Conservation and the Orang Sungai of the lower Sugut, Sabah: preliminary notes (1, 2). (Research Notes).

Introduction

The Sabah Biodiversity Conservation Project (1995 to 1998) was an offical project of the Sabah Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Development (3), with financial and technical assistance from the Danish Cooperation for Environment and Development (DANCED). The project's objectives included improving and strengthening institutional capabilities and conservation measures. The Identification of Potential Protected Areas (IPPA) component of this project sought to identify appropriate conservation measures for six ecologically distinctive areas in the state. To this end, specific studies were commissioned by the IPPA, with technical expertise supplied by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Malaysia (WWFM).

We were contracted by WWFM to provide sociological (Lye) and resource economic (Wong) reports on a few of the field sites. Lye worked from October 1997 to June 1998, and Wong April to October 1998. We conducted our field studies independently of one another, but have exchanged ideas and information since. Involvement of social scientists was necessary to the project; the areas of interest are not "human free" natural habitats. Communities live in the area and may already have important interests in those habitats.

A major problem in habitat conservation and/or development in Sabah as elsewhere, is that potential protected areas often are subject to contesting claims (see Ghimire and Pimbert 1997; Pimbert and Pretty 1995; WRI et al 1992). Further, projects often fail to take into account the opportunity costs of local communities when large tracts of traditional forest are converted or brought under statutory protection (Kramer et al. 1994). The sociological studies therefore sought (among other things) to identify local land use preferences. The resource economic studies examined the degree to which biotic resources contribute to community socio-economic welfare. Two major economic interests are the ecological services provided by natural ecosystems and the welfare of rural peoples based on their interactions with that ecosystem (as the study period was short, this project focused solely on the latter). A guiding principle is that the protection of ecologically important ecosystems can preserve the flow of economic ben efits to local peoples as well as conserve biodiversity and maintain environmental services.

This paper presents some results of our work in the lower Sugut (in the Labuk-Sugut administrative district), where we focused on the Orang Sungai of Kaliaga and Pantai Buring villages (see Figure 1). This area is not well known outside of Sabah and the ethnographic documentation on the Orang Sungai is also not widely available. Thus we hope to make an ethnographic contribution with this paper. (4)

The specific conservation problem concerned the fragmented nature of the forest cover, the need to retain more riverside forest, and, more broadly, to maintain the lower Sugut ecosystem as a representative of its kind (see below). Lye examined the land, livelihood, social, and environmental concerns of the villagers. Wong examined the economics of local resource use, and identified potential development strategies to advance the IPPA/SBCP's conservation objectives. (5)

The Setting

The Sugut (approximately 178 km long) is the largest river in northeast Sabah. From its high altitude origins in the Kinabalu Range, it flows through an extensive alluvial plain before arriving at the Sulu Sea. At the coast, there is a tidal swamp (stretching for about 8 km of the river course) with the banks lined by a growth of nipah palms and mangrove trees.

The study area (see Figure 1) was limited to a 45 km stretch between Pantai Buring and Kaliaga villages and, within that, the riverine State lands along both banks of the Sugut. Width of these lands varies from 1.5 to 3 km, measured from riverbank to the boundaries of the Sugut Forest Reserve (which is classified for commercial exploitation, primarily of timber).

Botanically, IPPA was concerned with the riparian and freshwater swamp forests of the floodplain zone. Between the villages, these consist generally of peat- and alluvial swamp forests (Reza 1998). This type of ecosystem is unique to only a few sites in Malaysia, the Kinabatangan floodplain in east Sabah being better known (Anonymous 1998). Distinctive features include the riverine forests, dry land forest on sandstone hills, and freshwater ox-bow lakes (Reza 1998). These habitats are a natural breeding ground for an abundance of wildlife, including sambhar deer, orang utan, muntjac, proboscis monkeys, macaques, silvered langurs, sun bear, wild pig, mousedeer, large and small birds. Muhamad Saini (1998) has identified 43 species of freshwater fish in this area.

The climate is dominated by monsoon patterns; the northeast monsoon lasts from October or early November until March or April, and the southwest from May until August. Most of the annual rainfall occurs during the northeast monsoon, while dry periods (lasting several weeks) are most likely to occur during the southwest.

Methods

Lye made two trips to the study area (February, and March/April 1998) for a total research period of just under a month. Wong's field trip lasted from June 15-28, 1998. Access to the area was made in a 140hp speedboat from Sandakan.

Most of Lye's report is based on information gathered on the second trip, during which six days were spent in Kaliaga and the remaining portion in Pantai Buring. The methodology followed standard anthropological assessment methods: riverside (ground) surveys to observe land use conditions, structured and loosely structured interviews with village leaders and household members, and a basic census of all inhabited houses in the two villages. The interview sessions were conducted in individual or household sessions rather than large group sessions. Some attempt was made to canvass views from as many different sectors of the communities as possible (e.g., male, female, old, young, leaders, non-leaders, etc.). These discussions generated a compendium of ideas and grievances concerning problems facing the village, priority issues, desired and planned-for developments, and aspirations for the villages' future.

