Project Title : Human
Communities and Their Uses of Natural Resources
Executive Summary of Research Proposal (maximum 300 words)
(Please include
the background of research, literature reviews, objectives, research
methodology and expected outcomes from the research project)
Ringkasan Cadangan Eksekutif Penyelidikan (maksima 300 patah perkataan)
(Meliputi latar belakang penyelidikan, kajian literatur,
kaedah penyelidikan, objektif dan jangkaan hasil penyelidikan)
Located on the island of
Borneo, Sarawak, covering an area of 12.5 million hectares, has 36 ethnic
indigeneous groups (Joe & Insham, 2004).
Sarawak is also a state which is richly endowed with natural
resources. The abundant natural
resources in Sarawak are not only the main driver for economic growth. In fact,
many indigeneous communities in Sarawak are still dependent greatly on these
resources for their daily life, cultural heritage, social value, traditions,
medical knowledge, belief system and quality of life (Joe & Insham, 2004). Thus,
promoting sustainable socio-economic community development and natural resource
management in the national development strategies are playing a crucial role in
this context. With the many sub-ethnic groups carrying their respective
indigeneous knowledge, a total number of 6000 respondents will be interviewed
in this study to identify different indigeneous communities found in Western
Sarawak ranging from the Sarawak River, Batang Sadong River and Batang Lupar
River riverine. This study also tries to explore various uses of flora &
fauna currently still found in Western Sarawak among the different local indigenous
communities and make comparison on the economic, social, cultural values of these
natural resources to the local communities. On the other hand, this study would
also investigate possible gaps in the current local knowledge of these natural
resources uses between the elderly and the younger generations; and to explore
the practices among the indigeneous communities on the conservation and
preservation of different uses of various types of flora and fauna found in
Western Sarawak besides accessing the livelihood strategies of these
indigeneous communities and to evaluate to what extent these livelihood
strategies are sustainable in the changing biodiversity environment in Western
Sarawak. Finally, it is hoped that appropriate policies would be recommended to
ensure a more sustainable use of natural resources particularly in Western
Sarawak.
Detailed proposal of research project:
Cadangan maklumat penyelidikan secara terperinci:
(a) Research background
including Hypothesis /Research Questions
and Literature Reviews. Keterangan
latar belakang penyelidikan termasuk kenyataan hipotesis / persoalan
penyelidikan dan kajian literatur.
Sarawak, covering an
area of 12.5 million hectares, has 36 ethnic indigeneous groups (Joe &
Insham, 2004). It is also richly endowed
with natural resources. The abundant
natural resources in Sarawak are not only the main driver for economic growth. Many
indigeneous communities in Sarawak are still dependent very much on the
biodiversity of the resources for their daily life, cultural heritage, social
value, traditions, medical knowledge, belief system and quality of life (Joe
& Insham, 2004). Nevertheless, many areas including protected areas in
Borneo are already moderately to seriously altered as a result of logging or
fires set for purposes of local claims (Curran et al, 2004). Promoting sustainable socio-economic
community development and natural resource management in the national
development strategies are thus playing particularly crucial role in this
context. Integrating local knowlege into a more scientific research setting
(Oudwater and Martin, 2003) is increasingly gaining importance to ensure sustainability
of natural resource management (Steele and Shackleton, 2010). This is important as it involves local
community participation and it in fact entails inclusiveness by involving
stakeholders in the decision making process. Furthermore, engaging the local
community by understanding how they currently use and value the natural
resources available in the area is deemed very crucial in ensuring that the
indigeneous knowledge to practise conservation and uses of different natural
resources available is preserved to sustain their livelihoods. At the same time, it will ensure conservation
of the ecosystem and natural resources in the area. This would ultimately
enhance success rate in preserving rich biodiversity particularly in the state
of Sarawak. Several studies (Nakagawa et al., 2006; Ashton & Macintosh,
2002) have raised concerns on how the local communities utilize the natural
resources available in a particular area has caused degradation and even threatened
the ecosystem.
According to the 2010 census,
there is 2.5 million total population in Sarawak. This study will focus on the study area in Western
Sarawak which ranges from the Sarawak River, Batang Sadong River and Batang
Lupar River. Generally, the population
density is higher at the lowland areas as compared to highland areas. Majority of the Ibans are staying near Batang
Lupar area, Malays staying at coastal area of Sarawak River. A mixture of
Malays and Bidayuh stay near Batang Sadong and Sarawak River. In fact, each
river basin in Sarawak is a distinct social unit (Rousseau, 1990). In Sarawak, different human communities
would use natural resources either for the similar or different purposes. Iban,
the largest population of Sarawak, for instance, though known in the
anthropological literature as pioneer shifting cultivators, the vast majority
of Iban communities practice a cyclic-shift or forest-fallow system of land use
involving the continual recultivation of young secondary forest (Cramb, 1988;
Cramb & Wills, 1990).
In the light of the
above, several research questions have been formulated to capture information
on what are the natural resources still available in Western Sarawak that are
currently still consumed and used by the locals. What are the common household consumption as
well as customary rituals, cultural, religious, medicinal and other uses of
these natural resources among the local communities in the study area? How
important are these natural resources to the locals? What are the economic,
social, cultural values these natural resources to the locals? What are some of
the possible gaps in the current local knowledge of these natural resources
uses between the elderly and younger generations? To what extent have the local
(or indigeneous) knowledge of different uses of these natural resources been
preserved and documented? What are the issues and challenges to ensure the
sustainable use of these natural resources particularly among the locals in
this area? Is there any regulatory or institutional or even social capital support
which can protect the over-expoitation of these natural resources and their
uses in the area? What are the effective measures that can be taken to ensure
sustainable uses of these natural resources in Western Sarawak?
