5 Report of the National Inquiry into the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples to the land rights of indigenous peoples in Malaysia. A total of 57 submissions were received by the Inquiry. Public Consultations 1.15 The Commission, through a public consultation process, also gathered information on areas of conflict pertaining to indigenous land and related evidence, as well as applicable laws, procedures and policies. Invitations were sent to all stakeholders including, but not limited to, key Government departments and agencies, indigenous communities, the private sector, NGOs and the media, to participate in the consultations. 1.16 For the purpose of the public consultations, the Inquiry team divided Malaysia into three main regions namely Sabah, Sarawak, and Peninsular Malaysia. For the Peninsular Malaysia region, consultations were conducted in Kelantan, Perak, Pahang, Selangor and Johor. The consultations began in Sabah in June, 2011, after which the Inquiry team headed to the various States in Peninsular Malaysia in July 2011 before concluding in Sarawak in September 2011. The public consultations were conducted at several venues in 23 districts around Malaysia, totaling 34 days. 1.17 The consultation process involved a briefing on the Inquiry, followed by a short dialogue session with the indigenous peoples present. The Commission’s officers then recorded statements from those who wished to provide one, either individually or in groups. At the same time, the Commissioners consulted representatives of the Government in a more informal manner to get feedback on cases raised during the dialogue and its perspectives and experience pertaining to land issues and recognition of land rights of indigenous peoples, and to ascertain measures that have been taken thus far. Meetings were also held with some NGOs, the private sector and key individuals. 1.18 The consultations received overwhelming response from the public with more than 6,500 indigenous peoples participating in the sessions. A total of 892 statements were recorded - 407 statements from Sabah, 198 statements from Sarawak and 287 statements from the Peninsula. 1.19 These statements were then categorised into broad categories. Table 1 shows the number of statements in each State received according to these categories. TABLE 1: NUMBER OF STATEMENTS RECEIVED BY THE INQUIRY BASED ON CATEGORIES/ISSUES CATEGORIES/ NO ISSUES SABAH SARAWAK SELANGOR PERAK PAHANG JOHOR KELANTAN NEGERI SEMBILAN MELAKA TOTAL 1. Administration 221 101 11 31 31 24 15 2 1 437 2. Plantation 51 10 4 8 13 8 17 - - 111 3. Logging & Forest Reserve 50 11 8 8 5 3 8 - - 93 4. Inclusion into National or State Protected Areas 22 6 1 3 2 1 - - - 35 5. Community Land Development Scheme 17 - - 1 3 1 - - - 22 6. Commercial Development Projects 16 8 18 7 12 10 1 - - 72 7. Compensation 6 36 4 3 3 1 2 - - 55 8. Others 24 26 4 9 2 - 2 - - 67 407 198 50 70 71 48 45 2 1 892 TOTAL chapter 1_a4.indd 5 PENINSULAR MALAYSIA 7/5/13 6:42 PM