The economic household survey by Wong covered 51 households or approximately 69 per cent of households in the area. Here, again, structured interviews and informal discussions were the primary methodological tools. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit detailed information regarding household production and livelihood activities from household heads (or their available representatives). This economic survey also provides estimates on several indicators of wealth, namely: ownership of chainsaws, generators, radios, livestock (chickens) and motorized boats. The survey does try to capture household levels of affluence but was mainly intended to assess the households' capacity to participate in resource exploitative activities and cope with income fluctuations. (6)

Time was a major constraint to our studies (incumbent to applied, multi-site projects of this sort). Lack of time affected whom we could talk to, where we could go, how we got our results, and what we can conclude from them. Further, we were working for a Government-sponsored project. Villagers, we know, would have taken this point into consideration. A third issue concerned the size of our field contingents. On our various trips, we were joined by members of the Sandakan branch of the state Wildlite Department. Apart from the two weeks when Lye conducted fieldwork alone, the officers were present throughout the studies. Department staff were periodically conducting faunal surveys and were familiar to the villagers (7); they helped with "community entry" and, specifically, with administering our structured interviews. Further, the agency possessed the boats we needed to reach the lower Sugut from Sandakan. (8) Although the Department's involvement was logistically necessary, we acknowledge that their presence may also have affected the villagers' responses to our interview questions (9).

Land use, Ownership, and Problems

At the time of Wong's study, the villagers were just recovering from the El Nino-caused drought and the forest fires of that year. Fires in the Sugut Forest Reserve occurred around mid-April 1998 and were still burning during Wong's field trip. Information on the causes, magnitude, and long-term impact of the Forest Reserve fires was not widely available (for other local updates, see Wadley 1998: 89). Thus, in this paper, we can only detail some immediate effects of the fires. The skies were largely clear during Lye's study. Pantai Buring villagers told Wong that, during the fires, they were periodically enveloped by the haze for up to four or five days at a time.

The land use scenario is complex. Apart from fallowing swiddens, there are also fruit orchards, stands of Acacia mangium, rubber groves, abandoned village sites, present and abandoned logging camps, and at least one abandoned tobacco plantation close to Pantai Buring. Lands currently used by the communities are officially classified as State Lands (meaning they have not been alienated yet). Other than these, most of the area lies within the Forest Reserve. As State Lands, the area could potentially be alienated to private individual owners. Upriver, just outside the study area, land clearance for the development of large-scale oil palm plantations is occurring.

Most of the State Lands in the study area are currently under application by individuals within or linked to the communities, or are licensed for other purposes. Pantai Buring and Kaliaga villagers say that no one among them had as yet obtained title to land. Village desires for the security of land titles are strongly affected by the exogenous forces of logging inside the Sugut Forest Reserve and upriver planting of oil palm by plantation companies.

The logging companies have constructed base and transport camps along the riverbanks; a sawmill exists just beside Pantai Buring village. Employees of the logging companies (mainly non-locals) are a ubiquitous presence as are the scows and tugboats transporting freshly cut logs to sawmills outside the area.

Key constraints on land availability also include the drainage and inundation of the swamp forests. Village houses are strung along the river levees; these are relatively flood-free, being high in sand content and free-draining (Reza 1998). Agricultural activities are limited to the riparian forest, with swiddening of the tanjung (alluvial capes) being its distinguishing characteristic. The Orang Sungai have farmed here quite extensively in the last century and continue to do so within a more restricted ambit of their villages. The forest is in various stages of succession and regeneration, ranging from advanced woody vegetation to grasses and herbaceous growth.

History and Settlement Patterns

For environmental planning purposes, knowing settlement histories and patterns enables us to assess the degree of landscape modification, the effects of practical activities on biodiversity, and the location (or lack thereof) of territorial boundaries and resource management units. We cannot generalize about the lower Sugut case yet.

Colonial observations indicate sparse populations along the Sugut and its tributaries. However, like the rest of Sabah's major rivers, the Sugut has long been an important waterway; historically, the interior was best approached coastally by traveling up the navigable rivers. This is still the best approach to the lower Sugut: by taking a boat from either Beluran (the District administrative center) or Sandakan. Orang Sungai origins are complex; the lower Sugut peoples are related to the Tombonuwo who live farther upriver; they are of Paitanic origin. (10) The village of Terusan (located at the river mouth, on the mangrove edge) is apparently long-established.

The locally renowned expert on village history is Haji Samamin Inting (aged 80) of Pantai Buring. According to the Haji, his people had come from Terusan. Work was limited to coastal extractive activities. Soon after he was born, there was a stream of upriver migration to seek arable land (we do not know how many people were in this group). There was also some harvesting and trade of non-timber forest products (e.g., of rattan and damar). By the 1960s, however, only six of the original families remained. Most people had migrated to the big towns or to other rnral areas like Kudat. According to Haji Mohamad Said (the current Ketua Anak Negeri or Native Chief), who began his political career at this period of time, he then began to persuade dispersed villagers to return to the community. The population began to grow again.

