http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/8/24/sarawak/6904427&sec=sarawak
Tuesday August 24, 2010
Sarawak products for the world
Story and photos by ZORA CHAN
zora@thestar.com.my
SARAWAK Biodiversity Centre’s (SBC) traditional knowledge documentation programme has come a long way from plant sample collection and recording to bio-prospecting for the production of household items, including drugs and antibiotics.
While the production of drugs, essential oils and household needs from herbs in Sarawak is at its infancy, initial research is showing positive results.
SBC senior research officer Dr Yeo Tiong Chia said that one promising compound was silvestrol, which had good anti-cancer properties as shown in animal studies.
“Lately, there has been interest from Ohio State University and National Cancer Institute of the United States to test this compound against leukaemia,” he said.
It had moved from lab tests to animal studies and then to pre-clinical and clinical processes, he told StarMetro recently.
Dr Yeo said that SBC, in collaboration with an Australian biotech company, discovered and patented the compound in 2004, and the state government was managing the patent through the centre.
“The compound comes from the rukang tree found in Ba’Kelalan in the northern highlands of Sarawak,” he said.
He said the Lun Bawang community in Ba’Kelalan claimed the bark of the tree could cure stomach pain.
SBC chief operating officer Dr Rita Manurung said the production of household items from plants was a short-term result of bio-prospecting and the development of drugs and antibiotics was a long-term goal.
It often took more than 10 years before any medicine could be put on the shelf, she said.
The centre’s traditional knowledge documentation programme was the starting point for research and development in herbs and product development, she added.
The programme started in 2001 to conserve the traditional knowledge of indigenous groups in Sarawak and encourage the communities to cultivate useful indigenous plants for their own use and later for commercial purposes, she said.
“The centre, in collaboration with the people, has documented 3,000 plants of 700 species used by 12 communities in the state. All these plants are planted in our herbarium,” she said.
The programme was formulated to ensure the communities that shared their knowledge would benefit socio-economically, she said.
Citing an example, she said that SBC had helped set up a herbarium for the Penan community in Long Iman, Mulu.
This first Penan herb garden in the world was a potential tourist draw to help the community earn tourism ringgit as sustainable income, she added.
“We hope to promote the garden as a tourist attraction because, where else in the world could you find a Penan herb garden,” she said.
Dr Rita said that SBC’s bio-prospecting work came up with many other uses for the plants.
“One plant called pahkak in Bidayuh and tenom in Lun Bawang and Kelabit is used for the relief of backache by these communities,” she said.
Through SBC’s aromatic oil programme, the centre discovered that the plant’s roots and leaves produced a composition of oil that was anti-microbial and equivalent to tea tree oil, she said.
This made pahkak oil a potential ingredient of household and cosmetic products, she said, adding that R&D by the centre and a private firm had come up with products like floor cleaner, disinfectant, soap, insect repellent and shampoo.
“Oil from the engkabang fruit can also be made into soap, lip balm and chocolate,” she said.
She said the local rice species was high in anti-oxidant properties and could be an ingredient in healthcare or cosmetic products.
Dr Rita hoped that local entrepreneurs would be interested in developing and commercialising these prototype products.
“Sarawak is very rich in biodiversity and there is much potential in just the plants alone,” she said.
The centre was pleased that its programme had become a model for others in Asia and a source of excellence in documenting traditional knowledge in the region, she said.
People from as far as Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and India had taken part in SBC workshops to learn the documentation methods, she added.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Politics grow fierce in Sarawak jungle
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2010/08/23/2003481049
Politics grow fierce in Sarawak jungle
Mon, Aug 23, 2010
AFP , MIRI, MALAYSIA
STRATEGY The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition has to hold on to its Borneo offices to keep the opposition out of power when the next national election comes
Harrison Ngau’s description of dirty politics in the rainforest state of Sarawak on Borneo island reads like a chapter in a spy novel, complete with subterfuge, threats, and contraband.
The amiable one-time lawmaker says the challenges he had to overcome to score an unlikely election victory will again face Malaysia’s opposition when it contests statewide polls expected within months.
A political earthquake in 2008 national elections, which shook the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s half-century grip on power, has rendered timber-rich Sarawak and neighboring Sabah state extremely strategic.
With Borneo now one of its last bastions of support, the coalition must fend off the resurgent opposition led by former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and retain its hold there in the next national elections if it wants to stay in office.
The upcoming Sarawak state election will be a keenly watched bellwether with major implications for the nation, which Barisan Nasional has ruled since independence.
But Ngau is quite sure that going on past performance, the coalition — fronted in Sarawak by ageing chief minister Taib Mahmud, who has been in power for 29 years — will put up a tough fight.
“It was a nightmare and still remains a nightmare for the opposition to win in Sarawak polls,” said Ngau, who served one term in parliament in the 1990s and is now a leading lawyer campaigning for native land rights.
