Negotiating development narratives within large-scale oil palm projects on village lands in Sarawak, Malaysia ASTRID OBERBORBECK ANDERSEN*,††, THILDE BECH BRUUN†,††, KELVIN EGAY‡,††, MILJA FENGER§,††, SIMONE KLEE–,††, ANNA FROHN PEDERSENk,††, LÆRKE MARIE LUND PEDERSEN†,†† AND VICTOR SU  AREZ VILLANUEVA**,†† *Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, I, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark E-mail: astrid.andersen@anthro.ku.dk †Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark ‡Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia §Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK –Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark kDepartment of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark **Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871 Frederiksberg, Denmark This paper was accepted for publication in May 2016 ††All authors contributed equally The Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo is one of the global hotspots of deforestation and forest degradation. The planting of oil palm has played a key role in the transformation of land use in the state. While much of the expansion in Sarawak so far has taken place in state forests (80%), many new plantations are being established on native customary rights (NCR) land. A significant portion of the total land area in Sarawak (20–25%) is claimed as native customary land where villagers traditionally practise extensive, semi-subsistence farming. This article explores how major resource development projects intersect with and accentuate internal community differences in sites of new plantations. We do so by examining the case of an Iban village where the introduction of a large-scale oil palm scheme has resulted in conflict and division within the community. By analysing the narratives that suggest that large-scale land development projects ‘bring development to the people’, utilising ‘idle lands’ and ‘creating employment’ to lift them out of poverty, we argue that political and economic processes related to cultivation of oil palm intersect with local community differences in two ways. First, these projects cement and enhance internal power structures and inequalities. Second, the government’s development narratives influence communities and link local community relations with national political discourses in complex ways. KEY WORDS: Malaysia, oil palm scheme, rural livelihoods, development narrative, conflict, social differentiation The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). © 2016 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). The Geographical Journal, 2016, doi: 10.1111/geoj.12181