Until 1972, the practice was to move from one tanjung to another every year, to open up new fields for cultivation. Mobility patterns are likely to have been flexible and adaptive to ongoing conditions. We do not know if there were any territorial restrictions, at least within the local area (all the way up to Sungai-Sungai). It appears that pioneering and abandonment of village sites was a continuous occurrence.

For unknown reasons, the Pantai Buring group settled permanently in their present location in 1972. This official village name is a misnomer. Possibly the name was entered into Government records when there was a community in Pantai Buring tanjung. But, as Figure 2 shows, the village is today located farther downriver, over the tanjung of Sang Bat, Ipil, Kumbatang, and Wonsayon (listed from north to south).

Village membership continues to be in flux. For example, Wonsayon is home mainly to people from Talidusun who are the most recent settlers in the group. One attraction of the lower Sugut appears to be (until recently) its sparse population and the availability of fertile land for cultivation. Upriver, the villages in the Sungai-Sungai area and beyond (for example, Lingkabau and Merungin) appear to be undergoing severe environmental stress. Settlers say there is lack of farming land and good water sources there. Kaliaga, formed in 1983, originated in much this way. (11) As conditions worsen upriver, we can expect more immigration into the lower Sugut.

Meanwhile, people continue to move to the big towns because there are few wage-earning opportunities locally. This is said to be the trend in Pantai Buring. Education is another stimulus to outmigration. There is no secondary school in Pantai Buring (and no primary school in Kaliaga) and the boarding school at Terusan provides only lower secondary education.

Demographics and Social Composition

There is some surface homogeneity in village society: close to 100 per cent of the people in both villages are Orang Sungai, while roughly three-quarters are Muslim. Conversion to Christianity seems recent. About 16 per cent pursue traditional religious practices. There may be some ecological effects to this, since the Muslim members of society do little hunting and eating of wild game. Villagers caution that those who have not taken up Islam or Christianity may not admit so (thus leading to the problem of inflated statistics).

Village populations currently number 107 persons in Kaliaga and 465 in Pantai Buring. (12) Our population total falls short of the figures reported by village leaders at Pantai Buring. They include among their numbers the village members who are no longer living full-time in the village. We relied on house members to supply us with these names, but with limited success. Table 1 below summarizes the population statistics of the two villages while Table 2 details the demographic profiles.

Table 1

Population statistics for Lower Sugut villages, 1998

Statistics               Kaliaga  Pantai Buring

Total population             107            465
Model age category          1-10           1-10
Median age                    13             15
Mean age                   18.32          21.01
Standard deviation (SD)    16.46          17.68
Born in the village           36            222

Source: Field data, Lye Tuck-Po (1998)

Village society is based on kinship (in the local sense of "everyone here is related to everyone else"). We do not have more detailed data. Our rather sketchy knowledge of origin and postmarital residence patterns is summarized in Table 3 below. The majority claim extra-local places of origin (100 per cent for Kaliaga, 58.1 per cent for Pantai Buring). There is some spatial clustering along kin lines; this is especially evident in Pantai Buring, where sibling and parent-child sets tend to live in neighboring houses. Although there appears to be a stable core of village members, over 40 per cent of Kaliaga villagers and over 20 per cent of Pantai Buring villagers are partial or occasional residents. In this group, education is the major reason taking people away from the community (accounting for 75 per cent of cases in Kaliaga [n=40] and 66.23 per cent of cases in Pantai Buring [n=77]). (13)

There are several sources of authority or influence. Apart from Government-recognized leadership positions (such as the Ketua Kampong [headman] and Pengerusi JKKK [Chairman of the Village Development and Security Committee]), respect is also given to the aged, the educated, men who have performed the Haj, religious leaders, politicians, and successful business entrepreneurs. Economic mobility, enabled by a household's access to extra-local social and political linkages, is an abiding concern. Going by the indirect indications of (e.g.) men who have performed the Haj and possession of expensive speedboats, at least some families are relatively affluent (see below) and there is some feeling that wealth should be distributed more widely. Economic differentials show up in the household surveys. In that sample, 24 per cent of households own a chainsaw, 51 per cent own a generator, 35 per cent a radio and 98 per cent of households have a boat with engine for their fishing activities.

The Problem of Remoteness

A prominent issue, one which shapes their responses to Government and the wider world (and the reverse: the wider world's perceptions of them), is the fact that the villages are extremely remote even by Sabah standards. The only access route, the Sugut River, does not have major navigable tributaries at this point. Kaliaga is located approximately 45 km upriver from the coast and Terusan. Beluran is located 150 km from Kaliaga and 120 km from Pantai Buring.

Travelling to the big towns is cost-prohibitive. The round-trip cost is approximately RM80 (14) from Kaliaga to Beluran (equivalent to an average household's monthly income), and RM120 from Pantai Buring to Sandakan. An overland route, established in 1997, connects the lower Sugut to Beluran via a series of old logging trails. The villagers do not normally use this route, however, because they cannot afford the high fares charged by the informal "taxis" that go there. The villages also lack such things as electricity and piped water supply. The major issue for villagers is the absence of medical facilities. There is only a village clinic in Terusan. For emergencies, they must depend on airlifts from the district hospital in Beluran but the 1997 fiscal crisis had put a halt to this service.