When he decided to stand for office as an independent, no one gave him a chance of winning because his constituency was so huge, with voters scattered across jungles reachable only by boat, four-wheel-drive vehicles and plane.
“We had to campaign in Bario [highlands district] but we could not get a flight nor send our election pamphlets. The order from BN was: ‘Ngau should not set foot in Bario. His posters should not be seen here,’” he said.
Facing defeat, he came up with the idea of smuggling his election posters by hiding them inside empty biscuit tins, and air freighting them secretly to Bario, where they were quietly intercepted by friends.
“The next morning my posters were hanging in Bario. It shocked my BN rival. To win elections in Sarawak one has to behave like a commando,” the 49-year-old said in his offices in the town of Miri.
Ngau says the state remains in thrall to powerful political masters and tycoons who control the timber and plantations industries that have plundered its natural resources.
The Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance has set its sights on capturing Sarawak, campaigning on land rights for indigenous people, poverty and allegations of rampant political corruption.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak made a historic visit to the Sarawak interior last month, delivering multi-million-dollar development pledges and a promise to survey native lands to pave the way for ownership of ancestral territory.
But decades of exploitation that have stripped the forests and poisoned the waterways, together with their unsuccessful quest for land rights, have left a strong sense of frustration and betrayal among Sarawak’s tribes.
“The trust has been damaged. Look, our longhouses are falling apart,” said Richard Jengan, a 50-year-old member of the Penan tribe in the remote village of Long Lamai.
“The soil is no longer fertile. It is impossible to hunt or look for food in the jungle,” said Connie Lingga, 45-year-old neighbor of Jengan’s. “I think this time we should vote [for] the opposition.”
Baru Bian, the new leader of Anwar’s Keadilan party in Sarawak, said the opposition alliance will contest all 71 seats in the state parliament — it now holds just seven.
“I am confident that with the mood on the ground we can topple Taib provided vote-buying and threats are not used,” Baru Bian said, admitting their slim resources may be no match for the coalition’s.
The state polls will be an opportunity to gauge voter sentiment. Of the BN coalition’s 137 seats in parliament, 57 are Borneo electorates.
Politics grow fierce in Sarawak jungle
Mon, Aug 23, 2010
AFP , MIRI, MALAYSIA
STRATEGY The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition has to hold on to its Borneo offices to keep the opposition out of power when the next national election comes
Harrison Ngau’s description of dirty politics in the rainforest state of Sarawak on Borneo island reads like a chapter in a spy novel, complete with subterfuge, threats, and contraband.
The amiable one-time lawmaker says the challenges he had to overcome to score an unlikely election victory will again face Malaysia’s opposition when it contests statewide polls expected within months.
A political earthquake in 2008 national elections, which shook the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s half-century grip on power, has rendered timber-rich Sarawak and neighboring Sabah state extremely strategic.
With Borneo now one of its last bastions of support, the coalition must fend off the resurgent opposition led by former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and retain its hold there in the next national elections if it wants to stay in office.
The upcoming Sarawak state election will be a keenly watched bellwether with major implications for the nation, which Barisan Nasional has ruled since independence.
But Ngau is quite sure that going on past performance, the coalition — fronted in Sarawak by ageing chief minister Taib Mahmud, who has been in power for 29 years — will put up a tough fight.
“It was a nightmare and still remains a nightmare for the opposition to win in Sarawak polls,” said Ngau, who served one term in parliament in the 1990s and is now a leading lawyer campaigning for native land rights.
When he decided to stand for office as an independent, no one gave him a chance of winning because his constituency was so huge, with voters scattered across jungles reachable only by boat, four-wheel-drive vehicles and plane.
“We had to campaign in Bario [highlands district] but we could not get a flight nor send our election pamphlets. The order from BN was: ‘Ngau should not set foot in Bario. His posters should not be seen here,’” he said.
Facing defeat, he came up with the idea of smuggling his election posters by hiding them inside empty biscuit tins, and air freighting them secretly to Bario, where they were quietly intercepted by friends.
“The next morning my posters were hanging in Bario. It shocked my BN rival. To win elections in Sarawak one has to behave like a commando,” the 49-year-old said in his offices in the town of Miri.
Ngau says the state remains in thrall to powerful political masters and tycoons who control the timber and plantations industries that have plundered its natural resources.
The Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance has set its sights on capturing Sarawak, campaigning on land rights for indigenous people, poverty and allegations of rampant political corruption.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak made a historic visit to the Sarawak interior last month, delivering multi-million-dollar development pledges and a promise to survey native lands to pave the way for ownership of ancestral territory.
