BIO COMMUNITY

INITIATIVE

Rights. Roots. Resilience.

BCI is a social enterprise founded in Sabah in 2011. We exist to address the growing need for ethical, participatory, and grounded approaches to community development, land governance, and environmental justice.

Unlike traditional NGOs, we operate on a reinvestment model where a portion of all consultancy fees supports our free and pro bono services for marginalised communities.

At BCI, we operate on a model that places community needs before profit. We reinvest our revenue into grassroots initiatives instead of distributing it to shareholders. Every project we take on is shaped by direct collaboration with local and indigenous communities, never imposed from the outside.

We apply Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as the baseline standard for engagement, ensuring full transparency and community agency. Our work bridges scientific insight with local wisdom, combining research with the lived realities of those we serve. While we remain strictly non-partisan, our ethical commitments are unwavering.

We offer six core services that strengthen community resilience, support ethical governance, and build self-determination. From designing community-driven policy frameworks to conducting diagnostic analysis of laws and institutions, our team provides grounded expertise rooted in lived experience.

We support awareness and education programmes, facilitate participatory dialogue, mediate conflict, and build local capacity through training and mentorship.

BCI began in 2011 as a response to the growing frustration with top-down development in Sabah. A group of professionals who were tired of seeing solutions imposed without listening, came together to build something different: a homegrown organisation where community voices lead the process.

What started as a small, flexible team has evolved into one of Sabah’s most trusted consultancies for ethical research, rights-based development, and FPIC-grounded engagement. Our heart remains in the field, with the people.

Our work is grounded in a firm belief that communities have the right to shape their own futures. We embrace a rights-based approach, always starting from the ground level. We remain non-partisan, yet firm in our ethics, maintaining full transparency at every stage.

Cultural respect is central to everything we do, and we are committed to decolonising not just policy but perspective. These aren’t slogans. They are our daily practice.

Conflict Prevention Platform (CPP)

The Conflict Prevention Platform (CPP) is a community led mechanism developed by BC Initiative and its partners to support indigenous, local, and worker communities in Sabah’s palm oil sector. It offers a fast, safe, and community friendly alternative to formal dispute channels, which are often inaccessible to undocumented, rural, or vulnerable populations.

Using a simple messaging platform, CPP helps resolve wage disputes, workplace abuse, land conflicts, and other rights violations. It empowers people to speak up, connect with advocates, and negotiate directly with employers or authorities.

Run entirely by volunteers, CPP has become a trusted and effective tool in advancing justice where institutions fall short.

Read the full report here
handshake2

Let’s Work Together

Join us in reshaping development from the ground up — ethical, community-led, and rooted in Sabah.

LEARN MORE