Pantai Buring is more integrated with markets. There are two village stores at Pantai Buring, and it is reasonably close (15 km) to Terusan, the nearest village with trading and market facilities (and source of boat fuel). There is also a middleman for the sale of prawns and extension officers from the Rural Development Co-operative (Koperasi Pembangunan Desa or KPD) (15) have resided there for the past three years. The agency supplies agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers (but not for free) and a ready market for village crops, which villagers can take advantage of. In the past, they have also supplied seedlings for Acacia mangium and other commercial crops.

Economy

We now describe subsistence activities in the lower Sugut, namely swidden agriculture, fishing, and uses of forest materials.

Swidden agriculture. The Sugut swiddening system, which is basically rainfed, is restricted to the riverine forest on both sides of the Sugut. The Orang Sungai do not cut swiddens farther inland. Reasons include the high fertility of the alluvial soils and the lack of freshwater sources the farther one moves inland. The state and content of the vegetation in fallow lands are the main determinants of which plot of land to cultivate next. (16)

Rice (padi tiga bulan) is the primary crop. The varieties planted may be locally distinctive, often being saved from one harvest for use in the next. Generally (so the men say), women are responsible for the storage and maintenance of rice cultigens. A variety of crops are also planted in gardens around the homes and on the edges of swidden fields; these include tapioca, numerous vegetables, pineapples, sweet potatoes and corn. These crops normally act as rice substitutes when there is food shortage or crop failure. The growing season for padi is timed to coincide with the three-month southwest monsoon, so that the harvest will be brought in just ahead of the year-end rainfall and floods.

The average swidden field in the 1997 season was just under 2 acres per household. The average household was planning to clear about 2.25 acres for the 1998 season. (17) The fallow period is currently three to five years and has been shortened as a result of sedentarization since 1972 (limiting individual access to forest farther away, given the prohibitive cost of boat fuel). Pressures on land come from demographic growth and logging. There is also a tendency to increase farm size in response to crop failures (and erratic incomes). (18) Another competition for swiddening land is the shift towards increased planting of permanent standing cash crops such as oil palm and Acacia mangium (see Cramb and Willis 1998: 67; Lambert 1981). This reflects general small holder trends in Sabah, with oil palm, especially, being desired as a source of cash income.

Largely, both Pantai Buring and Kaliaga villagers continue to maintain the practice of farming certain sections of the forest and keeping the remainder under fallow. Inter-household exchange of labor occurs, in particular for felling trees, sowing seeds, and harvesting. However, we heard contradictory versions of whether such exchanges are freely available. Ability to capitalize on others' labor may be linked to such factors as length of residence in the village, warmth of social ties, and, practically, where one's swiddens are (see Dove 1985: 70-72). Several households will decide to farm a tanjung together and the farmers keep track of whom they have farmed with in the past. One probable effect is to reduce pest density in individual swiddens (see, e.g., Chin 1985: 134; Dove 1985: 72-75). Ownership rights apparently go to the farmer who had cut the forest initially, that farmer becoming the de facto "owners" from whom subsequent users must seek permission. Table 4 below lists the timing of various tasks and the sexual division of labor therein.

Orang Sungai women also plant swamp rice (padi bolayang) in wet fields (called locally sawah). The technology for this is straightforward, whereby cultivators employ naturally occurring sub-surface inundation for irrigation purposes, and the pondfields are abandoned and left to lie fallow following the harvest. They do not use water-controlling devices (in fact, they do not appear to plant irrigated wet rice at all). Women will plant swamp rice if they have the time and/or inclination. Childcare is one constraint on time but childless, unmarried women may also open their own fields. We found few households who had planted padi bolayang in the last two years (although there are a number of sawah under fallow).

Rice yields do not contribute much to household cash incomes. Surplus from a bumper crop season is kept in storage for the next planting season (an average of two tins, or approximately 30 kg, is required for planting one acre of swidden) and as buffer stocks to smooth consumption in times of shocks. It is also sometimes exchanged for material goods or cooperative labor (gotong royong) with fellow villagers.

The padi crops of the 1997 season were badly affected by the prolonged drought and fires. About 16 per cent of the farming households lost their entire crops, whilst the mean padi yields for the area (at 193 kg/acre) were only about 48 per cent of the average yields in previous seasons. Households reported their agricultural damages from the drought to be between RM100-2000, with a mean loss of RM391 per household. Pests like insects, wild boars, rodents, long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques are other scourges to padi and tapioca crops. Following a pattern observed worldwide (see, e.g., Knight 1997), crop raids by wild animals have increased as the animals' natural habitats in the Sugut Forest Reserve have become more degraded.

Fishing. Fishing of freshwater prawns is the primary cash-earning activity for almost all households in the area. As with agricultural products, fish catches are primarily for household consumption and only secondarily sold for cash. Bubu (local prawn traps made from the bark of the kapur tree, or from bamboo and rattan), gill nets, and cast nets are the most common fishing gears used; tapioca or coconut are used as bait (Moharnad Saini 1998).