But decades of exploitation that have stripped the forests and poisoned the waterways, together with their unsuccessful quest for land rights, have left a strong sense of frustration and betrayal among Sarawak’s tribes.
“The trust has been damaged. Look, our longhouses are falling apart,” said Richard Jengan, a 50-year-old member of the Penan tribe in the remote village of Long Lamai.
“The soil is no longer fertile. It is impossible to hunt or look for food in the jungle,” said Connie Lingga, 45-year-old neighbor of Jengan’s. “I think this time we should vote [for] the opposition.”
Baru Bian, the new leader of Anwar’s Keadilan party in Sarawak, said the opposition alliance will contest all 71 seats in the state parliament — it now holds just seven.
“I am confident that with the mood on the ground we can topple Taib provided vote-buying and threats are not used,” Baru Bian said, admitting their slim resources may be no match for the coalition’s.
The state polls will be an opportunity to gauge voter sentiment. Of the BN coalition’s 137 seats in parliament, 57 are Borneo electorates.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Group: Help fund research on Hose’s Civet
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/8/20/sarawak/6886795&sec=sarawak
Friday August 20, 2010
Group: Help fund research on Hose’s Civet
THE Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Malaysia has appealed to citizens and corporate bodies to help fund its research work on the Hose’s Civet, which is extremely special to Malaysian Borneo and Brunei.
The society’s assistant head of the Wildlife and Logging Unit, John Mathai, said the species could not be found anywhere else in the world, adding that this was a cause worth fighting for, and would be a very unique and significant opportunity for corporate social responsibility initiatives.
“We are ready do our part and rough it out in the jungles to save this creature,” he added.
He told StarMetro that WCS Malaysia had plans to further its research on the Hose’s Civet using camera traps and hair snares.
“From this, we hope to model the distribution of Hose’s Civet in relation to habitat characteristics, thereby understanding its habitat requirements and threats. This will allow conservation efforts to be more focussed,” he said.
The research would hopefully generate the first ever estimates of population size of the species and enable CWS Malaysia to understand dispersal patterns, thereby understanding the potential for recolonisation, he disclosed.
However, Mathai said: “To do proper science, we need substantial and sustained funding. We currently do not have this, and so we can only apply methods that do not generate substantial data.”
Mathai, who leads the team of researchers who obtained the images of the Hose’s Civet in the Selaan-Linau Forest Management Unit (FMU), said that no protected area was known to hold a large population of the species.
“Next to nothing is known about the habits and diet of the species in the wild. Nothing is known about its population, breeding cycle or dispersal patterns. It is a creature of complete mystery. Hence, conservation measures are impossible.”
According to Mathai, WCS Malaysia had 14 images of the Hose’s Civet so far from the Selaan-Linau FMU taken in a span of 18 months from 2004 and 2005.
The previous largest series of encounters from one locality was four specimens collected by Tom Harrisson in the Kelabit Highlands between 1945 and 1949.
Meanwhile, Mathai clarified that a photo accompanying the article titled “On the Hose’s civet trail” published in StarMetro on Thursday was that of the Otter Civet (Cynogale bennettii) and not a Hose’s Civet (Diplogale hosei).
He also said the photo was taken by a group of researchers from WWF Malaysia in Deramakot Forest Reserve, Sabah, and not from the Selaan-Linau FMU, Sarawak, as reported in the article.
Mathai explained that, though the Otter Civet was also a rare and little-known species, its range covered Borneo, Vietnam, West Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Hose’s Civet, on the other hand, is endemic to northern Borneo, and has only been recorded in Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei. It has not even been recorded in Kalimantan.
Friday August 20, 2010
Group: Help fund research on Hose’s Civet
THE Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Malaysia has appealed to citizens and corporate bodies to help fund its research work on the Hose’s Civet, which is extremely special to Malaysian Borneo and Brunei.
The society’s assistant head of the Wildlife and Logging Unit, John Mathai, said the species could not be found anywhere else in the world, adding that this was a cause worth fighting for, and would be a very unique and significant opportunity for corporate social responsibility initiatives.
“We are ready do our part and rough it out in the jungles to save this creature,” he added.
He told StarMetro that WCS Malaysia had plans to further its research on the Hose’s Civet using camera traps and hair snares.
“From this, we hope to model the distribution of Hose’s Civet in relation to habitat characteristics, thereby understanding its habitat requirements and threats. This will allow conservation efforts to be more focussed,” he said.
The research would hopefully generate the first ever estimates of population size of the species and enable CWS Malaysia to understand dispersal patterns, thereby understanding the potential for recolonisation, he disclosed.
However, Mathai said: “To do proper science, we need substantial and sustained funding. We currently do not have this, and so we can only apply methods that do not generate substantial data.”
Mathai, who leads the team of researchers who obtained the images of the Hose’s Civet in the Selaan-Linau Forest Management Unit (FMU), said that no protected area was known to hold a large population of the species.
