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65 Theresia John, Patricia John, Louis Bugiad and Agnes Lee Agama
Map of Ulu Papar showing location of villages in relation to the Crocker Range Park (CRP) boundary.
road access, and the rugged and hilly
terrain makes Ulu Papar a remote and
difficult area to reach. Community
members consider this area to be their
ancestral lands and depend almost entirely
on the surrounding natural resources and
landscapes for survival.
Loss of customary lands in Ulu Papar
began after Malaysia was formed in 1963
with the gazettement of the Crocker Range
Forest Reserve in 1969, followed by its
conversion to the Crocker Range Park
(CRP) in 1984. The remaining customary
lands – a narrow strip along the Ulu Papar
valley – were classified as alienable State
Land. The Ulu Papar community has not
been granted legal title over their customary lands, for reasons not explained by the
authorities.
Conflicts surfaced when a large portion
of Ulu Papar’s customary lands were incorporated into the Crocker Range Park in
1984 without the community’s participation or consent. Many people’s daily
livelihood activities, such as subsistence
swidden farming, hunting, freshwater fishing and gathering forest products, which
have always been carried out within the
park’s boundaries, were considered ‘unlawful’, generating a bitter, 20-year conflict.
Excision of customary lands from within
the park was once considered but given the
substantial area involved, it was felt that
such an exercise would significantly impact
on the conservation of biodiversity and
ecosystems of the Crocker Range Park
(Sabah Parks, 2006). As an interim measure, in 2006 the CRP Management Plan
introduced the concept of community use
zones (CUZs), designated areas inside the
park where communities will be permitted
to access and use resources and lands (with
certain limitations) as a compromise to
soften the conflict between the community
and the park, with a view to exploring a
mutually agreeable resolution in the longer
term (Sabah Parks, 2006). Although this
granted certain rights (on paper) to the
people of Ulu Papar, many were not satisfied. CUZs would not confer the