The most productive fishing season occurs during the northeast monsoon. Heavy rains and seasonal flooding of the Sugut River during these months drive the prawn stocks downriver towards the coast. Incomes fluctuate dramatically between the seasons. An average fisherman can earn about RM250 per month in Kaliaga and RM600 per month in Pantai Buring during the high season, while off-season prawn fishing generates only about RM80 and RM200, respectively.

Without organized trading (especially in the case of Kaliaga), the cash incomes generated by fishing are not markedly significant. Occasionally prawns and fish are sold to the nearby logging camps and oil palm estates. Fishermen in Pantai Buring enjoy better fishing incomes because the resident middleman purchases the local catches for transport to markets in Beluran where prices apparently are 250 to 300 per cent higher. Between 800 to 1000 kg of prawns were transported to Beluran weekly from the lower Sugut during the fieldwork period.

Forest use. The villagers have traditionally extracted both timber and non-timber products extensively. Forest extraction, however, has declined in recent years with the acceleration of logging activities and fires. Significant groves of rattan and kapur trees are a two-day journey away. Rattan, damar (resin) and bamboo were harvested commercially up to about ten years ago and were a significant source of cash income then. Although most extraction of forest products is now limited to domestic purposes, this does not mean there is little value to the activity. For example, the all-important fish and prawn traps are made with the bark of the kapur tree (local name pesuwon) which thus plays an important role in maintaining household livelihoods. In addition, a variety of fruits, plants and herbs are collected to complement the household's daily diet, firewood remains the primary source of fuel (use of generators being limited largely to night-time provision of electricity) and nipah leaves are used for thatching roofs and as cigarette wrappers. Various hardwoods are also harvested for the construction of boats, houses, and household utensils. Table 6 gives some indication of local uses of plants:

Estimated Cash Incomes

Although there is some commercialization, the economy remains predominantly a subsistence-based one. Incomes are largely derived from the occasional sale of prawns and surplus vegetables to logging camp and plantation workers. Distance from markets is a key constraint.

The average household income is approximately RMI708.40 per year or RM185.80 per month (median RM1050; Std. Deviation RM1997.40; Range RM100-12,000). Twenty-five per cent of households earn under RM750 per year, 75 per cent under RM2000 per year, and 95 per cent earn less than RM4000 per year. Table 7 summarizes information on cash incomes.

Incomes at the more remote Kaliaga are generally lower. Pantai Buring villagers have the advantage: 25.6 per cent of Pantai Buring villages work for money as compared to 16.7 per cent at Kaliaga. Sources of cash earnings include occasional work at the nearby sawmill, logging concessionaires and oil palm plantation estates, working for the KPD, and teaching at the local schools (19).

Focusing on cash incomes does not adequately capture the flow of benefits. We need to also account for the non-marketed values. Ideally, the non-market benefits should also include the full range of environmental services provided by the forest (maintenance of watersheds and soil fertility, mitigation of soil erosion and floods, carbon sequestration, etc.) (20) For the present, using a rough-and-ready method, Table 8 presents the total value of an economic activity by adding the cash income generated by the major products as sold in the market (as in Table 7) and the value of that product as consumed by the households. These values are calculated using the current market prices (July 1998). Price data on the products are village-level prices and were obtained by interviewing various villagers familiar with cash values, including shop owners at Pantai Buring and household and village leaders.

If a household is involved in agriculture, the annual flow of benefits from the lower Sugut ecosystem is approximately RM1361.60 to a Kaliaga household and RM1063.50 to a household in Pantai Buring. A fishing household would enjoy a benefit flow of RM3032.50 in Kaliaga and RM5096.60 in Pantai Buring. If a household practices both fishing and agriculture, then the annual flow of benefits is the sum of the values; i.e., RM4394.10 for Kaliaga and RM6160.10 for Pantai Buring. Similarly, if a household participates in only fishing and forest use, then the annual value of the ecosystem to that household is RM2021.60 in Kaliaga and RM1923.50 in Pantai Buring.

Potential Loss of Income and Household Adaptive Strategies 

The economic study was particularly interested in the household's adaptive strategies for economic survival when faced with unexpected income shocks or emerging threats. For villagers, there are few options available for diversification of economic strategies. Unsustainable logging and large-scale forest conversion have effectively disrupted a traditional source of wellbeing and income. Furthermore, politically and economically imposed boundaries restrict community access to land. Local income security is at greater risk when the villagers do not have legal ownership over their farming lands.

Although the current political economy may be the most obvious threat, natural events have also proven to be catastrophic for local livelihoods. Since both fishing and agriculture are dictated by the seasonal rainfall patterns, the unpredictable weather (and an inherently unstable and combustible forest) has caused drastic fluctuations in local incomes. Such problems are magnified with the increased population density of recent years.

Against this broader scenario, the resilience of the social and ecological systems (as linked through a process of mutual feedback) is a central issue in balancing the production needs of the community with conservation objectives. Examining linkages between society, extra-local social-political conditions, and the biophysical environment allows us to explore the different conditions that encourage or force people to adopt unsustainable practices (compare, for example, Brightman 1987; Thompson, Warburton, and Hatley 1986).

Concluding Words

The short period of field study has made it impossible for us to adopt more rigorous methodologies or to pursue issues in greater depth. This paper provides, however, some provisional findings.

