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Little People II for Pulitzer Center: How "Green" Bio-Fuel is Destroying the Malaysian Rainforest. { 76 images } Created 5 Jun 2011

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  • Sam (L) and Dolah (R), Batek Negrito men overshadowed by towering primary rainforest crowding a muddy logging road in the core of their homeland just outside Taman Negara National Park, which will offer loggers access to giant trees of this virgin forest which they will cut down for profit, near Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_001.jpg
  • Adonis, a young Penan hunter, takes a shot at a small bird with his blow pipe in the primary Borneo forest that surrounds Long Benali, Sarawak, Malaysia.  Darts are made from palm fronds with the pith of separate forest palm to cause an air tight seal with the blowpipe to increase power.  Poison, made from the latex of a "Tajem" (Ipoh) tree, is applied to the dart which interferes with the functions of the heart causing a lethal arrhythmias.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_002.jpg
  • A muddy logging road in the heart of the Batek Negrito homeland that has been surveyed and marked for logging in the last, very narrow strip of old growth rainforest that still exists sandwiched between Taman Negara National Park and massive oil palm plantations that less than a generation ago were also old growth rainforest and the homeland of the Batek.  Near Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_003.jpg
  • Young Penan man leans against giant forest tree in virgin forest that Samling Global Ltd. logging company has a concession to log, though the Penan have expressed a desire to keep the company out of their ancestral Borneo homeland.  Near Long Kepang, Sarawak, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_004.jpg
  • Kelabit man holds the skull of a helmeted hornbill, an endangered species, delivered to his house freshly killed by a Penan hunter.  The bird's are valued for hornbill ivory found in their thick bill and their long tail feathers, which are used as decoration for Dayak people's ceremonial headware.  Despite being one of several species of hornbill indigenous to Borneo, the Kelabit do not consider it a hornbill and have a separate name for the helmeted hornbill, "bonudun".  Long Lellang, Sarawak, Malaysia.  Despite seeing posters, distributed by the Malaysian government, with illustrations depicting protected animals and the fines for killing them, any animal still seem to be fair game to local hunters.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_005.jpg
  • Penan men, Dennis (L) and Adonis (R), walk down a logging road, one of a network of logging roads used by Shin Yang Group to "selectively" log 6 months before.  Bulldozers ripped straight up the mountain to cut down the biggest  rainforest trees as quickly as possible.  Now they have left behind a wounded forest, arboreal debris strewn all along the perimeter of this road, through once-productive hunting grounds for the Penan across the Akah River in Long Benali.  The numbers of wild animals, like wild boars, monkeys, deer, hornbills, etc. have dropped off precipitously.  In the heart of the Borneo Rainforest, Sarawak, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_006.jpg
  • Portrait of Batek Negrito man, Sam, at their fishing spot in the old growth rainforest where logging will soon begin.  Near Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_007.jpg
  • Unsustainable aged oil palm plantation is cut down to rid it of "senile" trees and replant with younger more productive trees that can yield over 20 tonnes per hectare/year at the edge of what used to be the Batek Negritos homeland. The productive lifespan for oil palm trees is 20 - 25 years.  Kelantan State, Peninsular Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_008.jpg
  • A logging camp in northern Peninsular Malaysia on the edge of the homeland of the Batek Negrito people, which is the first step on the conversion from old growth rainforest to oil palm plantations.  Manik Urai, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_009.jpg
  • Several generations of an extended Batek Negrito family shelter from the rain in a typical structure built along a muddy logging road built to transport out the last sliver of old growth forest sandwiched between expansive oil palm plantations on one side and Taman Negara National Park on the other.  The Batek are discouraged by the government from entering the national park, part of their ancestral homeland and the oil palm plantations are now privately owned green deserts devoid of wildlife upon which they hunt with blowpipes (laid out in the middle of the floor) for food.  Near Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_010.jpg
