Shifting cultivation goes on in Sabah

Shifting cultivation goes on in Sabah

By Prapti Widinugraheni

KUCHING, East Malaysia (JP): Sabah and Sarawak, two of Malaysia's largest states, have sprawling tropical forests similar to their next-door Indonesian provinces of East and West Kalimantan.

Sabah, located on the northern corner of Borneo, has an area of 7.36 million hectares, of which 63 percent is covered with forests, while Sarawak, which borders with West Kalimantan, covers an area of 12.3 million hectares, of which 70 percent is forest.

Sabah, Sarawak and Indonesia's East and West Kalimantan provinces have similar land, grow the same types of trees, enjoy the same tropical climate and have the same indigenous tribes living within their boundaries. They also share a lot of common problems.

One of these problems is coping with the centuries-old tradition of shifting cultivation -- one of the oldest forms of agriculture -- which is still a hurdle to the forest development programs of both countries.

Shifting cultivation involves farmers cultivating a patch of land for a short period of time, then leaving it fallow for several years while moving on to work on another piece of land.

Indonesia is still figuring out the most effective way to encourage nomadic indigenous tribes to settle down, as their farming methods are said to contribute to deforestation and forest fires.

Both Sabah and Sarawak, which manage their forest resources on a widely autonomous basis, have decided to take a social-economic approach to the problems related to the shifting cultivation.

According to Sarawak's Deputy Forestry Director Abang Haji Kassim Morshidi, the state authority has introduced agro-forestry and reforestation programs to avoid the spread of shifting cultivation into Sarawak's productive permanent forest estates.

"This way, we hope the farmers are willing to settle down," Kassim said during an interview with a group of Indonesian journalists visiting here earlier this month.

According to 1985 figures, shifting cultivation in Sarawak utilizes up to 3.3 million hectares (38 percent) of the state's 8.7 million hectares of forest. Of this, some 116,000 hectares were within the productive permanent forest estates.

Kassim explained that the objective of the agro-forestry and reforestation program is to involve shifting cultivators in the planting of fast-growing species on areas already affected by shifting cultivation.

The cultivators are roped in to do the planting, which gives them a means of earning a livelihood and helps them to understand the role of forestry in rural community development. They are also encouraged to plant agricultural crops for their own needs between rows of planted trees.

Sabah

For a similar purpose, Sabah's state authorities in 1976 established the Sabah Forestry Development Authority (Safoda).

The agency's responsibilities include improving the social- economic status of indigenous people, including shifting cultivators, through reforestation programs.

"The cultivators are gathered in government-funded housing camps and plantations, all of which are managed by Safoda. They later get a share of the profits gained from the harvests," explained Soquli Olid, an executive of Safoda.

He acknowledged that keeping cultivators in permanent housing camps was not always easy because many of them found it difficult to adapt to a settled lifestyle.

Shifting cultivation is an example of a common problem faced by both the Malaysians and the Indonesians. There is another issue, however, which is considered much more of a plight by the Indonesians than by the Malaysians.

This is the issue of native land rights. Native land rights in Indonesia have, and often still are, a source of conflict, especially in areas where forest concessionaires or industrial companies overlap with the villages of, or land claimed by, indigenous groups.

In such situations, the victims are, more often than not, the indigenous people, who lack the power -- and money -- needed to win the battle.

The Malaysians, however, have decided to recognize the rights, known as native customary land rights.

Kassim said that although all forest areas belong to the state administration -- as stipulated by Sarawak's 1957 Land Code and 1954 Forest Ordinance -- native land rights are recognized, provided the land was occupied or farmed on or before Jan. 1, 1958.

After that date, the rights can only be gained by obtaining a written permit from the local authorities. The most common means of creating such rights, he said, has been the practice of shifting cultivation.

It is at this point that problems may occur.

Claims to obtain written permits have to be settled before forests can be designated as a permanent forest estate (where timber harvesting is allowed) or a totally protected area (where harvesting is banned altogether).

"During the lengthy process, the proposed permanent forest estate and totally protected area are vulnerable to exploitation," he said.

But Kassim acknowledged that settling native land rights in Sarawak -- the largest of Malaysia's 13 states -- was understandably much easier than that in Kalimantan.

"We only have a population of 1.8 million. With all the space we have, land has not yet become an object of dispute," he said.