The Orang Sungai of the lower Sugut are not desperately clinging to their traditional way of life for survival. Although clearly concerned to maintain their traditional livelihood practices, they also actively seek to improve incomes. Villager aspirations for the future are not uniform from one person to another but they did express interest in maintaining continued access to the forest. They did not want to abandon swidden farming and recognized the importance of having good forest cover for this purpose; also, forest materials continue to be highly sought after. But they also want improved social services like schools, a hospital, better road access, and more wage-earning opportunities, and more land security.

Conservation of the lower Sugut has many potential benefits to the villagers. Conservation, however, requires a participatory approach that involves the villagers in the development of their region and provides them with a stake in the long-term welfare of land and water resources. We suggest the need for local (in-situ) development strategies to improve rural incomes whilst ensuring sustainable use or management of the natural resources. Such strategies always have their trade-offs. Potential problems include disruptions to the social relations of production, the danger that new opportunities will be monopolised by limited sectors of society (for comparison, see, e.g., Dore 1978; Schroeder and Suryanata 1996).

Greater economic security and income diversification would be among the goals. These should reduce the pressure on local villagers to engage in environmentally unsustainable activities. They also would provide the basis for local peoples to develop adjustment systems to cope with income shocks, increasing the overall resilience of the systems. The capacity to have options during periods of crisis reduces pressure on the ecosystem and empowers the local villagers to take an active role in the management of the resources. However, a series of studies over time should be carried out with the communities to analyze the long-term ecological, social, and political effects of increased participation in the market economy.

Table 2

Demographic profiles of Lower Sugut villages, 1998

                     Pantai Buring                Kaliaga

Age category  Female           Male      Female     Male

    1-10        92              78         12        33
   11-20        55              63         12        15
   21-30        33              26          4         8
   31-40        23              23          7         5
   41-50        14              20          1         4
   51-60        12              11          3         0
   61-70         5               6          0         3
   71-80         0               4          0         0

Source: Field data, Lye Tuck-Po (1998)
Table 3

Origins and postmarital residence patterns of lower Sugut couples

                                       Pantai Buring    Kaliaga

1. Total number of house groups (1)         66            12
2. Total number of married couples          74            14
3. Number of houses with more than           4             2 (2)
    one married couple
4. Places of origin:                 Number of couples
a. Both spouses claiming origin             43            14
    outside the village
b. Both spouses claiming origin             14             0
    in the village
c. One spouse claiming origin in            17             0
    the village
    * wife is from the village               9
    * husband is from the village            8
5. Postmarital residence: (3)
a.     Partilocal residence                 16             6
b.     Matrilocal residence                 23             4
c. Indeterminate data                       35             4

Source: Field data, Lye Tuck-Po (1998)

Notes:

(1)House group = a group living in a currently inhabited house.

(2)One of the couples was living temporarily with the wife's daughter
while their new house was being built.

(3)The couple is residint or had moved into the village with the
husband's or wife's parents or siblings (no data available on secondary
ties).
Table 4

Stages of the swidden cycle in the lower Sugut

Time       Stage of swidden cycle              Done by:

March      gumamak 'slashing the undergrowth'  men, women
April      monogado 'felling of standing       men
           trees'
           monoga' 'pruning branches from      men
           felled trees'
May        monusol 'firing'                    men
           monurut 'the stacking together      men, women
           of unburnt humus,
           wood and leaf materials for
           the second burning'
           monidak 'dibbling' and              men, women
           monumpos 'sowing'
July       mongandikut 'weeding'               women (assisted by
                                               the men)
August     mongiyok 'guarding fields'          All
September  momaroi 'harvest'                   men, women
as needed  mongkodat 'drying'                  men, women
as needed  monutu 'pounding'                   men, women
as needed  moniri 'winnowing rice, side        men, women
           to side'
as needed  mongotap 'winnowing rice,           men, women
           up and down'

Source: Field data, Lye Tuck- Po (1998)
Table 5

Summary information household economic activities, lower Sugut

                                       Mean per household

                                       Kaliaga       Pantai
                                                     Buring

1. Agriculture
    Average size of a swidden             1.72         2.13
     field in 1997 (acres)
    Rice yields (kg/acre) (1)
     Average in previous             400 - 500    350 - 500
      seasons (2)
     1997 season                           235          180
    Market price of rice (RM/kg)          2.10         2.10
    Average losses from 1997/1998       445.80       371.20
     drought and fires (RM) (3)

2. Fisheries
    Prawns (kg/catch)
     Season (Nov - Mar) (4)            10 - 15      10 - 25
     Off-season                            2.6          5.5
    Fish (kg/catch)                          2            2
    Market prices (RM/kg) (5)
     Prawn                         2.50 - 4.50  3.00 - 4.50
     Fish                          4.00 - 8.00  5.00 - 8.00

Source: Field data, Grace Wong (1998)

Notes:

(1)The unit of weight for padi is that of husked rice.

(2)Based on estimates by the respondents for the previous 2 seasons
(1995 and 1996).