  • Young Batek Negrito girl takes aim with a sling shot at a small bird high in a rainforest tree from a muddy logging road which will be carrying away giant trees in the last sliver of old growth forest sandwiched between expansive oil palm plantations, that used to be part of the Batek homeland, and Taman Negara National Park where the government does not want the Batek to enter.  Near Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_011.jpg
  • The landslide has reduced Long Lellang's only overland link to the outside world to the width of a pick up truck and, without immediate repair, with the next heavy rain will wash out completely severing the longhouse's overland connection.  This road was part of a kind of "deal with the devil" the Kelabit community made with Shin Yang Group logging company to permit the logging conglomerate to ravage the Borneo rainforest bordering the road up into the adjacent mountains.  Without the logging, there would be no road, no rudimentary road maintainance.  Now there may be not maintainance anyhow, deal or no.  Between Long Lellang and Long Kelamu, Sarawak, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_012.jpg
  • Landslip, one of thousands in Sarawak's Borneo rainforest, where the lifeline logging road for Long Lellang has almost been severed.  Once the rainforest, with its network of shallow roots in shallow topsoil is removed, the often torrential rains slice away the organic topsoil and the inorganic sub-soil like a knife through butter.  This road was part of a kind of "deal with the devil" the Kelabit community made with Shin Yang Group logging company to permit the logging conglomerate to ravage the Borneo rainforest bordering the road up into the adjacent mountains.  Without the logging, there would be no road, no rudimentary road maintainance.  Now there may be not maintainance anyhow, deal or no.  Between Long Lellang and Long Kelamu, Sarawak, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_013.jpg
  • Logging trucks haul out the Borneo rainforest on the longest sealed road into the interior.  In Sarawak, there are thousands of muddy logging roads probing into every valley, canyon or along every ridge logging companies can gain access.  The road was sealed for one reason: access to the massive Bakun Hydroelectric Dam.  What enriches corporations in Sarawak is nurtured while the general population must accept the infrastructure it is given.  There are so many logging roads, so much logging that the border with Brunei is written in forest because very little logging is undertaken in Brunei.  Marudi, a mere 40 km (25 miles) from the coastal city of Miri, has no sealed road despite there being a matrix of muddy logging roads in the area snaking through exhausted forest and oil palm plantations.  The road to Bakun Hydroelectric Dam, Sarawak, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_014.jpg
  • Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_015.jpg
  • Workers harvesting the fruit from oil palms, on the former homeland of the Batek Negritos, that will be refined into oil, much of which will be refined into "green" bio-fuel.  These workers are ethnic Malay, though perhaps the majority of workers on oil palm plantations are ethnic Tamils (Southern Indians who came to Malaysia during the British colonial era).  A few Batek Negrito men earn hard cash performing unskilled day labor on oil palm plantations.  North of Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_016.jpg
  • Batek Negrito women have followed the muddy logging road, which shadows the national park boundary, and are about to cut up a mountain and eventually straight into the old growth forest to a river to go fishing.  Near Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_017.jpg
  • The Batek Negrito settlement (center left) built by the Malaysian government on the very seam between the oil palm plantations that used to be part of their homeland and the edge of the great primary forest that makes up Taman Negara National Park.  The Malaysian government has tried for a couple of generations to lure the Batek out of the rainforest to live a settled life, send their children away to regional boarding schools and assimilate with mainstream Malaysian society (meaning Malay society) by building permanent buildings and encouraging them to take up farming.  What the Batek have done in this case is to have half the people maintain this permanent settlement while working in the cash economy on oil palm plantations, construction, etc. and roughly the other half have voted with their feet, walking up the logging road into the forest and living traditionally in temporary shelters, moving with the rhythms of the rains.  Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_018.jpg
  • A logging road, in an area of "selective logging", rips straight up a steep slope ensuring this scar in the earth will rut as rains slice into the mountain in the heart of Borneo.  Debris from trees unlucky enough to stand in the way of a bulldozer litter the muddy periphery of this road which is now a greatly diminished hunting ground for the Penan of Long Benali, who have built barricades to keep loggers out but rickety barricades only slow loggers.  In the end, loggers almost inevitably win.  The numbers of wild animals, like wild boars, monkeys, deer, hornbills, etc. have dropped off precipitously.  Near Long Benali, Sarawak, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_019.jpg
