Plantation Agriculture and the Formulation of Native Land Rights in British North Borneo c. 1880-1930

Abstract

One of the most durable consequences of the development of plantation farming in the tropics was the establishment of varied systems of native land rights which allowed administering authorities, whether colonial or otherwise, to demarcate, alienate and sell land to investors. Without the codification of land rights, land could not have been bought, sold and leased as a commodity and security of tenure for the overseas investor would have been uncertain. The development of such land rights in British North Borneo, now known as Sabah, between 1880 and 1930 is the subject of this paper. It is argued that the elaboration of a Land Code which classified land with native title, state land, and land leased to investors was closely linked with the development of plantation farming for tobacco and rubber. The paper seeks to examine the economic, legal and social context within which native land rights were formulated.

Palm Oil Wealth and Rumour Panics in West Kalimantan

“…This resulted in a massive land commoditization that shook the traditional land tenure system in the lower Buayan area (cf. Cleary, 1992). The company managed to secure a 75-year lease from either the colonial government or the Sultan of Sanggau over 12,257 hectares of lands on both sides of the Kapuas River -9,000 hectares on the south side and 3,000 hectares on the north side.…”

From Public to Private Standards for Tropical Commodities: A Century of Global Discourse on Land Governance on the Forest Frontier

“…The UK-based Aborigines Protection Society had a long history of agitation for land rights in areas of European settlement in temperate areas but only occasionally took up the cause of land rights in tropical countries [75]. One example was the successful investigation and support of local communities against the extension of the forest reserve into areas used for shifting agriculture in what is now Sabah, Malaysia, during the period 1914-1919 [76].…”

Forest Utilisation in Sarawak, Malaysia: A Case of Sustaining the Unsustainable

“…Through enlarging the area of titled (i.e. privately-owned) land, the 1953 Forest Ordinance and 1958 Land Code provided a means of guaranteeing security of access to investors (Cramb & Willis, 1990), and in so doing facilitated the development of major logging operations and plantations (Cleary, 1992;Cleary & Eaton, 1992). Their introduction also streamlined the processes through which land could be alienated and access given to logging companies.…”

“…One outcome of this was the wholesale exploitation and degradation of a larger area of land than had previously been the case. Although this period saw the development of a codified system designed to control forest exploitation, as Cramb and Willis (1990) and Cleary (1992) suggest, the regulatory arrangements actually facilitated the progression of capitalist production systems into new areas by establishing property rights and guaranteeing access to forest resources. Thus whilst the fixes involved here -the exploitation of new markets and technologies and the codification of property and use rights -may have appeared to be relatively benign and legitimate, they were instrumental in increasing both the extent and intensity of forest exploitation.…”