TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Human Inhabitants
The Dyaks
The Dyaks of Borneo have land claims that conflict with logging concessions given to the timber industry. The government more readily grants forest land to commercial interests than to tribal groups. Logging operations cause heavy flooding, siltation of rivers, the departure of animals from the area, and deforestation. The Dyaks are equally displeased with the Indonesian government's resettlement program, which brings outsiders from crowded central islands to remote forest areas.In the late 1980s, the Dyaks, along with the Penan, Kayan, and Kelabit peoples, set up roadblocks to prevent logging trucks from entering their lands. The Malaysian government responded by dispatching military forces and arresting native protesters.
In 1999, the Dyaks made international news during their bloody conflict in Indonesia with recent transmigrants from Madura. Hundreds were killed as native Dyaks raided the villages of the Madurese, whose migration to Borneo was sponsored by the Indonesian government under its resettlement program.
Suggested reading
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Continued: People of the Rainforest
Unless otherwise specified, this article was written by Rhett A. Butler [Bibliographic citation for this page]
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