A/HRC/44/40/Add.3 Paragraph 51 Despite laudable political and legal commitments to promote the rights of indigenous peoples, their rights, ways of life, and goals were frequently misunderstood or dismissed by government officials with whom the Rapporteur met. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • Although the reporter’s assertion that moving indigenous community to urban area has many disadvantages, this view need to be supported by details in-depth study.Meanwhile, government and related agencies will remain committed towards indigenous rights, by looking forward to create additional employment opportunities for indigenous community as effort to improve their level of life. At the same time, existing programs will be intensified to ensure their welfare, education and healthcare continuously being monitored by the government regardless wherever they were placed. Paragraph 52 Land rights are especially important for indigenous peoples and many in Sarawak, Sabah, and Peninsular Malaysia described their close relationship with the land, and how their cultivation methods, diets, shelter, and traditional healthcare practices derived from and depended on access to land. These communities have for years raised concerns about the negative impacts that loss of land to commercial plantations and logging have on their health, well-being, housing, and food security. Yet states continue to find devious ways to deprive indigenous communities of the land they have traditionally relied upon, for example by disingenuously declaring their land a “forest reserve” while allowing corporate actors to exploit the area. One person recounted, “We never said we were facing extreme poverty. The government is saying that, and using it to justify projects that do not benefit us.” A civil servant in Sarawak tellingly claimed that indigenous people don’t actually “use” the land, they merely “roam around.” Like her, many policymakers seem to assume a hierarchy of potential land uses that ranks corporate extraction of profit above sustainable cultivation by indigenous peoples. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • The forests in Peninsular Malaysia has been managed and classified under two major classifications: (1) production forests; and (2) protection forests. With regard to production forests, the states use production forests in order to ensure forest products for both domestic and international consumption into perpetuity (i.e. sustainably). Production forest areas are to be managed to maximize social, economic and environmental benefits for the nation and its people in accordance with the principles of sustainable management. Peninsular Malaysia has been practicing Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) since 1901. • The harvesting of timber in Peninsular Malaysia based on each annual allowable cut by state which is approved by the National Land Council (NLC) and adopted by the respective states. The selective Management System (SMS) practiced has evolved to optimize an economic cut, the sustainability of the forests and minimum cost for forest development. Under the SMS system, forestry activities are categorized into three stages, namely pre-harvesting, harvesting and post-harvesting. The sequence of operations under the SMS practiced in Peninsular Malaysia, strictly for the Permanent Reserved Forests (PRF). In this context, commercial plantations and logging are not threatening or diminishing, either directly or indirectly, the resources or tenure right of the communities. • With consent from Orang Asli Community, Department of Orang Asli Development (JAKOA) collaborate with several agencies to introduce commercial plantation program, agricultural to uplift their socioeconomic level and promotes sustainable cultivation by aborigines. Paragraph 53 Indigenous people also reported that they are often excluded from social services including school and healthcare. Some said they dropped out of school because the instruction was not relevant or accessible to them, because of what they saw as attempted religious conversion, 27