International Advocacy and the Future of Borneo’s First Peoples

Dayak environmental activists were arrested by authorities/Fb LD

By Apen Panlelugen

Dayak communities, the original guardians of Borneo’s forests, now face deforestation, criminalization, and the heavy hand of corporate and political interests seeking control of their ancestral lands. As local protections collapse, only serious and sustained international advocacy can prevent the erasure of both the island’s ecology and its first peoples.

Borneo’s rainforests, once among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, are disappearing at a velocity that outpaces regulation, public oversight, and political will. 

Over the last two decades, satellite data has repeatedly ranked Kalimantan as one of the fastest-vanishing forest regions in the world; industrial palm oil, mining operations, expansion roads, and speculative land concessions have fractured the island’s ecological core.

A Global Rainforest Under Siege

For the Dayak, the Indigenous peoples who have lived in and cared for these forests for millennia, ecological loss is not merely environmental; it is cultural extinction. Ancestral territories are reclassified as “idle land,” while traditional livelihoods are undermined by concessions approved without community consent.

In many areas, a troubling pattern has emerged: Dayak harvest forest products on their own land, yet are criminalized by authorities; Dayak defend rivers, hills, and sacred groves from corporate encroachment, yet are accused of “incitement” or “obstruction.” These dynamics reveal an asymmetry of power that the communities cannot confront alone. The struggle has become global, and the response must be global as well.

When Outside Actors Arrive With Hidden Agendas

Historically, only three groups have consistently engaged Dayak communities with sincerity:

1. Catholic and Protestant missionaries;

2. Christian teachers from Flores and Java;

3. Dayak leaders shaped by those early educational traditions.

Beyond these groups, interactions with actors from outside Borneo often come with concealed intentions. Political figures arrive during election season with promises of empowerment; once in office, substantial advocacy for Indigenous rights rarely materializes. Development programs still treat Dayak communities as objects rather than partners; Indigenous knowledge is sidelined under bureaucratic priorities.

Corporate engagement is even more concerning. Palm oil conglomerates and mining firms promote the language of “development” and “sustainability”; in practice, their operations often result in deforestation, polluted waterways, land conflicts, and the displacement of entire longhouse communities.

For many Dayak families, the pattern is unmistakable: outsiders come not for the people, but for the resources. What is valued is not the culture, but the land; not the community, but the commodities that lie beneath and around it.

Why International Advocacy Has Become Essential

Power imbalances between Indigenous communities and global industries have widened to the point where domestic mechanisms alone cannot deliver justice. International advocacy has become indispensable for three key reasons:

First: Many extractive companies active in Borneo are integrated into global supply chains. International scrutiny—from journalists, consumers, courts, and regulators—can influence corporate behavior in ways local protests cannot.

Second: Climate agreements and biodiversity pledges often shape national policy; however, Indigenous communities risk becoming symbolic tokens rather than decision-makers. Without global oversight, forests may be declared “protected,” while the Dayak who have safeguarded them for centuries lose access to their own ancestral lands.

Third: Global platforms offer visibility and leverage. When Dayak testimonies are heard in climate forums, human rights sessions, and international media, the political cost of violating Indigenous rights increases dramatically.

The conclusion is clear: Dayak communities need allies not only in the river valleys of Borneo, but in international centers of policy and power; Geneva, Washington, Brussels, Canberra, and Tokyo.

A Call for Serious, Not Symbolic, International Engagement

Global engagement must move beyond rhetoric or ceremonial acknowledgments. What is needed now is decisive action:

1. Independent legal support for Dayak individuals and communities facing criminalization, land dispossession, or intimidation.

2. Direct financial assistance for community mapping, forest stewardship, cultural preservation, and sustainable livelihoods.

3. Independent monitoring of multinational corporations operating in Borneo, with transparent reporting and enforceable consequences.

4. Long-term research and advocacy partnerships with universities and global Indigenous networks.

5. Support for community-based ecotourism that allows Dayak families to benefit directly from cultural and environmental tourism, rather than being overshadowed by external investors.

The international community must understand a simple truth: if the world wishes to preserve Borneo’s forests, it must also protect the people who have safeguarded them for generations. Dayak communities have defended the island’s ecological balance for thousands of years; they now face criminalization for doing so.

International engagement is no longer optional; it is a moral imperative.