(3)The losses are reported as a one-time loss from burnt vegetable
crops and foregone "income" (or value) from seasonal crop failures
(padi). Households were asked about their rice yields for the two
seasons prior to 1997, and that average was takes as the household's
"average" yield. Hence, padi losses were measured as [(average yield -
1997 yields) * village price].

(4)Figures for high season prawn yields are averaged from respondents'
estimates.

(5)Prices here vary according to season.
Table 6

A small selection of the culturally recognized and useful plants, lower
Sugut

Local name            Common Malay           Plant part
                      name (Scientific) (1)  used (2)

Gabang                NK                     NK

Ulatian               NK                     T
Pesuwon               kapur                  T
                      (Dryabalanops sp.)

Longkobungan          NK                     T
Lambak                NK                     T

Marong sarong         NK                     T
Anibung               Nibung                 T
                      (Oncospermum
                      tigillarium)
Maloh                 seraya (Shorea sp.)    T


Tagong                nipah (Nypa            L
                      fruticans)
Tokkit                NK                     T
Liu                   NK                     T
Biasak                Sagong                 T
Selungapit            NK (Mallotus           T
                      muticus)
Asam-asam             NK                     T
Toring (bamboo)       NK (Bambusa spp.)      S
Mensolongan           Keruing                T
                      (Dipterocarpus sp.)
Laran                 NK (Anthocephalus      T
                      cadamba)
Tambirok              Jelutong               T
Ipil                  Merbau (Intsia         T
                      palembanica)
Sepudah               NK                     T
(introduced species)
Ogu                   NK                     W
Serayong *                                   Sh

Nunuk *               ara (Ficus sp.)        W


Binuang *             NK (Octomeles          ND
                      sumatrana or
                      Nauclea orientalis)
Mengaris *            NK (Koompasia          T
                      excelsa)
Bongkol *             NK (Nauclea            T
                      subdita)
Becangon *            NK                     ND
Mundok                NK (Baccaurea sp.)     FR

Mengawong *           NK                     T
Kangkol *             NK                     FR

Kalasiwoi *           NK                     T
Litak *               NK (Pterospermum       T
                      sp.)
Tarap hutan *         NK (Artocarpus sp.)    W
Serosop *             NK (Dracontomelon      FR
                      dao)

Local name            Uses (3)               Habitat (4)


Gabang                xylophone              SF
                      (kulintangan)
Ulatian               house post             SF, R
Pesuwon               flooring, roofing,     SF, R
                      house rafters, walls,
                      fishtraps
Longkobungan          roofing                SF
Lambak                house post, roofing,   PF, SF
                      rice mortars,
Marong sarong         rice mortar            PF
Anibung               flooring, housepost    ND


Maloh                 door, walls,           PF
                      flooring, rice bin,
                      boat
Tagong                thatch, cigarette      nipah
                      wrapper
Tokkit                firewood               PF
Liu                   house post             SF
Biasak                walls                  PF
Selungapit            house post             PF, F

Asam-asam             floor                  PF, F
Toring (bamboo)       walls                  SF, R
Mensolongan           rice winnower          ND

Laran                 wall                   ND

Tambirok              floor                  ND
Ipil                  house post             SF, R

Sepudah               timber for sale        PF
(introduced species)
Ogu                   ornamental             PF, R
Serayong *            food source:           SF, R
                      vegetable
Nunuk *               prohibition against    SF, R
                      felling: home of
                      ghosts
Binuang *             INU                    SF, R


Mengaris *            boats                  SF, R

Bongkol *             house construction     SF, R

Becangon *            INU                    SF, R
Mundok                food source (has       PF
                      astringent taste)
Mengawong *           house construction     SF, R
Kangkol *             food source, fish      SF, R
                      bait
Kalasiwoi *           boats                  SF, R
Litak *               firewood, boat,        SF, R
                      house construction
Tarap hutan *         INU                    SF, R
Serosop *             food source            SF, R


Source: Field data, Lye Tuck-Po (1998).

Notes:

Species marked with asterisk * were observed during a riverside survey
by boat, which approximated a "participatory transect boat- ride." All
other plant names were obtained casually in the course of house visits
when villagers were asked to name and describe the timbers in their
homes. Naturally, the data that results is biased towards house
construction.

(1)NK--not known, ND--no data.

(2)T--trunk and/or dany appropriately woody portion of the tree,
S--stem, B--bark, L--lead, W--whole plant, FR-- fruit, Sh--growing young
shoots

(3)INU--informant not aware of uses

(4)PF--primary forest (oba'on), SF--secondary forest (goten),
R--riverside, F--flat area, H--hillside
Table 7

Household cash incomes in the lower Sugut

Economic Activity                Average cash income per
                                household (RM per month)
                             Kaliaga

1. Prawn fishing
    In-season (Nov-Mar) (1)  200-250
    Off-season                 76.40
2. Agriculture (2)             20.60
3. Cash earnings from other      125
   sources (see above)
4. Mean cash income per        84.60
   household per month
    Minimum                       20
    Maximum                      160

Economic Activity                Average cash income per
                                household (RM per month)
                             Pantai Buring

1. Prawn fishing
    In-season (Nov-Mar) (1)        400-500
    Off-season                      209.40
2. Agriculture (2)                   17.20
3. Cash earnings from other            565
   sources (see above)
4. Mean cash income per             217.80
   household per month
    Minimum                             25
    Maximum                           1000

Source: Field data, Grace Wong (1998)

Notes:

(1)Figures for high season prawn incomes are averaged from respondent
estimates.

