Imagine if strangers trespass and wreck your land, ruining your livelihood, then seize it with impunity. This is a habitual reality for native communities in Malaysia.

In Sungai Buri, an area in Sarawak’s Baram River basin, this occurred in mid-2013. Villagers found, to their horror, workers felling their communal forests and wrecking family farms. In one fell swoop, their crops of rubber, jackfruit, durian, isu, embawang, langsat, tarap and areca nut – a source of livelihood and sustenance for dozens of families – were demolished.