Domesticating forests : how farmers manage forest resources

Local people in South-east Asia are often cited as skilled forest managers. It is barely acknowledged that an essential part of this forest management does not concern natural forests, but forests that have been planted, often after the removal of pre-existing natural forests; forests that are cultivated not by professional foresters, but by sedentary or swidden farmers, on their farmlands; forests that are based not on exotic, fast-growing trees, but on local tree species, and harbour an incredible variety of plant and animal species. This book concentrates on forest cultivation by smallholder farmers in South-east Asia, not only because it constitutes altogether the most original and lesser known aspect of local forest management in the region, but also because, it represents the most promising field for the design of alternative strategies for the management of forest resources and forest lands. Natural forests are still present and actively managed in the region. So, why do people cut natural forests to replant the same species of forest trees they have just chopped down? Why have professional foresters, or the decision-makers in forest management, never seriously considered these examples of indigenous forest culture, however sustainable and profitable they may be? Many elements of the answer to these questions are given in this book, which is built on the conclusions of 10 years of multidisciplinary research and analysis on these systems. It shows how forest culture by farmers constitutes a strategy that questions the practical, conceptual and legal aspects of conventional forest management. It speaks for more scientific and political support to these systems, because they are altogether neglected, endangered and full of potential. Further it explains a why it is important to consider these examples as interesting alternative models to either forest extraction or specialized forest plantations, especially in the present context of depletion of natural forests all over the planet. Can the transfer of these original examples to other parts of the world be achieved? How can it be successful? This book helps to answer these important questions

Making Friends in the Rainforest: Negrito Adaptation to Risk and Uncertainty

The so-called negritos adapt not just to a tropical forest environment but also to an environment characterized by perturbations and fluctuations. As with other hunter-gatherers in the region and, indeed, throughout the world, they use both social and ecological methods to enhance their chances of survival in this changing environment: socially, they have developed networks of trading and marriage partners; ecologically, they maintain patches of key resources that are available for future harvesting. As evidenced in the case of the Batek (Orang Asli), patterns of forest structure and composition are sometimes direct outcomes of intentional resource concentration and enrichment strategies. While little of the above is controversial anthropologically, what has drawn some debate is the nature of the relationship with partner societies. Conventional wisdom posits relations of inequality between foragers and others : foragers and farmers are often construed as hierarchical dyads where foragers supply products or labor to farmers in exchange for agricultural harvests and other trade goods. This kind of adaptation appears to be one of divergent specialization. However, there are cases, such as in the relationship between Batek and Semaq Beri, where both societies follow a roughly similar mode of adaptation, and specialization has not materialized. In sum, while not denying that hierarchy and inequality exist, I suggest that they have to be contextualized within a larger strand of relationships that includes both hierarchy and egality. Further, such relationships are part of the general portfolio of risk reduction strategies, following which access to widely scattered environmental resources, and passage from one location to another, is enhanced not by competing with and displacing neighbors but by maintaining a flexible regime of friendly exchange partners

Forest, resources and people in Bulungan: elements for a history of settlement, trade and social dynamics in Borneo, 1880-2000

Bulungan regency is the northern part of the province of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. In the course of the last decade, Kalimantan's or Borneo's hinterland has been the target of unprecedented non-timber forest products (NTFP) collecting activity. More intensive NTFP use has contributed to unsustainable extractive practices and environmental damage and to deep social and political disruption. This book examines northern East Kalimantan's trade networks. The historical scope extends from about 1880 to present and primarily focus on Long Pujungan and Malinau districts. Thematically, the study is on institutions and land and forest use patterns, and their changes with emphasis on social and economic features. It explains regional patterns in the light of past relationships between tribal interior groups and trading coastal polities and seeks to understand both the economic contribution of NTFPs and the institutions controlling their use. It offers some broad ideas that should prove useful in understanding how the past has shaped the present and how the present socio-economic situation owes many of its specific features to past patterns and events

Non-timber forest products and trade in eastern Borneo

A broad range of non-timber forest products of plant and animal origin collected from the Borneo rain forestand subsequently traded are presented. These products include resins, latex, rattans and birdsnests. The article discusses their local and regional uses and whether they are or have been targeted for local or international markets. The author also presents for the northern part ofthe Indonesian province of East Kalimantan a history of trade in these products based on various written (Dutch colonial archives, official Indonesian statistics, local scholarly texts) and oral (interviews with nomadic Punan people, Dayak swidden farmers, Malays in the coastalports, Chinese and Arab traders, middlemen disseminating in land products on international markets) sources. This historical reconstruction suggests that despite the fact that some of these products have been traded on world markets for almost two millenia their systematic and unsustainable exploitation only began in the 17th century. Since then, the products have been extracted along a front that has gradually progressed from the coastal regions via the rivers towards interior parts ofthe island. This exploitation ended inthe 1990s, with almost complete depletion of these resources. The local forest communities (Dayak and Punan) are neither wise conservationists nor primitive destroyers of the forest, but simply economic stakeholders. Their sensible, pragmatic strategies have enabled their long term survival in local forests underany circumstances with respect to world market demand

Social science research and conservation management in the interior Borneo: unravelling past and present interactions of people and forests

The Culture and Conservation Research Program in Kayan Mentarang National Park, East Kalimantan, constitutes a unique interdisciplinary engagement in central Borneo that lasted for six years (1991-97). Based on original ethnographic, ecological, and historical data, this volume comprehensively describes the people and the environment of this region and makes a rare contribution to the understanding of past and present interactions between people and forests in central Borneo. Kayan Mentarang has thus become one of the ethnographically best known protected areas in Southeast Asia. By pointing at the interface between research and forest management, this book offers tools for easing the antagonism between applied and scholarly research, and building much needed connections across fields of knowledge