Reed L. Wadley (ed.), Histories of the Borneo Environment; Economic, Political and Social Dimensions of Change and Continuity.

Reed L. Wadley (ed.), Histories of the Borneo Environment; Economic, Political and Social Dimensions of Change and Continuity. Leiden: KITLV Press. 2005, 315 pp. ISBN 90-6718-254-0, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Landen Volkenkunde, 231.

This volume is the result of an international seminar held in Leiden in 2000: "Environmental change in native and colonial histories of Borneo; Lessons from the past, prospects for the future." It contains ten original contributions dealing with human-environment interactions on the island over more than 1000 years, based on archival materials, local oral histories and fieldwork. Recent dramatic environmental challenges to the peoples of Borneo now affect the wider Southeast Asian region and call for an understanding of the historical backgrounds of these developments. The research of this multidisciplinary group of historians, anthropologists, geographers and social foresters attempts to add to this understanding and to show that "the past is very much a part of recent and on-going processes of change, that continuity forms an important facet of transformation, for both natural and social environments" (p. 5). For the purpose of structuring the book, the chapters are grouped according to three themes: trade economics and environmental impact, colonial and national resource politics, and social transformations.

The first part looks at the environmental history from an economic perspective, in particular how trade in forest and other natural products has influenced the face of the island throughout its documented history. Tagliacozzo takes a long historical perspective by looking at the impact of more than 1000 years of Chinese trade on the environment of Borneo, particularly Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei. He convincingly describes the impact the Chinese have had on the environment, modes of production and even culture and rituals. In the next chapter Sellato continues the theme of historical forest product trade, though now from a local perspective, i.e., looking at the Aoheng, Kenyah and several nomadic groups of East Kalimantan that collected forest products for the market and their own subsistence use. His conclusion, based on a historical reconstruction of the last 400 years, is simple but original. In an attempt to get away from the traditional dichotomy and pitfall in the environmental discourse which often claims that traditional peoples are either stewards of their environment or opportunists that do not hesitate to destroy the environment when there are incentives for them to do so, Sellato argues that the same people can actually be both, depending on the kind of resource they are dealing with. Eghenter similarly tries to find a way to get away from the polarized debate between conservationists and destructionists. As she argues, one needs to look at the context, at what is really unfolding on the ground, in this case in the region of Apo Kayan in East Kalimantan. Using the 20th century history of gutta-percha and gaharu exploitation enables one to identify some key factors that determine local overexploitation or protection of natural resources. The final chapter in Part I is a detailed description by Potter of the history of extraction of several resources such as gutta-percha, jelutung, cutch, tobacco and rubber. She not only looks at the historical economics of these products, but pays particular attention to the ideas, motivations and prejudices of the colonial administration that permeated the environmental discourse and that served as "political weapons" (p. 111) in aiding their own goals in exploiting the Bornean environment.

Part II of the book is devoted to resource politics, particularly how the colonial and later national powers tried to control the use and exploitation of the environment. One way of achieving control, Wadley argues in his contribution dealing with the Iban of West Kalimantan, is by the creation and maintenance of boundaries. He is referring to both external boundaries, as defined since the early 19th century to set off Dutch territory from that of the British, and to internal boundaries that led to new territorialization within West Borneo, drawn to determine the rights of access to natural resources. Local people continually challenged and disputed these boundaries, a process that continues until today and does not add to the stability of state control. In the next chapter, Doolittle describes that one does not have to draw lines on maps to achieve control, but that this can also be done through discourse that sets off one group against another. Both in the colonial and postcolonial period in Sabah, ideologies were constructed to justify centralized rule and state intervention in natural resource use. In a very convincing article she reaches the conclusion that "the production of knowledge about rural people in both the colonial and post-colonial period has systematically portrayed local needs for natural resources as unacceptable and in need of state intervention, while extra-local uses and abuses of natural resources have been protected" (p. 177). The colonial construction of knowledge is also the subject of the next contribution by Dove and Carpenter, who take a look at the upas tree in Borneo and the wider East Indies. The way this "poison tree" had been portrayed by colonial officials since the late 17th century as extremely dangerous, and particularly the way this view changed pter, Doolittle describes that one does not have to draw lines on maps to achieve control, but that this can also be done through discourse that sets off one group against another. Both in the colonial and post-colonial period in Sabah, ideologies were constructed to justify centralized rule and state intervention in natural resource use. In a very convincing article she two centuries later when the tree was seen more as an object of curiosity, stimulated the authors to look for an explanation for the changing image of the tree. They suggest that initially "the upas tree represented fears associated with European dreams of wealth based on the control of the spice trade." But later, when the Europeans gained more control of the interior, "the nature of the colonial project changed, [and] so did the image of the upas tree" (p. 184). The old fears were now repudiated and ridiculed, to show superiority and strengthen the control of the interior.

