disaster and a source of massive fires”, says Lukas Straumann, director of the Bruno Manser Fund. Currently, peatfields opened for oil palm plantations are burning in Sumatra, Indonesia, causing haze in Southeast Asia.

BMF and SADIA call for an immediate halt to the conversion of peatlands to plantations and call on Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem to keep his promise that “no more palm oil is needed”!