By Constance Vanessa Victor
Friday December 7, 2012
Off we go: The participating communities all set to embark on their journey to Long Iman, Mulu.One of the reasons the 31-door settlement was chosen was the villagers’ vast knowledge of the forest and its rich resources.
Organised by the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC), the workshop targets the state’s indigenous communities that have participated in the centre’s documentation programme.
Held annually, the workshop functions as a platform where participating communities come together and report on the progress of the project within their respective communities.
The workshop is also aimed at reinforcing the awareness of the community’s representatives of the importance of conserving their traditional knowledge and biological resources, and emphasising the communities’ capacity in documenting their traditional knowledge of useful plants.
This year, an additional component was added to the workshop – the communities were also introduced to how they can identify components in developing homestay programme incorporating conservation of their traditional knowledge.
Taking note: The participating communities preparing for their group presentation.The community representatives also heard from an operator of a successful community homestay programme, Dawson Ringin, of Kampung Annah Rais near Kuching.
The 36 participating communities came from all over the state - Kampung Semadang (Padawan), Kampung Kiding (Penrissen), Kampung Duyoh Jagoi (Bau), Rumah Changgai (Sg. Tekalit Song), Rumah Joseph Melayu (Balingian), Rumah Skatap (Betong), Long Iman (Mulu), Batu Bungan (Mulu), Palungan (Bario), Pa’ukat (Bario), Long Pelutan (Julau), Ba’Kelalan (Bario), Long Kerabangan (Lawas), Long Telingan (Lawas), Kampung Jebungan (Mukah), Kampung Jemoreng (Matu), Long Ikang (Marudi), Rumah Ajan (Merapok), and Kampung Sual (Simunjan).
The participants were of various ethnic groups such as Iban, Bidayuh, Melanau, Orang Ulu and Penan.
Deputy Undersecretary for Biodiversity and Forest Management in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, K Nagulendran, officiated at the opening of the workshop.
For Nagulendran, the function would hold special memories as it was the first time that he participated in the workshop in Sarawak.
In his opening address, he stated that the workshop was crucial as it allowed communities to be fully involved in activities and share their experiences with other participants.
Interactive:
Mr K. Nagulendran (third from the right) and the participants carrying
out the activities during the Traditional Knowledge Documentation
Workshop 2012Carrying out such a workshop within a community also enabled the participation of the younger generation.
He called for similar workshops to be held in other participating villages as well.
Throughout the three-day workshop, the participants were exposed to the components of documenting useful traditional plants found at Long Iman.
They were also tasked to identify elements needed to establish a homestay programme that incorporates traditional knowledge.
Most of the participants found the workshop informative and beneficial.
A first-timer in the workshop, Ketua Kampung Ajan Renang from the Iban community of Rumah Ajan in Lawas, found the workshop an eye-opener and felt that similar workshops should be conducted yearly.
According to Ajan, he had learned a lot from the workshop as he was able to share useful experiences on documenting traditional knowledge with the other participants.
“I will encourage the younger generation in my community to participate in the programme which is facilitated by the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre”, he said.
Meanwhile, Denny Sebom from Rumah Joseph Melayu at Sungai Chenanun Tepus in Balingian observed that traditional knowledge had always been handed down verbally and through observations of practices.
He agreed that proper documentation is vital in order to preserve such knowledge which is very much an integral part of a community’s heritage, other than potentially holding leads to new discoveries in pharmaceutical development and other uses.
Like Ajan, Denny felt that the younger generation should play an active role and pledged to encourage teenagers in his village to come on board the programme, particularly during school holidays.
Raymond Lejau from Long Iman reported that his community had been actively participating in collecting, documenting and propagating plants that they use for food, materials and medicine, since they were introduced to the programme in 2003.
The Long Iman community has established an Interpretative Centre and a garden of useful plants. The documentation committee collects a minimal entrance fee of RM5 per person from tourists who wish to visit the garden. A part of the collection is used to maintain the garden, while the rest is put aside as emergency fund.
The garden also serves the community as an educational centre for their younger generation and acts as their “green pharmacy”.
The green pharmacy cuts down on the time needed to locate and gather plants from the forest when needed. This effort also helps the community to conserve these plants.
According to Raymond, “it is still a long process for the community to document the useful plants as there are still many more plants that were traditionally used by the Penans in the forest of Long Iman”.
Since the inception of the documentation programme in 2001, there are now 13 indigenous communities in 58 locations throughout the state involved in documenting their traditional knowledge.
Those who wish to know more about the programme can call Sarawak Biodiversity Centre on 082-610 610 or send email to biosar@sbc.org.my. — Article contributed by Sarawak Biodiversity Centre
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