Project Women Empowerment Trees (PWET), (located in the Pitas district of northern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo), is a pioneering project that involves local communities, grass-roots NGOs and the Sabah state government collaborating together on a community tree planting program that aims to empower indigenous Rungus women, while also promoting economically sustainable environmental conservation in the region.
The Pitas district was among the first areas in Sabah to be clear-logged, causing major loss of forest area and watershed degradation. Economic activity in the villages has dwindled as a result, such that the men and young people have left for lives in the cities, leaving behind mothers, children and the elderly without viable incomes, resources or the training needed to promote local economic growth. Today, Pitas is recognized as one of the most impoverished, illiterate and barren districts in Sabah. Without a means of reclaiming power and leadership within their communities these current circumstances will worsen, creating another generation of disempowered, unskilled and economically stranded women and children. PWET aims to rebalance this situation by providing training, income and skills for the women in these communities, while also helping to rebuild the degraded environment for future generations through reforestation.
