WWF Malaysia continues to empower indigenous communities

KUCHING (Dec 17): Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia is working closely with indigenous communities in Sarawak to empower them by implementing sustainable livelihood initiatives and co-managing their natural resources.

Its community engagement and education officer, Nadya Cindy Nibi, says they are working with two community-based organisations in the northern highlands of Sarawak on a project on sustainable forest management, income generation, and improving livelihood.

It is informed that the two organisations are The Alliance of the Indigenous Peoples of the Highlands in the Heart of Borneo (Formadat) and People’s Association for Development and Education of Penan (Pade).

“The engagement with Formadat has spanned over 10 years involving various projects such as eco-tourism, women’s empowerment, sustainable rice farming, and riverbank restoration.

“The engagement with Pade is more recent, aimed at empowering the Penans in the Kuba’an-Puak area to adopt sustainable farming for subsistence and explore alternative livelihoods,” said Nadya at the 10th eBorneo Knowledge Fair (eBKF) held in Miri recently.

The event comprised a two-day public seminar and exhibition, as well as plogging (jogging while picking up rubbish) along Pantai Luak Esplanade on the last day.

It was an annual event by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), designed to foster sustainable development through collaborative knowledge exchange.

“The eBKF represents an initiative aimed at bridging the gap between stakeholders and communities to promote understanding and cooperation among agencies and indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, especially in addressing deforestation, climate change, and pollution,” said Nadya, adding that before any activity or project would kick off, the local and indigenous communities would be thoroughly consulted.

“In all of WWF’s engagement with communities on our project sites, we apply the practices and principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), which include communication, open dialogue, listening, and consent. Only then would the communities be empowered towards self-determination in a way that they would be stewards of their natural resources while benefiting from livelihood options.”

During the event, a Formadat member Kading Sultan shared the Ba Kelalan farmers’ approach to using the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method in Adan rice farming.

“In 2014, the farmers embarked on a chemical-free rice farming method known as SRI, introduced by the Department of Agriculture Sarawak. WWF-Malaysia followed up on this initiative and brought in an expert on SRI to train interested farmers in a pilot project to plant chemical-free Adan rice,” he said.

The trainer was Captain (Rtd) Zakaria Kamantasha, the chief executive officer of SRI Lovely Farm in Kedah.

“We started with 12 farmers from Kampung Langai in 2017, but the number has increased to more than 50 farmers this year, expanding to five neighbouring villages,” said Kading, also a member of the SRI Task Force in Ba Kelalan.

Compared to conventional farming practices, SRI uses fewer seedlings and water, is chemical-free, and has more effective weed control.

This farming technique helps keep the rivers clean and reduces the negative impact on the environment.

Furthermore, the catchment of Ba Kelalan has remained intact because the farmers and villagers are motivated to conserve them to provide it with the clean water needed for irrigation.