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Extracted from The
Star
Concern
over law on land surveys
By Stephen Then
An environmental and native rights watchdog group in
Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia director Raymond
Abin said the institute was worried that the introduction of the Land Surveyor
(registration, licensing and practice) Rules 2003 and Land Surveyor (conduct of
cadastral land surveys) Rules 2003 would adversely affect the interest of
native groups in Sarawak.
“We have received a lot of inquiries from native
communities after they have found out about the enforcement of these rules from
a statement issued by the state Land and Survey Department recently.
“For years, non-government organisations (NGOs) and
community activists in
“These natives have now acquired the knowledge and
skills to use the compass, the global positioning system and the geographic
information system.
“These new rules may stop, restrict or violate the
rights of the natives to conduct further community mappings,” he said,
commenting on the new enactments that have come into effect recently.
The institute, which is mainly concerned with
environmental and native rights issue, has its head office in Miri. It has a
large scope of networking with similar NGOs in other regions.
Abin said the various native groups in
“By undertaking community-based mapping on their own,
the native groups can keep a proper record of location, size and boundaries of
their respective customary rights land.
“Disputes between the native groups over their land
boundary had been minimise because they survey their
land using community-based mapping,” he said.