(2)Income from sale of surplus corn yields and vegetabls to logging
camps and oil palm estates.
Table 8

Value of agricultural, fishery and forestry activities

Economic Activity            Mean Annual Value to a Household (RM)

                             Kaliaga                   Pantai Buring

Fishing:
        Prawn (1)            1732.50                         4363.30
        Fish                    1300                          733.30
Agriculture
        Padi                  961.60                          663.50
        Other (2)                400                             600
Forest uses
        Kapur, firewood (3)      660                             660

Source: Field data, Grace Wong (1998)

Notes:

(1)Since the fieldwork was conducted during the off-season, the
accuracy of in-season values for prawn fishing is based largely on
informat recall.

(2)Other crops include tapioca, vegetables, fruits, and corn. This is
an estimate value based on discussions with several knowledgeable
village farmers in both villages.

(3)The value for these produtcs is based on the market prices for
their substitutes. Other more valuable forest products (i.e. tiber) were
not included because of the difficulty in defining values. We lack data
on harvest quantities. We also acknowledge, and have not been able to
calculate, the importance of forest fruits, herbs, and vegetables to the
village diet. Hence, forest use values are conservatively estimated.
These numbers represent only a tiny fraction of its true value to the
household.

(1.) This paper draws from our participation in the Sabah Biodiversity Conservation Project. We would like to thank the World Wide Fund for Nature, Malaysia, especially John Payne and Isabel Louis, and the Sabah Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Environment for the opportunity to participate in this project. We are also grateful to Monica Chia, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, for reading a draft of this paper. In addition, we thank the Sandakan branch of the Wildlife Department and especially Jon Taran and Jeffrey Mathew for logistical help; Reza Azmi (WWFM/University of Malaya Department of Botany) for botanical identifications; Flory Siambun, the Project Biologist, for organizational help and data collection assistance; and Julie King and George N. Appell for their ethnographic insights. Finally, we are immensely grateful to the Orang Sungai of the lower Sugut for hosting our studies.

(2.) For Orang Sungai words, we have provisionally adopted the spelling system of King and King used in their thesaurus of the Sungai/Tombonuwo language (1990), while recognizing that dialectical and semantic differences do exist.

(3.) The Ministry is now known as the Ministry of Culture, Environment and Tourism.

(4.) This paper still bears traces of the reports in which our findings were originally presented. We have not substantially revised those findings for this publication.

(5.) At the time of writing, our recommendations have been forwarded to relevant state agencies for further consideration and we cannot detail them here.

(6.) In studies carried out in the Amazon, households that are more "affluent" have shown a tendency to practice more efficient resource extractive activities by either investing in better technology (i.e. chainsaws over axes), and/or capitalizing on the labor of poorer households (Coomes 1996; Hammond, Dolman, et al. 1995; Henrich 1997).

(7.) One of the officers, indeed, was distantly related to some families in Pantai Buring.

(8.) Distinguishing features of the SBCP were the collaborative relationships between different state agencies involved in environmental governance and the pooling of information and institutional capabilities wherever different agencies had a common sub-project interest.

(9.) Dove (1986: 23) has commented on the liabilities of making inspection (research) trips in large groups.

(10.) Thanks to Julie King for help on this issue.

(11.) No individual over the age of 14 was born in Kaliaga. The most common place of origin appears to be Sungai-Sungai. Almost 60 per cent of the village population acknowledge upriver origins.

(12.) Unfortunately, we do not have base population figures and mortality data with which to estimate population trends over the years.

(13.) Education outside the community may affect not just the particular child involved but the structure of the entire household since, in some cases, one of the parents might remain with the child for the duration of the term. This occurs if (e.g.) a child is living with relatives in a big town like Sandakan rather than boarding at school and needs parental supervision. We have observed this scenario elsewhere in Sabah as well. Long-term effects of this process are not known; the immediate effects would include shortage of household labor.

(14.) At the time of publication, the exchange rate is fixed at RM3.80 = USD1.

(15.) A statutory agency of the Sabah Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

(16.) We do not have in-depth analyses of ecological stability and plot organization in the lower Sugut swiddening system. A comparative study of this with other Borneon systems would be fruitful, given (e.g) the rather distinctive character of this ecosystem.

(17.) There appeared to be much variation in the households' decisions. Some planned for larger swiddens to compensate for crop failings of the previous year. Others were planning for smaller swiddens to reduce potential investment losses in anticipation of the heavy rainy season.

(18.) As Cramb and Willis (1998) show, decision-making in this respect is linked to property arrangements. We did not examine this issue in the field.

(19.) Some of the villagers also tutor children in the Koran.

(20.) Economic quantification of these benefits would provide a holistic value of the flow of benefits from the forest for use in cost-benefit analyses of land conversion.

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