Final report-Enabling indigenous peoples in conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of forest resources in Sarawak, Malaysia

Background:
Borneo Resources Institute (BRIMAS) was established in Miri, Sarawak, in 1993 in an attempt to resist the current pattern of resource extraction and development activities as propagated by Sarawak State Government, and its adverse impact on the indigenous communities of the state. The organization was formed with the purpose of educating and training indigenous communities about their rights and promote community-based sustainable resource management and conservation to improve the socio-economic, political and environmental conditions of Dayak communities, by securing their rights to land and resources that will guarantee them a sustainable livelihood and right to determine their own future.

The overall goal BRIMAS’ project is that the biodiversity of Sarawak’s forests is conserved sustainably by the indigenous Dayak communities especially within their native customary right land. The purpose of the project is to strengthen the indigenous Dayaks especially the forest dependent communities’ rights through capacity building and legal advocacy.

Purpose/objective:
The evaluation was undertaken with the following objectives:
• To assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of BRIMAS’ project in Sarawak.
• To provide an overview of the strenghts, weaknesses, challenges and gaps in project implementation, and recommendations for how weaknesses can be addressed.
• To provide an overview of strenghts and weaknesses in internal management, and recommendations for how challenges can be addressed and the organisation can improve.

Methodology:
Two external evaluators visited BRIMAS from October 17th to 31st 2010. The team’s approach consisted of obtaining and studying projects documents such as plans, LFA matrixes, budgets and reports, interviewing BRIMAS staff on the work they had undertaken with RFN funding, as well as joining BRIMAS in the field for trainings and community meetings, where they conducted interviews with BRIMAS’ target group. They also interviewed staff of several other NGOs based in Sarawak. On October 31st  the evaluators presented their preliminary findings to the BRIMAS staff, and they discussed the findings as well as lessons learned and recommendations. The report was revised following comments received during the meeting and comments from BRIMAS and RFN on the draft report.

Key findings:
The evaluators found that the project is very relevant to the protection of indigenous land rights, and that BRIMAS’ activities give the indigenous peoples of Sarawak tools to protect their rights. An important achievement of BRIMAS is that they have been involved in several landmark court cases, representing local communities against companies and the state government. This has also contributed to creating raised awareness on land rights issues among the indigenous peoples. However, although the project is considered very relevant and have achieved some important outcomes, the evaluators also found that the project’s goals were formulated so comprehensive that there is little chance that BRIMAS could accomplish all of them. The evaluators found that BRIMAS used their resources in an efficient way, but that a too high percentage was spent on salaries. In terms of sustainability, it was recommended that BRIMAS try to identify other donors, as they now rely completely on RFN and this makes them vulnerable.   

Results:
The evaluation provided a range of recommendations for BRIMAS, both with regards to their project activities and organisational development, with emphasis on the latter.
 
Recommendations:
A range of recommendations were provided, but among the central recommendations were that BRIMAS should reformulate their goals and, consistent with this, rework their LFA. It was further recommended to make office management more efficient through among others hire an office manager, conduct regular staff meetings, prepare up-to-date contracts and job descriptions for the staff, hiring interns and upgrade the documentation section. As BRIMAS only donor is RFN, it was also recommended to increase fund-raising efforts.

Comments from the organisation, if any: -