NATIVES from the minority Tering-Berawan ethnic group in northern Sarawak have objected to the state’s plans to create the new Tutoh Apoh National Park, claiming it would mean that their ancestral land would be taken over by the state.
Tering-Berawan community leader Denis Along said he met officers from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation in Miri to present an official letter of protest.
Along said his community has learned that the proposed Tutoh Apoh National Park will be an extension of the present Mulu National Park, which is a world heritage site housing the largest cave systems in the world.
"The creation of the Tutoh Apoh National Park will see huge areas of forest next to the Mulu National Park being taken over by the state.
"Our ancestors from the Tering-Berawan communities settled in that area centuries ago, and our ancestral graveyards can be found there today.
"We protest the intended move to gazette the new Tutoh Apoh National Park as it will see our ancestral land taken over by the state and placed under the jurisdiction of the Sarawak Forestry Corporation.
"The Tering-Berawan people will lose our land rights, and we strongly object to the plan," he said.
Along claimed that the land on which the five-star Mulu Marriott Resort is situated now was also once the ancestral land of the Tering-Berawans.
The community wants to maintain their rights over all their land and will not hand it over to the state, he added.
Mulu is located some 200 km inland from Miri city. It is home to the Sarawak Chamber, the biggest cave in the world that can fit 40 Boeing 737 aircraft side-by-side. - August 8, 2024.