“Next to nothing is known about the habits and diet of the species in the wild. Nothing is known about its population, breeding cycle or dispersal patterns. It is a creature of complete mystery. Hence, conservation measures are impossible.”
According to Mathai, WCS Malaysia had 14 images of the Hose’s Civet so far from the Selaan-Linau FMU taken in a span of 18 months from 2004 and 2005.
The previous largest series of encounters from one locality was four specimens collected by Tom Harrisson in the Kelabit Highlands between 1945 and 1949.
Meanwhile, Mathai clarified that a photo accompanying the article titled “On the Hose’s civet trail” published in StarMetro on Thursday was that of the Otter Civet (Cynogale bennettii) and not a Hose’s Civet (Diplogale hosei).
He also said the photo was taken by a group of researchers from WWF Malaysia in Deramakot Forest Reserve, Sabah, and not from the Selaan-Linau FMU, Sarawak, as reported in the article.
Mathai explained that, though the Otter Civet was also a rare and little-known species, its range covered Borneo, Vietnam, West Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Hose’s Civet, on the other hand, is endemic to northern Borneo, and has only been recorded in Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei. It has not even been recorded in Kalimantan.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Education aid for students from minority groups
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/8/6/sarawak/6807426&sec=sarawak
Friday August 6, 2010
Education aid for students from minority groups
By DIANA ROSE
drose@thestar.com.my
THE Sarawak Skills Development Centre (PPKS) has offered academic aid amounting to RM1mil to 40 students from minority groups, including three Penans from Ulu Baram, to take up courses in Miri.
The Penan students are Gelawat Madun, 18, from Long Latei, Martin Willy Paren, 21, from Long Luteng and Alex Wang, 21, from Long Win.
Gelawat will take up a course in graphics while Martin and Willy will pursue a Mechatronics course.
The cost of the journeys from their villages to PPKS in Lutong and their registration fees were borne by a Good Samaritan from Kuala Lumpur identified only as Tan.
Gelawat said that Tan had helped him and other fellow Penans when they were in school.
“He has a good heart,” said Gelawat.
PPKS executive director Baharudin Abdullah told a press conference yesterday the students were the second batch from minority groups sponsored by the centre.
He said the first batch of 106 students, of whom 18 were Penans, was recruited in June last year. They received sponsorship totalling nearly RM3mil.
He said the money was from a Federal grant channelled to the State Planning Unit.
Sarawak is the only state that gets this education aid for minority-group students to acquire technical skills in various fields of expertise.
Among the courses offered at PPKS are those in plantation management, graphics, tourism, electrical, mechatronics and electronics.
The students will undergo a two-year course with their tuition and allowance fees fully paid by the Government.
Of the remaining 37 sponsored students in the second batch, 11 were Kenyah, six Kayan, two Kelabit, four Lun Bawang, one Murut, one Suluk, one Kajang, four Kedayan, two Berawan, one Sino-Iban, one Sekapan, one Bisaya, one Batak and three Penan. Another one is yet to register.
Friday August 6, 2010
Education aid for students from minority groups
By DIANA ROSE
drose@thestar.com.my
THE Sarawak Skills Development Centre (PPKS) has offered academic aid amounting to RM1mil to 40 students from minority groups, including three Penans from Ulu Baram, to take up courses in Miri.
The Penan students are Gelawat Madun, 18, from Long Latei, Martin Willy Paren, 21, from Long Luteng and Alex Wang, 21, from Long Win.
Gelawat will take up a course in graphics while Martin and Willy will pursue a Mechatronics course.
The cost of the journeys from their villages to PPKS in Lutong and their registration fees were borne by a Good Samaritan from Kuala Lumpur identified only as Tan.
Gelawat said that Tan had helped him and other fellow Penans when they were in school.
“He has a good heart,” said Gelawat.
PPKS executive director Baharudin Abdullah told a press conference yesterday the students were the second batch from minority groups sponsored by the centre.
He said the first batch of 106 students, of whom 18 were Penans, was recruited in June last year. They received sponsorship totalling nearly RM3mil.
He said the money was from a Federal grant channelled to the State Planning Unit.
Sarawak is the only state that gets this education aid for minority-group students to acquire technical skills in various fields of expertise.
Among the courses offered at PPKS are those in plantation management, graphics, tourism, electrical, mechatronics and electronics.
The students will undergo a two-year course with their tuition and allowance fees fully paid by the Government.
Of the remaining 37 sponsored students in the second batch, 11 were Kenyah, six Kayan, two Kelabit, four Lun Bawang, one Murut, one Suluk, one Kajang, four Kedayan, two Berawan, one Sino-Iban, one Sekapan, one Bisaya, one Batak and three Penan. Another one is yet to register.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)