If you own native customary rights land, the paperwork is not a small thing. In Bario this week, 77 residents received 102 individual land titles in perpetuity under Section 18 of the Sarawak Land Code, according to Borneo Post.
The titles cover land in the Sungai Ukat Block, which had been surveyed and gazetted under Section 6 on Oct 16, 2012. That sequence matters. A Section 6 perimeter survey identifies and gazettes the wider NCR area. A Section 18 title goes further by issuing an individual lot title. In plain terms, it moves the owner from recognised customary land into a stronger registered-title position for that surveyed lot.
Deputy Minister in the Sarawak Premier's Department Datuk Gerawat Gala said the Bario handover was the first time residents there had received individual NCR titles in perpetuity. He also said, according to the report, that Section 18 titles can only be issued over NCR land and not state land, responding to claims that land surveyed under Section 6 would be lost to owners.
For landowners, the next practical issue is boundaries. Gerawat urged longhouse and village heads in the Sungai Ukat Block to set up land committees to identify owners and agree lot boundaries, because lots under dispute cannot be surveyed or issued titles. That is the part families should pay close attention to: if boundaries are not settled locally, the title process slows down.
The same ceremony also saw the Batu Patong community in Kelapang receive the gazette for a 401-hectare Bumiputera communal reserve under Section 6. Gerawat said 1,648 hectares in the Sungai Kelapang area had been identified and approved for survey.
Statewide, the Land and Survey Department had completed perimeter surveys covering about 1.25 million hectares from 2010 to Aug 31, 2026, with about 975,413 hectares gazetted. In the same period, 112,232 individual lots covering 134,615 hectares had been surveyed, while 39,973 lots covering 59,707 hectares had been issued Section 18 titles.
Sources: Borneo Post.