Thus, the objectives of
this study are to identify different human communities particularly the
indigeneous communities found in Western Sarawak and to explore various
cultural, religious, medicinal, cullinary and other uses of flora & fauna currently
still found in Western Sarawak among different local indigenous communities.
This study also tries to make comparison on the economic, social, cultural
values of these natural resources to the local communities. On the other hand,
this study would also investigate possible gaps in the current local knowledge
of these natural resources uses between the elderly and the younger generations;
and to explore the practices among the indigeneous communities on the
conservation and preservation of different uses of various types of flora and
fauna found in Western Sarawak. In
addition, this study would also access the livelihood strategies of these
indigeneous communities and to find out to what extent these livelihood
strategies are sustainable in the changing biodiversity environment in Western
Sarawak. Finally, it is hoped that an appropriate regulatory and institutional framework
or even social capital support would be recommended to ensure a more
sustainable use of natural resources in the Western Sarawak. On the other hand, a document repository on
various uses of the natural resources among the human communities particularly
among the indigeneous communities would also be created by the end of this
study. This is crucially important if we were to conserve the rich biodiversity
available in the area to enhance the well-being of the local community. Besides that, it is important to document
this indigeneous knowledge on the uses of natural resource for preservation and
for the uses of future generation.
(b) Objective (s) of the Research
Objektif
Penyelidikan
Example /Contoh:
This
study embarks on the following objectives:
1) To investigate ......
2) To assess..........
3) To investigate ......
4) To make recommendation based on
......................
The
objectives of this study are as follows:
1) To identify the human communities particularly the indigeneous communities
found in Western Sarawak and make comparisons on how these communities use
these natural resources today as compared to those in the past;
2) To identify various cultural, religious, medicinal, cullinary and other
uses of flora & fauna currently still found in Western Sarawak among
different local indigenous communities and make comparison on the economic,
social, cultural values of these natural resources to them;
3) To investigate possible gaps in the current local knowledge of these
natural resources uses between the elderly and the younger generations;
4) To explore the practices among different human communities particularly
among the indigeneous communities on the conservation and preservation of
different uses of various types of flora and fauna found in Western Sarawak;
5) To access the livelihood strategies of these human communities and to evaluate
to what extent these livelihood strategies are sustainable in the changing
biodiversity environment in Western Sarawak;
6) To determine appropriate regulatory and institutional or even social
capital support which can protect the over-expoitation of these natural
resources and their uses in the area and make recommendations on the effective
measures that can be taken to ensure sustainable uses of these natural
resources in Western Sarawak;
7) To create a document repository on the uses of natural resources available
in Western Sarawak among all the human communities residing there.
(c)
Methodology
Kaedah penyelidikan
Please state in the form / Sila nyatakan di borang ini
1. Description of Methodology
In this study, a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods will be
used to gather data and information to find out all the human communities
residing on the major river basins in Western Sarawak. Surveys will be conducted by employing
various methodological approaches including Participatory Action Research (PAR)
and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods to find out how these human
communities were using and are still using different types of flora and fauna
species available along Sarawak River, Batang Sadong River and Batang Lupar River
for their own consumption either as food, medicine, for cultural, religious or
other purposes. Questionnaires and
interview schedule will be designed to find out the livelihood strategies,
various uses of these natural resources and practices of conservation and
preservation of various uses of the natural resources found in the Western
Sarawak from Tanjung Datu in Lundu to Batang Lupar area by these different
indigenous communities. Activities
carried out to solicit information needed in this study also include in-depth
and focus group interviews to find out information about historical timeline on
resources availability, livelihood matrix in the area and resource wealth and how
it affects the quality of life of the communities residing in those areas. On the other hand, different levels of
knowledge on the uses of natural resources available in the study area by both
the elderly and younger generations will also be captured through in-depth and
focus group interviews.
In terms of data collection, only those who are above 12 years old will
be included in the sampling frame as the total population of the study. The rationale of this specification is to get
someone in the area comprising of both the elderly and the younger generations
who are able to talk about different flora and fauna found in the area and how
the local communities use them. Generally, the whole Western Sarawak will be
divided into three main areas for sampling purposes, namely the upper, middle
and coastal areas. As more population is
found near the coastal and middle areas as compared to upper land area, the
proportion of sample frame for upper, middle and coastal areas will be
20:40:40. Stratified Sampling method will be used to collect 6000 samples from
the sampling frame for interviews. Based
on the calculations made on the ratio of 20:40:40 for upper, middle and coastal
areas, the number of respondents that would be interviewed for would be 1200:
2400: 2400 in the three respective areas (upper, middle and coastal
areas). In each of the areas, another
stratum based on the different indigenous communities found in the areas such
as Bidayuh (comprising of Bidayuh Sadong, Bidayuh residing along the Batang
Kayan river in the Bau/Lundu district and Bidayuh Serian/ Padawan), Iban,
Malay, Melanao, etc would be selected for interviews to find out how these
different groups of communities use, preserve and conserve the natural
resources available in the area.
Besides primary data collected from the local communities, secondary
sources of information from Sarawak Gazette, collections from Sarawak Muzeum,
Department of Forestry, Department of Statistics and other related agencies and
departments would be carried out as well to find out different types of natural
resources and their uses by the local communities in the past as well. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis
would be employed for data analysis purpose before discussion on findings and
recommendations on sustainable uses of natural resources in the area are made
at the end of the study.
Bibliography:
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