Danced Socia-Economic Survey Of The Indigenous Communities From The Soak, Nabawan and Kalabakan Districts Surrounding The Maliau Basin November 2000 . Authors: Judeth John Baptist, Robin Fedilis Lojiwin & Lasung M u rang .Department of Sabah Museum, Locked Bag 2015, 88566 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Mqlaysia Phone: +60) 88 253 199 Fax: (+60) 88 240 230 .. SOCIO-ECONOMIC SURVEY OF THE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES FROM THE SOOK, NABA WAN AND KALABAKAN DISTRICTS SURROUNDING THE MALIAU BASIN I I I I I BY JUDETH JOHN BAPTIST ROBIN FED ILlS LOJIWIN LASUNG MURANG DEPARTMENT OF SABAH MUSEUM I I I CONTENTS INTRODUCnON Page 1 2 OBJECTIVES 2 SURVEY SITES 3 METHODOLOGY 5 5 FINDINGS 5 5.1 DemographicCharacteristics 5 5.2 Land Ownership 12 5.3 Main EconomicActivities 12 5.3.1 Agriculture 13 5.3.2 Hunting 15 5.3.3 Other Usesof Forest Resources 18 5.3.4 Handicrafts 18 5.3.5 CookingFuel 18 5.3.6 TraditionalMedicinal Plants 18 5.3.7 Fishing 19 5.4 Standardof Living 19 I 6. OTHER OBSERVATIONSREGARDING MALIAU BASIN 21 7. CONCLUSIONS I 21 8 RECOMMENDATIONS 22 REFERENCES 23 APPENDIX I: ANALYSIS OF RESPONDENTS'ANSWERS 25 Socio-EconomicResearch Survey... Sook 26 Socio-EconomicResearch Survey. ..Nabawan 35 I Socio-EconomicResearch Survey... Kalabakan 43 APPENDIX II: ADDmONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES 52 APPENDIX III: MAPS 70 Map of Sook 71 Map ofNabawan,Pensiangan 72 Map of Kalabakan 73 I APPENDIX IV: DAILY ACTMTY REPORT 74 I I 4. INTRODUCTION The name "Maliau" comes from a Tagal (fahol) M LlfUtword o/iou meaning"bowl" or "basin." It figures in several legends of the Tagal Murut. The Tagal believe that the Maliau) Basin is the resting place for spirits of the dead. It is said tc be a magical place, the home of a, mythical dragon-like creature which lives under the waters oj its seven-tieredwaterfall. It is also described as being a haven for wild animals which come tog ~er unafraid to lick salty watersofe a mysterious spring on every full-moon night. There is a lak in Maliau known as Linunmunsut,f which is renowned amongst local peoples for its abundance 0 freshwater fish. The Maliau Basin Conservation Area is one of the 1a remainingpristine rainforestareas on the island of Borneo, and is an important heritage sLte for environmentalpreservation, scientific research and carefully selected eco-tourism. Fom Lerlyit covered39,000 hectares and was part of the Yaysan Sabah Concession Area. In 1997, 11was upgradedto Class I Protectional Forest Reserve of 58, 840 hectaresand now includes additiol1 foreststo the north and eastof the Basin. So far only 25% of the Basin in the southwesthas been explored. The Area is managedby Yayasan Sabahon behalf of the Maliau Basin ManagementJevelopment, Committee,which includesthe state Ministry of Tourism Environment,Science and Technology,Sabah Forestry Department, Universiti Ma aysia Sabahand otherbodies. With the assistanceof DANCED (Danish Cooperationfor EnVlIonmentand Development),detailed studiesare cuuently beingconducted for a comprehensive11lanagement plan to be completedby 2002. Protectionof the Maliau Basin is currentlybeing thJ by i1legalloggers,poachers, and gatherersof gaharu and birds' nests. Many of the 1Jlegal loggers, who often use heavyvities machinery,appear to be from Indonesia,while the otheracti' are carried out by local peoplesoming from surroundingvillages whose traditional lands are bec encroachedupon by outside developments.The unexplorednorthern part of the Basinis closeto the villages of Pinangahand19ai Tongod, whose people are generally known as Orang Sm and speak Upper Kinabatangan languagesof the Paitanic Family, and Inarad which is mlImy Tanggara Murut who speak a dialect of BookanMumt. The Keningau-Tawau Road, wh1( :n will be sealedby 2004, runs along the westernside of the Basin and is situatednear many logging camps. Apart from motorloes vehicles,people can enterthe Basinon foot and by usingcar alongthe KuamutRiver. This report is part of a larger study carried out b'r the Departmentof Sabah Museum amongstall the communitiessurrounding the Maliau Basn ConservationArea, to ascertainthe pressureson traditional resourcesby outside developmel1IS, the extent of poaching by local[he peoplesand their awarenessof the significanceof Maliau. datapresented here was collected from three areas-Sook, Nabawan-Pensiangan,and Kalabro~-during a shortten-day field trip. Four days were used for traveling to and from theseplace: which left only six days for actual data collection in the field. The short time period alS( somewhatlimited the numbers ofouaints, respondentswhich were interviewed. Despite these conf this brief study provides aniwareness important survey of the activities taking place and the of the local communities involved. 