18 SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2004 THE BORNEO POST

CMYK

ENVIRONMENT

B R O U G H T T O Y O U B Y

Sabah’s indigenous communities make conservation sense

HUMAN development is much more than theexpansion of socio-economic income and wealth.Its focus must be people, and how they canconserve and susta inably use their environment,natural resources and ecosystems for sustainablelivelihoods.

The Partners of Community Organisations(PACOS) Trust believes in putting this policyinto practise.

PACOS, a community-based organisation(CBO) in Sabah, strives to ensure that the localcommunities with whom they work areadequately empowered to pursue sustainablelivelihoods through income generation activities,thereby improving their welfare and well-being.

At the same time, these activities protect andpromote their environment and biodiversity.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) SmallGrants Programme (SGP) plays a significantrole in supporting PACOS through fundingprojects aimed at empowering local communitiesto find their own solutions to local challenges,particularly in the areas of biodiversity andclimate change.

This GEF/SGP project is being implementedin many sites across Sabah includingSinungkalangan/Bambangan,Podos, Balat,Kuamat Gana, Kipouvo, Nampasan and Terian

PACOS places strong emphasis on sharedlocal ownership of the project, thus there issignificant participation of local communities,including the Dusun, Dusun Liwan, DusunSonsogon, Sungai and Kadazan.

The primary focus of this project revolvesaround building and strengthening the capacityof the local communities in fostering win-winsituations where both socio-economic andenvironmental benefits are achieved.

Avenues for capacity building include hand-on training workshops of community leaders,training of trainers, community consultationsand facilitating field visits.

Communities are also trained in projectmanagement, accounting and project monitoringand evaluation.

Having acquired the necessary skills, thecommunities are empowered to undertake anumber of sustainable livelihood activities suchas ecotourism, agrotourism, cultivation ofmedicinal herbs and plants, production and saleof handicrafts, gravity water systems andpropagation of traditional knowledge, wisdomand culture.

For instance, with the support of PACOS thelocal community established a communityowned rice milling machine which is shared byall farmers instead of each farmer having hisown machine.

This way, the community optimise their time,cost, and human effort as well as reduce the useof fossil fuel of running machines which wouldcontribute to climate change. At the next stage,plans are underway to run the rice millingmachine using solar power, making it evenmore environment-friendly.

Likewise, local communities are alsodiscouraged from harvesting timber productsor wildlife indiscriminately for fuel or income.Instead, they are encourage to conserve andsustainably use their biodiversity.

This GEF/SGP project has benefited localcommunities in numerous ways. Due toincreased income they are better able to playmeaningful roles in the development of theirown villages - such as building the infrastructurefor community interaction and for

transportation.More children get to go to school, and people

have access to better nutrition and healthcarefacilities.

If replicated in time and space, GEF/SGPprojects would promote more and morecommunities to become self-reliant andsuccessful in practising sustainable livelihoodsby contributing towards socio-economic andenvironmental benefits.

COMMUNITY EFFORT...a weekly local community food and drinks stall at the Pacos Trust project site at Kg Terian

• www.sabah.net.my/pacos • http://www.sgp.undp.org • http://habitat.igc.org.agenda21/ a21.htm

MORE ON THE NET

Watershed management

IN 2001, using GEP/SGP project grants, PACOSprovided funds to the villagers of Balat to contributetowards building a water gravity supply system,besides encouraging the communities of Balat andTerian to map out the watershed catchment areas,which would then also be incorporated into themanagement plans for the conservation andsustainable use of the environment, natural resourcesand ecosystems.

Nurseries were established in two areas, Podosand Kipouvo, to carry out enrichment planting inthe watershed catchment area.

The species of trees to be planted must beconsidered carefully, in order to increase the diversityof tree species in the area and support wildlife needs.

In all its work, PACOS discovered that thesustainable use of diversity always coincides withthe socio-economic needs of the local communitiesto be truly successful and sustainable.

Answers:1)livelihoods2)traditional3)subsistence

1) PACOS Trust aims to promote sustainable__________ among local communities in Sabah as ameans of conserving and sustainably using geneticresources and the biodiversity in their area.

2) Community members are encouraged tomaintain and protect the natural resources in projectareas through the establishment of __________medicine gardens, ecotourism and agrotourism.

3) The predominant source of farming in thevillage of Kipouvo is __________ farming and thefarmers supplement their income by tapping rubber.

Question time

Traditional knowledge base

TRADITIONAL Medicinal/Heritage Gardens(TM/HGs) have already been established by PACOSTrust in Kipouvo, Kuamat, Terian and Podos. Thefocus is on ensuring that the younger generationappreciate the Traditional Medicine/HeritageGardens by learning from their elders the healingproperties and the medicinal uses of the medicinalherbs and plants found in their respective gardens.This will be tailored to meet the needs of the villagersand taught by the elders as the holders of traditionalknowledge and wisdom. Other activities includethe processing of medicinal herbs and plants,practicising conservation and sustainable usemethods and increasing diversity of the medicinalplants and herbs.

One People

(This article was first published in )

SHARED MILLING...a shared,community-owned and operated rice-millimg machine installed by PACOS at itsproject site at Kg Terian.