Court allows NCR claim over Segarong Caves
Published on: Thursday, March 30, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: The High Court here, has allowed the Ida'an native community's native customary rights claim over the Segarong Caves and surrounding Forest Reserve area - the first time that the rights of the community has been accorded recognition by the courts.Datuk Yusof Sarangit, who sued as an intervener and as a representative of Ida'an Natives of Sabah, said in his statement of claim that the community had native customary rights of a usufructuary nature over the Segarong Caves and surrounding Forest Reserve Area to undertake the following activities:-(i) Harvesting of bird nests from the Segarong caves;
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(ii) Harvesting of raw forest crop such as bamboo, rattan and vines for the construction of scaffolding; and(iii) Harvesting of minor wood products for construction of the community and its workers' houses.In his ruling Judicial Commissioner Datuk Douglas Primus Sikayun allowed the claim and held that the Ida'an had been in possession of such usufructuary native customary right over the Segarong Caves and forests "since time immemorial" where the earliest written account of the Ida'an's claim dates back to the 1400s. A usufructuary right is the right to use and enjoy the fruits of land.
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Douglas also added that the Ida'an's native customary rights belonged to the Ida'an community as a whole and not to any single individual. Although the Ida'an Natives have been recognised both historically and through the Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, this is the first time in history that the Ida'an Natives' native customary rights have been recognized and declared as law by the High Court.
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In dismissing a related native customary rights claim made by Budsatu Budumu in the same case, Datuk Douglas held that Budsatu had failed to prove his claim on the balance of probabilities. Douglas went on to rule that the High Court had jurisdiction to hear native customary claims arising at common law over alienated, gazetted or land reserved for a purpose by the Sabah Government. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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