  • Batek Negrito women rest beside a muddy logging road in the heart of the Batek Negrito homeland that has been surveyed and marked for logging in the last, very narrow strip of old growth rainforest that still exists sandwiched between Taman Negara National Park and massive oil palm plantations that less than a generation ago were also old growth rainforest and the homeland of the Batek.  Orange runoff from the laterite undersoil is already threatening to cloud the clear river where they are going to fish, which comprises a staple source of protein for the Batek.  The woman in the foreground on the left is wearing waxy leaves in her hair for decoration.  Near Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_020.jpg
  • Sam navigates from the bow of a bamboo raft that Batek Negrito on the spot in the forest when fishing to avoid a long walk back to their settlement down the Sungai (River) Pertang.  Near Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.  Silt from the muddy logging road built to extract the biggest trees in this sliver of old growth rainforest is already clouding this clear river.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_021.jpg
  • Looking out over Long Lellang and its airstrip (right) which is the only regular connection between the heart of Borneo to the outside world.  The old growth rainforest which covers Mt. Murud (left) is the target of loggers from Samling Global Ltd. but residents, especially the Penan, want to keep loggers out.  Shin Yang Group, another gigantic logging conglomerate, has already made one pass along the ridge behind the airstrip to the right.  Long Lellang, Sarawak (Borneo), Malaysia.  Most residents in Long Lellang are Kelabits, who have a deeper connection to the outside world than the Penan, who generally have settled down from a nomadic existence to tiny settlements in the forest where they compliment their traditional hunting and gathering with swidden agriculture.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_022.jpg
  • An aged Penan woman who still wears traditional clothing in Long Kepang deep in the rainforest and only accessible on foot.  The old growth Borneo rainforest surrounding Long Kepang has been targeted by logging giant Samling Global Ltd., who holds a concession and covets the towering hundreds year old trees upon which wildlife depend for food and which the Penan in turn depend on for food from hunting.  In selective logging, loggers remove 23 marketable trees per hectare, in turn damaging 33 adjancent trees within this hectare because of intertwine branches and binding vines, leaving behind a wounded forest with far less food for the species upon which the Penan depend for protein.  Long Kepang, Sarawak, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_023.jpg
  • This solitary earth thread through Borneo rainforest is the sole connection of Long Lellang to the outside world, which means this road leads to the coast.  A recent landslip has reduced one steep part of this road to the width of one of these inbound 4WD Toyotas which carry dry goods, school supplies, medical supplies and other things too heavy for the twice weekly propellor plane which flies in from the coastal city of Miri.  This road was part of a kind of "deal with the devil" the Kelabit community of Long Lellang made with Shin Yang Group logging company to permit the logging conglomerate to ravage the Borneo rainforest bordering the road up into the adjacent mountains.  Without the logging, there would be no road, no rudimentary road maintainance.  Now there may be not maintainance anyhow, deal or no.  Between Long Lellang and Long Kelamu, Sarawak, Malaysia.   Between Long Lellang and Long Kelamu.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_024.jpg
  • Sign warns drivers about logging trucks on the longest sealed road into the interior.  In Sarawak, there are thousands of muddy logging roads probing into every valley, canyon or along every ridge logging companies can gain access.  The road was sealed for one reason: access to the massive Bakun Hydroelectric Dam.  What enriches corporations in Sarawak is nurtured while the general population must accept the infrastructure it is given.  There are so many logging roads, so much logging that the border with Brunei is written in forest because very little logging is undertaken in Brunei.  Marudi, a mere 40 km (25 miles) from the coastal city of Miri, has no sealed road despite there being a matrix of muddy logging roads in the area snaking through exhausted forest and oil palm plantations.  The road to Bakun Hydroelectric Dam, Sarawak, Malaysia.
    Delano_Little_People_II_Malaysia_025.jpg
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