The Political Ecology of the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam
Creators: name: Fam, Shun Deng
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2017

description: Borneo is a unique island, with unique charismatic wildlife, such as the clouded leopard, bearded pig and five langur species. The Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo is also in a singular situation. Rainfall on its mountain ranges near central Borneo is so plentiful that in 1962, Australian engineers marked out 155 sites the state for hydropower potential, then further narrowed down to 51 sites by the Sarawak government and then reduced further to 12 key sites that will form the power generation backbone of Sarawak’s industrialisation (Suhakam, 2009; Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Authority, 1962). More than 40 years later, this potential is becoming reality. One of the largest dams in the world, the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam (BHD), came online in August 2011. The dam is built across the Batang Balui and forms a 700 square kilometre lake as its reservoir. Being a hilly area, old hilltops have become islands of various sizes. Of these, some are considered large enough by the Malaysian government to develop into eco-tourism sites (Sibon and Ling, 2013). However, little is known about the after-effects of the dam project. Related to the environmental and zoological issues facing the wildlife is the problem of human development. Due to the inundation from the dam, some fifteen indigenous longhouse communities have had to move from ancestral lands along the banks of the former Batang Balui. The government has relocated these peoples to a resettlement site some 60kms away by road (about an hour’s drive due to the hilly terrain and poor road condition) from the dam. Perhaps the most prominent opposition to this relocation comes from foreign NGOs such as the Bruno Manser Fund, who are working to preserve and protect the cultural integrity and rights of the Penan, one of the indigenous groups affected. Others may see the relocation of these groups out of the forest as a chance to advance the “human development” aspect of the lives of the indigenous people. Human development and well-being are difficult concepts to define and measure as they include immeasurable values such as freedom of movement and ‘satisfying leisure hours’ (UNDP, 1990). Nevertheless, various amenities have been provided to the communities, such as boarding schools up to secondary level, electricity and telecommunication services, and a clinic with at least one resident doctor. On the other side of the scale, they have poorer access to their ancestral hunting, fishing and gathering grounds, are less able to grow their own food due to poor land in the resettlement area, and are no longer living on their ancestral lands. This means that the indigenous communities must become more engaged with the greater Malaysian economy, and the effect of this can be either that these communities may get left far behind or that they may adapt to the new economic situation and pressures on their cultural identity quickly. This study uses a political ecology approach to look at the dam and its effects. It starts by looking at the relationship that the resettled communities have with the land and the state and how this has affected their livelihoods and access to food, especially the economically and culturally significant bearded pig. Camera traps were placed at five locations to look at how the distribution of the animals has changed, and further ethnography was conducted with hunters to determine the differences in exploitation strategies. Finally, the history of the dam and the role and characteristics of international actors (Australia and China) in the process of the dam construction are examined. The tensions between the domestic interests of these international actors and the Malaysian and Sarawak governments are used to explain how seemingly minuscule and local scale decisions on the exploitation of natural (food) resources can be linked to other political decisions made elsewhere. The study finds that the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam is an Australian-initiated infrastructural endeavour delivered through the Colombo Plan that had its roots in the early years of Malaysian independence from British colonialism and the northern threat of communism. Due to various reasons, the BHD project only started building in the early 2000s, with Hydro Tasmania playing a central role and Australian-Canadian Rio Tinto Alcan agreeing to buy power from the dam. Domestic politics in Australia intervened to cause the Australian interests and community support expertise to pull out of Sarawak. The vacuum was filled by Chinese interests, which were neither as equipped nor interested to continue support for what they considered Sarawak’s internal issues. The lack of support from the Chinese for livelihood reconstruction resulted in the longhouse communities being left to their own devices to adapt to new lands and the new economy. Hunters in the resettlement scheme play a central role in supplying protein to the communities. Yet, they face difficulties in fulfilling their role due to the relocation from their traditional grounds. As they once used to be strung out along the river, harvesting bushmeat as a food resource was a diffuse pressure. Now access to hunting grounds along the banks and on the islands of Bakun lake is a single point. The long shape of the lake means that it is more economical to hunt from the areas close to the jetty first, and the insecurity of access to the lake itself meant that hunters tried to hunt as much as they could in case there was no longer access. Hunters find that successful hunts rely more and more on good hunting dogs. Camera trap information reveals that bearded pigs and mousedeer changed their activity habits at some heavily disturbed areas, while beyond a certain point where hunting becomes uneconomical, the encounter rates for favoured species such as the bearded pig about six times higher than in a heavily disturbed area.