1.st'eatened 2. OBJECTIVES The main objectivesof this socio-economicsurvey ~ere: to identify the main socio-economic activities land utilisation of the communitiesIn on the periphery of the Maliau Basin Conservati ~ Area, in the Nabawan,Pensiangan ~ District, SookSub-District and the Kalabakanar to ascertainthe potential threat of these actij especially hunting and land clearing,for the conservationof the Maliau Bas~l to ascertainthe level of awarenessof surroundin~ local communitiesas to the status1 and importance of the Maliau Basin Conservatio~Area to offer recommendationsas to how to increas this awarenessand reduce further encroachmentsinto the ConservationArea t 3. SURVEYSITES The Sook Sub-District is an area of 787 squaremiles with a population of 17, 271 and 86 villages. In former times, Sook was inhabited mainly by M llTUtiCpeoples, particularly the Sook1 Murut (who spoke a dialect of Paluan Murut), some Book (sometimes called Baukan) Murut and Tagal Murut. These peoples practiced traditional shiftin ~cultivation and hunting. ExtensiveIf logging of the area during the 1970s and the establishment the huge Desa Cattle Beef Project under KPD (Korporasi Pembangunan Desa) in the early 1980s displaced many traditional communities and brought in Dusunic peoples, including Kuijau Dusun and Kadazandusun,barren Paitanic peoples and others. Today, the area is almost totally of forests. The District ofNabawan, Pensiangan,has a total arel of around608,909 hectares. It has a population of 19,081 and contains 79 villages of mo ly Tagal (rahol) Murut speakers. Speakersof other Murutic languages,and someDusunic an Paitaniclanguages are also present.Ilg Traditionally the Tagal Murut are shifting cultivators cutt. small swiddens from secondary forest who supplementtheir diets with hunted game and esh water fishing. Although some logginghas beenundertaken, much forestis extantand river i are still viable. Plansto sealroadse and supply electricityto the district are underway. During early 1990s,KPD set up a tapioca processingfactory in Sapulot,which employedlocal people This was unsuccessfuland closed down in 1995. Sincethen, KPD hasencouraged the former 'actorystaff to collect productsfrom uu. the rivers and foreststo sell at its weekly tamuin Kota Kinab The sparsely populated Kalabakan area in the f1If southeast comer of Sabah wasridong, traditionally inhabited by two main indigenous groups-the who are culturally related to the Bulusu' and other societies connected with the Bulung t1court of east Kalimantan, and the Kalabakan Mumt. Today's population of 2,235 includes 0 ers such as Orang Sungai, Iban andlocated Javanese. Although the Luasong Forest ResearchCentre is in the Kalabakan area, most; of the forests have been logged and replaced with vast tra of palm oil plantations (no figures regarding the area of the district were available). Although displaying wide cultural and linguisti variations, most of the original communitiesin these areastraditionally practiced shifting~ultivation of hill rice together with hunting and fishing. Today, cashcropping is becoming in :;reasingly popular. The decline of.ced forestsand the presenceof huge oil palm plantationshave pI a drain on natural resources and dvities,: 3 require muchmore land than traditional swiddenagriculture. This hasplaced local communities underpressure, which in turn threatensthe Maliau Basin ConservationArea as people begin to encroachinto its confines. I I I I I I I PLATE II: YayasanOil Palm Plantationsin the Kalabakanarea I I .I 5 METHODOLOGY The field work was conducted in two phases. During the first phase, surveys of Nabawan, Pensiangan,Pagalungan, Sapulot and Sook were undertaken. The second phase I coveredthe Kalabakanarea. Structuredquestionnaires were used for interviews with a randomsample of informants throughoutthe three areas. Questionnairesincluded cultural as well as socio-economicquestions to fully understandthe communitiesbeing surveyed(see Appendix I for summariesof the socio- I economicfmdings from the three areas). A photographicdocumentation of the peoplesand areasbeing surveyed,using both still camerasand videotaping,accompanied the interviews. Discussionsabout the studywere also held with district officers, native chiefs andvillage headmen,and a literature survey aboutthe communitiesin questionand similar socio-economic studieswas also conducted. 5. FINDINGS 5.1 Demographic Characteristics As shown in Figure 1, a total of 33 villages were visited during the survey and 80 respondentswere interviewed. Figures for the total populationof eachvillage were not always available, but the main ethnic groups present in each case were readily ascertained. By comparingFigure 1 with the results of the questionnairesin Appendix I, the actual ethnic profIle of the respondentscan be clearly seen. The "Dusun" shown in the Sook