The final part deals with the relationship between social transformations and environmental change. Appell discusses the negative influence that outsiders have had on Rungus society and which has led to the current environmental crisis in this part of Sabah. His argument is that the traditional Rungus cultural ecosystem has always been in a state of equilibrium, the people living in harmony with their environment until the arrival "of a new dominant, predatory species: colonial administrators, post-colonial elites and missionaries." (p. 237). Echoing the arguments of Doolittle and several others in the book, Appell maintains this breakdown was caused by the dominant cognitive models of colonial administrators, post-colonial elites, and missionaries who deliberately ignored and dehumanized the Rungus, thereby destroying their cultural minds, disrupting the exchanges between people and environment, and triggering the ecological destruction of the area. In the next chapter Janowski moves the reader to the Kelabit of Sarawak. By about 1960 the inhabitants began to grow rice in a new type of wet-rice field, despite the fact that this may be less efficient in terms of labor utilization. This was related to issues of status and prestige, although population growth was probably a factor in play as well. Nowadays these prestigious wet-rice varieties are much in demand in coastal areas of Sarawak as well and form an important element in the life of the migrants that have come down from the Kelabit Highlands to live in the coastal towns. The new wet-rice varieties have enabled the migrated Kelabit to adapt successfully to their new environment because, as Janowski argues, rice fulfils a role in both the old symbolic economy of the Highlands and the new symbolic economy of the town, thus providing a bridge between the two symbolic economies. The last chapter by Saunders is an epilogue to the book and takes us through the major environmental developments in Borneo since prehistoric times, from the oldest indications of rice growing some 5,000 years ago to the introduction of the chainsaw and palm oil schemes today. As in many of the other contributions, the main focus of this chapter is on the changing perceptions of the environment, both by the local inhabitants and outsiders, perceptions that determine to a large extend how the people use or exploit the natural resources. As Saunders argues, the Bornean environment will continue to be changed and it is pointless to romanticize the past or demonize global capitalism or outside change. Whether this environmental change "will be regarded as 'development' or 'exploitation' will depend largely on one's point of view and whether it brings benefits or not to those affected" (p. 289).

This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in understanding the current state of the Bornean environment and how local histories still determine the behavior of local people and the state with respect to natural resource utilization today. It is an important contribution to the relatively new discipline of environmental history of the island, providing ample new historical material. Moreover, the different backgrounds of the contributors lead one to consider new angles to look at the subject, and trigger numerous new questions that will hopefully be answered in the years to come. To mention an example, there is no doubt that Chinese trade had a tremendous influence on the coastal populations and gradually incorporated increasing numbers of inland people in foreign markets, with "profit and mutual fascination acting as the twin engines of change" (p. 35). Or in a more recent case, European colonizers did bring new technology and ideas that "were too great to resist" (p. 237) and which would fuel the exploitation of the environment. But at least as fascinating would have been the (untouched) question of why some Bornean groups did not get involved in the China trade and refrained from outside contacts, or why and how some groups did successfully resist colonial and other outside influences until well into the 20th century. A second example is that of the relationship between demography and ecology, a subject on which several contributors briefly touch but without basing themselves on extensive historical research. Saunders, for instance, argues that "improved cultivation encouraged population growth, which, in turn, placed pressure on the land and caused migration into virgin forest to seek new land" (p. 277). Possibly this was true for some groups such as the Iban, but elsewhere it may well have been the other way around where it was population growth that encouraged more intensive cultivation and the use of new technology.

But maybe the most important question that remains after reading the book is that of the actual scale of the environmental degradation in the past. This contribution clearly shows that concerning a peripheral area like Borneo, the historical sources that have been analyzed so far are limited and fragmentary, which makes it very difficult when it comes to quantification. Yes, the Chinese trade has triggered ecological devastation and overexploitation and has altered vast stretches of land, but the scale of this impact is very hard to establish because of the poor historical sources with scattered and subjective observations by outsiders. Sellato's contribution does not entirely convince with regard to the fact that overexploitation would have been a major reason for the "front of extractivist practice" (p. 79) that gradually penetrated inland over a period of four centuries. The available evidence is simply too meager and it is as likely that other factors were at play, such as politics, piracy, external epidemics, new technologies, external cultural and religious influences, etc. Potter rightly points out that "the scale of human impact on the forest between 1880 and 1940 through the frontier societies of Borneo needs to be better understood" (pp. 128-29), a conclusion to which I concur in general. This leaves one to ponder the question of how we will ever be able to achieve the necessary level of historical understanding if the extremely detailed historical reconstructions of Potter are still insufficient to provide answers. Potter even goes one step further by asking whether we should be interested at all in the scale of environmental loss in the past and "whether the destruction really mattered." From a biological point of view, much of the damage could probably be repaired so the scale of destruction may simply be of secondary importance. But Potter (and several others in this volume) may well be right, that it is primarily "the motivations, passions and prejudices that are important, as they find precise echoes today" (p. 128).

As Wadley points out, there is still a lot to be done in the field of the environmental history of Borneo and this book could, of course, never encompass the full breadth of the subject as many topics or regions have not been studied yet. Wadley gives an excellent overview of the areas that need further attention of researchers in the future (pp. 12-15) and I am sure this book will inspire others and encourage future research on this important subject (Hart Knapen, [e-mail]).