Report of the National Inquiry into the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples 59 abatement, control of pollution and enhancement of the environment. In 1993, the NREO Sarawak amended the Colonial Natural Resources Ordinance 1949 to include “environment” in the Ordinance and it became the present NRE Ordinance 1993. The areas of jurisdiction under the two statutes are demarcated in accordance with the respective legislative lists in the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution. 4.101 In Sarawak the parent law, NREO provides for the enactment of subsidiary legislation specially related to the procedure of Environmental Impact Assessment report to be made. Under section 11A the Natural Resources and Environment Board may, subject to rule made under section 18, require any person undertaking certain prescribed activities to submit to the Board a report from an expert or authority on the impact of certain activities on the natural resources and environment. These prescribed activities include development of agricultural estates or plantations, clearing of forest areas for establishment of plantations, carrying out of logging operations in forest areas, exploration of minerals, mining, farming, development of commercial, industrial and housing estates, extraction of minerals, activities that may cause pollution of inland waters and establishment of or use of land as landfills or treatment of wastes and other activities that may damage the environment or natural forests. 4.102 Many of the areas that are affected by the foregoing activities and development are ancestral lands occupied by native communities whose livelihoods are often affected by such activities. Thus these statutes are important to the native communities. PENINSULAR MALAYSIA The National Land Code 1965 4.103 Land law in Peninsular Malaysia is governed by the National Land Code 1965. Section 4(2) provides for recognition of customary tenure. It states: Nothing in this Act shall affect the past operation of, or anything done under, any previous land law or, so far as they relate to land, the provisions of any other law passed before the commencement of this Act,     Provided that any right, liberty, privilege, obligation or liability existing at the commencement of this Act… be subject to the provisions of this Act. (2) Except in sofar as it is expressly provided to the contrary, nothing in this Act shall affect the provisions of – (a) any law for the time being in force relating to customary tenure; (b) any law for the time being in force relating to Malay reservation or Malay holdings; (c) … (d) any law relating to sultanate lands; … (i) the Land (Group Settlement Areas) Act 1960, … And, in the absence of express provision to the contrary, if any provision of this Act is inconsistent with any provision of any such law, the latter provision shall prevail, and the former provision shall to the extent of the inconsistency, be void. 4.104 Judith Sihombing in her book National Land Code: A Commentary 171 opines that there is nothing novel about section 4(2). It is merely illustrative of the traditional recognition given to personal law which, from the First Charter of Justice in 1807 in Penang, continues today 171 Judith Sihombing, National Land Code: A Commentary, 2nd Edition, at p 81. chapter 4_a4.indd 59 7/5/13 6:46 PM