Kenyah-badeng displacement: Bakun hydroelectric project resettlement

Abstract

Indigenous livelihoods are placed under pressure because they are relocated away from their roots and their natural environment. It has been typical for the Sarawak state government to relocate settlers to areas where there is large-scale land development, with the assumption that indigenous people are then able to participate in the market economy as a way to ‘develop’ them. The analysis focuses on the period after the movement of the Kenyah-Badeng of Long Geng to the resettlement site in Sungai Asap, where settlers were confronted with many critical issues concerning inadequate compensation for the loss of natural resources, social heritage and land. They faced pressures in resettling without any promising resources to re-establish their livelihoods and improve their situations relative to their position before the resettlement. The discussion makes use of the objectives outlined by the State Planning Unit in its development plan for the resettlement process—entitled Bakun hydroelectric project: green energy for the future—to better explain the causes of emotional displacement. In doing so, the chapter illustrates the stark reality of the Kenyah-Badeng situation that has turned out to be the opposite of what was expected from the development plan.