The Penan village of Long Jaik, Ulu Belaga is surrounded by degraded forests and massive monocrop plantations of oil palm and acacia mangium. A community that once lived symbiotically with their forests; who sourced all their food and material needs from about 44,000 ha of native customary rights forests is now enclosed into a small area of badly degraded forests (also currently under legal dispute with a company) of about 400 ha in a remote location of Ulu Belaga. The village has no proper roads, no electricity, no treated water supply and no sewage system. Many also have no hope for their future and are chronic alcoholics. They live impoverished lives since they presently only have access to small pockets of forest resources and are thus at the mercy of the oil palm company and market forces. Many youth undertake casual labour in Simpang Bakun, in Sungai Asap or in Bintulu. Consequently, as a whole, their health and livelihoods are seriously impacted and their village, their culture, language and identity are under threat of being lost forever.

The project aim to undertake reforestation of the NCR lands surrounding Long Jaik village with native tree species and to assist the community to begin farming. This will then allow the community (esp. women and the youth) to develop NTFP ((non-timber forest products) enterprises (esp. agricultural and food products) as a new source of livelihood for the community.

Penan are at their best when they have access to forests which provide them their foods, medicines, material needs and their psycho-social equilibrium. Assisting them to rehabilitate their remaining forests is a small effort to help them regain this lost equilibrium caused by massive deforestation and monocrop plantations. As well, reforestation with native tree species (wood, fruit, handicraft and medicinal) will help return some local biodiversity to their area and be a major effort to redress biodiversity loss, increase traditional food and health resources and improve their micro-climate. Additionally, with very limited forest resources, the now sedentary Penan are at the mercy of market forces. They require cash to survive. Owing to their traditional psycho-social outlook and remote location, they have little access and are not inclined to wage labour work. They thus require assistance to develop farming and agricultural enterprises to access the cash economy. This project principally addresses two core GEF focal areas of the Malaysia Programme strategy, namely land degradation and biodiversity. It also addresses issues of alternative livelihoods for local indigenous peoples (IPs).