Staff View: Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia

Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia

The Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo is one of the global hotspots of deforestation and forest degradation. The planting of oil palm has played a key role in the transformation of land use in the state. While much of the expansion in Sarawak so far has taken place in state forests...

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Main Authors:	Andersen, Astrid Oberborbeck, Bruun, Thilde Bech, Egay, Kelvin, Fenger, Milja, Klee, Simone, Pedersen, Anna Frohn, Pedersen, Lærke Marie Lund, Suárez Villanueva, Victor
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2016
Subjects:	H Social Sciences (General) S Agriculture (General)
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/14839/1/Negotiating-development-narratives-within-large-scale-oil-palm-projects-on-village-lands-in-Sarawak%2C-Malaysia_2016_Geographical-Journal.html http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/14839/ https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84994093925&doi=10.1111%2fgeoj.12181&partnerID=40&md5=09df74253182c8c8e7b1a18a8e898eae
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id	my.unimas.ir.14839
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spelling	my.unimas.ir.148392022-05-23T08:23:29Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/14839/ Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia Andersen, Astrid Oberborbeck Bruun, Thilde Bech Egay, Kelvin Fenger, Milja Klee, Simone Pedersen, Anna Frohn Pedersen, Lærke Marie Lund Suárez Villanueva, Victor H Social Sciences (General) S Agriculture (General) The Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo is one of the global hotspots of deforestation and forest degradation. The planting of oil palm has played a key role in the transformation of land use in the state. While much of the expansion in Sarawak so far has taken place in state forests (80%), many new plantations are being established on native customary rights (NCR) land. A significant portion of the total land area in Sarawak (20–25%) is claimed as native customary land where villagers traditionally practise extensive, semi-subsistence farming. This article explores how major resource development projects intersect with and accentuate internal community differences in sites of new plantations. We do so by examining the case of an Iban village where the introduction of a large-scale oil palm scheme has resulted in conflict and division within the community. By analysing the narratives that suggest that large-scale land development projects ‘bring development to the people’, utilising ‘idle lands’ and ‘creating employment’ to lift them out of poverty, we argue that political and economic processes related to cultivation of oil palm intersect with local community differences in two ways. First, these projects cement and enhance internal power structures and inequalities. Second, the government's development narratives influence communities and link local community relations with national political discourses in complex ways. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2016-12-01 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/14839/1/Negotiating-development-narratives-within-large-scale-oil-palm-projects-on-village-lands-in-Sarawak%2C-Malaysia_2016_Geographical-Journal.html Andersen, Astrid Oberborbeck and Bruun, Thilde Bech and Egay, Kelvin and Fenger, Milja and Klee, Simone and Pedersen, Anna Frohn and Pedersen, Lærke Marie Lund and Suárez Villanueva, Victor (2016) Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia. Geographical Journal, 182 (4). pp. 364-374. ISSN 00167398 https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84994093925&doi=10.1111%2fgeoj.12181&partnerID=40&md5=09df74253182c8c8e7b1a18a8e898eae DOI: 10.1111/geoj.12181
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building	Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider	http://ir.unimas.my/
language	English
topic	H Social Sciences (General) S Agriculture (General)
spellingShingle	H Social Sciences (General) S Agriculture (General) Andersen, Astrid Oberborbeck Bruun, Thilde Bech Egay, Kelvin Fenger, Milja Klee, Simone Pedersen, Anna Frohn Pedersen, Lærke Marie Lund Suárez Villanueva, Victor Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia
description	The Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo is one of the global hotspots of deforestation and forest degradation. The planting of oil palm has played a key role in the transformation of land use in the state. While much of the expansion in Sarawak so far has taken place in state forests (80%), many new plantations are being established on native customary rights (NCR) land. A significant portion of the total land area in Sarawak (20–25%) is claimed as native customary land where villagers traditionally practise extensive, semi-subsistence farming. This article explores how major resource development projects intersect with and accentuate internal community differences in sites of new plantations. We do so by examining the case of an Iban village where the introduction of a large-scale oil palm scheme has resulted in conflict and division within the community. By analysing the narratives that suggest that large-scale land development projects ‘bring development to the people’, utilising ‘idle lands’ and ‘creating employment’ to lift them out of poverty, we argue that political and economic processes related to cultivation of oil palm intersect with local community differences in two ways. First, these projects cement and enhance internal power structures and inequalities. Second, the government's development narratives influence communities and link local community relations with national political discourses in complex ways.
format	Article
author	Andersen, Astrid Oberborbeck Bruun, Thilde Bech Egay, Kelvin Fenger, Milja Klee, Simone Pedersen, Anna Frohn Pedersen, Lærke Marie Lund Suárez Villanueva, Victor
author_facet	Andersen, Astrid Oberborbeck Bruun, Thilde Bech Egay, Kelvin Fenger, Milja Klee, Simone Pedersen, Anna Frohn Pedersen, Lærke Marie Lund Suárez Villanueva, Victor
author_sort	Andersen, Astrid Oberborbeck
title	Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_short	Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_full	Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_fullStr	Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed	Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_sort	negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in sarawak, malaysia
publisher	Blackwell Publishing Ltd
publishDate	2016
url	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/14839/1/Negotiating-development-narratives-within-large-scale-oil-palm-projects-on-village-lands-in-Sarawak%2C-Malaysia_2016_Geographical-Journal.html http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/14839/ https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84994093925&doi=10.1111%2fgeoj.12181&partnerID=40&md5=09df74253182c8c8e7b1a18a8e898eae
_version_	1734303735411113984
score	13.211869

Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia

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