Land of plenty

Life is looking up for the Orang Sungai people in the deep reaches of Sabah. JASWINDER KAUR travels to the Mangkuwagu Forest Reserve in Tongod to get details of an on-going community forestry project aimed at providing sustainable livelihood to these people STEAMING rays of the almost noon sun scorching her back, a mother continues to crouch on a dry plot of land several metres above the river bank, clearing dark green weeds from the sweet potato seedlings.

Kastinah Julan, 43, shields herself with a flowery pink hat and two layers of clothing for a job that requires stamina and a sprinkle of patience.

But there is no turning back for the sake of her five children, aged between five and 17 years, who have a thousand and one needs.

Kastinah and her neighbours at the remote and difficult to access Kampung Tampasak in central Sabah are participating in a United Nations Development Programme and Sabah Forestry Department joint project to plant long and short term crops.

This effort will not only put food on the table but help rehabilitate degraded forests.

“Right now we are planting sweet potatoes as we have to wait four or five years for rubber trees to mature,” Kastinah says, squinting to keep the sun from hurting her eyes.

Having attended courses on planting rubber and other short term crops such as ginger and groundnuts, Kastinah is excited about what the future holds.

The pint-sized woman, who has to pay RM24 a day for the boat ride for two of her children to attend secondary school in Kampung Pinangah further downstream, says it is almost impossible to get money in a far-flung village with muddy roads and no basic facilities such as water and electricity.

“I rear and sell chickens to workers at plantations but when I don’t make enough, the boatman allows me to pay when I am able.

“If this project succeeds, we will be able to tap rubber in about five years and make money from that.

“We were told that latex will be collected from us, so we don’t have to worry about transporting it on our bad roads.

“I am also glad that we are learning to grow new short term crops. In the past, we only planted yam and hill padi.”

The joint project, which started in mid-2006, has a mouthful of a name — “Promoting Sustainable Use and Conservation of Forest Resources in Mangkuwagu Forest Reserve through Capacity Building and Community Forestry”.

The project offers villagers who live within and at the fringes of the forest reserve an alternative to toil the land legally.

A section of the 260 households with 1,610 people in four villages — Tampasak, Mangkuwagu, Alintang and Saguon — are involved in the project at several locations in the 8,335ha Mangkuwagu Forest Reserve.

Villagers claim customary rights, having lived in the forest long before it was gazetted under the Sabah Forest Enactment 1968.

The forestry project, which is running successfully in several other areas in Sabah, was extended to this community to stop them from illegally entering the reserve for their daily needs.

Each participating household has been allocated between one to two hectares to plant rubber and short term crops. To date, 340ha have been earmarked for rubber planting with seedlings provided by the forestry department and the Sabah Rubber Industry Board.

Richat Patula, 48, of Kampung Saguon, says the project was the only way for villagers to earn a sustainable income without worrying about encroaching into the forest reserve.

“Everyone who is participating in this project has been responsive. We have attended training workshops organised by the forestry department and we find the sessions easy to understand.

“It has also been exciting for us to gain new knowledge that this project brings with it,” says Richat.

Tampasak village security and development committee chairman Tomi Gambili, 44, is positive about the project.

“Getting the community involved makes us feel empowered. There is nothing much we can do here if we are not trained and given assistance. I am really hopeful this project will work out in the long run,” he says.

Tomi, a father of six, is optimistic the project will succeed as even in the early stages, participants were working hard to produce enough seedlings for the short term crops.

“Rubber seedlings come from the authorities but we are showing that we can produce enough seedlings for short term crops to be distributed to more participants.”

Keeping the forest spirit alive

THE indigenous people in the interior of Sabah had lived in the jungle which provided for their needs long before the loggers moved in to fell the trees or before large tracts were gazetted as reserves.

Now, 11 years since the Sustainable Forest Management policy was launched, the Sabah Forestry Department is looking at fresh ways to accommodate the needs of the estimated 20,000 indigenous people who live within the forest reserves.

This is a core issue the Sabah Forestry Department is working on as it continues to push for Sustainable Forest Management practices to address the problems of forest degradation as a result of decades of bad logging practices and land clearing for agriculture.

Director Datuk Sam Mannan says the forest reserves are also under threat by an unaccounted number of people living at the fringes.

“Most of these people are the hardcore poor with little or no access to very basic facilities, including healthcare and education.

“Many still practise shifting cultivation or rudimentary subsistence planting to meet their daily needs,” says Mannan.

“Given such a situation, forests close to them are always under threat of encroachment and degradation.

“If left unchecked, this will lead to further loss of forests and will also result in reduced economic opportunities for communities.”

In the last two decades, the department has introduced agroforestry projects at several locations, an approach which not only safeguards forests but looks into the livelihood of the affected groups.

Community forestry projects at the Gana and Kelawat forest reserves are well established, successes there extended to other forests, including the Mangkuwagu Forest Reserve in central Sabah.

“We believe meaningful involvement of indigenous people in community forestry is the most effective long-term approach to address problems of deforestation and land degradation.

“However, while we can solve the encroachment issue, community forestry projects have their limitations, such as access to education and basic infrastructure, which can only be addressed by other agencies and stakeholders.

“Most of our project sites are in remote places where the most basic infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity supply are not in place.”

The department has in the last 20 years collected about RM100 million from timber companies for the forestry cess fund, with almost half of it spent to provide 4,000 households with new homes, clinics and gravity water feed systems.

Mannan says adequate funding was critical in efforts to improve the livelihoods of forest dependent communities and it was for this reason that it is working with partners like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is involved in the Mangkuwagu Forest Reserve social forestry project.

“Funding and invaluable input by UNDP will help in laying the foundation for a better future for those involved in the project through capacity building, forest restoration and other economic programmes.”

UNDP is not only assisting in the initial two-year project at Mangkuwagu for the benefit of 260 households but has also produced a report titled “Sustainable Community Forest Management in Sabah”.

The report lists what the forestry department has done for remote indigenous people through agroforestry.

Speaking at the recent launch of the publication in Kota Kinabalu, former UNDP resident representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Dr Richard Leete, said basic infrastructure is a prerequisite to eliminate poverty among forest communities.

He warns that without good roads, healthcare and water supply, which are taken for granted by those who live in urban areas, community projects could be unsustainable in the long run.

“In line with UNDP’s efforts to foster equitable growth, the Mangkuwagu social forestry project is designed to assist the Orang Sungai in four villages,” says Leete.

“The project has helped identify resources available to them and to establish cash crops and other activities that can provide an income to meet the demands of their changing environment.

“Most families cultivate hill padi in rotation with a few other crops. Under the project, these crops are complemented by the planting of rubber trees, which in about five years, will provide a steady financial return.”

The joint project in Mangkuwagu also aims to identify cottage industries for women in beekeeping, herbal gardens and handicraft production.