New fruits of the forest

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    Members of MESCOT sharing information.Credit: WWF-Canon/Chng Soh Koon



    Malaysian banded leaf monkey.Credit: WWF-Canon/M Kavanagh






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    By Praveen Bhalla
    A little village in Malaysia has taken the decision to protect the rich natural resources of its region by changing its whole way of life. Instead of logging and fishing, villagers are turning to tourism as both a source of income and a way of protecting their heritage.

    Batu Putih, Malaysia: This village looks like many others in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. Its cluster of tin-roofed wooden houses are built on unusually high stilts to keep them out of reach of the Kinabatangan river, which floods the land for weeks during the rainy season. But Batu Putih is in fact unique because of an innovative project started there by the international conservation organization, WWF-Malaysia, in 1996.

    Called the Model Ecologically Sustainable Community Tourism project — MESCOT for short — the project is developing an ecotourism scheme intended to generate a source of local income as an alternative to the increasingly unsustainable use of the forest resources. Revenues earned from ecotourism would help ensure that what is left of the natural wealth and beauty of the region is more widely viewed by the villagers as a valuable resource worth protecting.

    The lush vegetation of the swamp and riverine forests of the nearby Supu Forest Reserve supports diverse and some rare species, including proboscis monkeys, orang utans, leaf monkeys, a variety of waterbirds, and crocodiles. Outside the protected area, however, the logging on which villagers depend has severely depleted the forest so that little is left to support the activity.

    The villagers of Batu Putih themselves recognized the region's considerable potential for ecotourism and approached WWF-Malaysia for advice. With funding from WWF-Norway and the Norwegian bilateral assistance agency, NORAD, MESCOT was developed in cooperation with the Sabah Forestry Department, the community development agency KEMAS and the Ministry of Culture, Environment and Tourism.

    Turning the concept into reality, though, is not without difficulty. Some local people have yet to understand the potential economic benefits to be gained from ecotourism. But the village head has provided space next to his own house for MESCOT's workshop — a permanent office and meeting room complete with computer equipment, library, charts, and other necessities.

    "It is important that local communities decide what tourism experiences they want to offer, and how to go about it," says Martin Paul Vogel, WWF-Malaysia's ecotourism planning specialist. "That gives them ownership of the project."

    Vogel, who has lived in Batu Putih for eight years, believes the venture has the potential to provide income for about 60 per cent of an estimated population of 700 in the four villages in the area.

    MESCOT members themselves identified skills they needed to to establish their own tourism operation — learning English and computer skills, business management, marketing, and operating tourist facilities. They also decided their first priority should be to collect and document information about the region, its rich biological diversity, cultures and customs.

    Some of their work has been more practical, ranging from village rubbish collection to helping put out forest fires. However, the group has also compiled attractive, well-illustrated presentations in English of several of the plant and animal species found in the forests, some traditional uses of local resources, local dances and handicrafts and other aspects of indigenous cultures. Most members already have a basic grasp of English, though even without this their natural hospitality would make any visitor feel immediately welcome.

    Jimsai, an active and vocal MESCOT member, has an impressive knowledge of local medicinal uses of the various plant species. He and his brother Yahya seem determined to make a success of the venture. "We have invested time and energy into this project," Jimasi says. "We are planning it ourselves and have high hopes for it to work. If we can manage our own venture, we won't need to work for anyone else."

    This determined group of people has embarked on a brave venture to develop an alternative livelihood that is more friendly to the environment and more sustainable than their traditional forestry and fishing practices. If their ecotourism experiment succeeds, it would not only help revive the local economy, but it could be replicated elsewhere and would convince other rural communities that they have a stake in conserving Sabah's rich natural and cultural diversity.

    (657 words)

    *Praveen Bhalla is the Communications Officer for WWF's Asia Pacific Regional Programme