 
In Sarawak, the Iban people welcome some 1,000 tourists every year into their longhouses.
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Species that go extinct are
lost forever. This is not like Jurassic Park.
Stuart
Pimm,
British biologist (1949-)
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The Iban people are highly
dependent on the riches of the forest for their survival, and tourism has become
an added incentive to protect this wealth
 Since they settled in the Malaysian
state of Sarawak over 400 years ago, the Iban have made the surrounding rainforest
their supermarket and hardware store, tapping the tremendous variety of plants, animals
and raw materials for their food, medicines, dwellings and rituals.
This region of northwestern Borneo is identified as one of the world’s most biodiversity-rich
areas. Its resources are so important to the Iban that local customary laws stipulate
taboos against felling certain trees, killing various animals and cutting forest
areas containing valuable fruits and construction materials.
The traditional Iban dwelling is the longhouse, a semi-permanent structure housing
20 or more families in separate living apartments. Their main livelihood is from
farming (hill rice), fishing, small-scale rearing of livestock, gathering of jungle
produce and occasional hunting. Until recently, resins, rattans, animal products
and scented wood were among the important items exchanged for non-forest goods such
as steel and cloth. Demand for some products has ceased and with it their value as
a barter trade item. Transition towards a cash economy has also changed the needs
of the villages. While supplies of rattans and sandalwood have diminished, tourism
has emerged as a new market for biodiversity over the past ten to fifteen years.
Ulu Ai, established by the Kuching-based operator Borneo Adventure, is one example
of a new generation of tourism products promoting the intricate relationship between
the rainforest and its dwellers. The Ulu Batang Ai is a remote, unspoilt area: the
rivers are tree-lined and clear and the landscape is rugged with steep hills giving
rise to many waterfalls.
Beyond the Ai river are the Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary and the Batang Ai National
Park, established to protect the last wild population of orang-utan. While the Iban
living in this area are reasonably self-sufficient in terms of food and can manufacture
most of their daily necessities from local materials, they did not–until recently–have
a steady cash income as the distance from markets makes cash crop farming and market
gardening unfeasible.
Premium
orang-utan
The village
was first approached in 1986, shortly after Borneo Adventure had been formed, to
see if its inhabitants would be interested in receiving visitors in their longhouse.
The arrangement proposed was that the village would provide transport, guides, food
and accommodation and Borneo Adventure would bring in the tourists. From the start,
the project aimed to bring visitors to experience the longhouse and up-river lifestyle
and to provide an incentive for the community to conserve the local wildlife–in this
case cash earned from taking tourists on jungle hikes.
The area is prized for its orang-utan population, a totally protected species although
sporadic hunting by outsiders has occurred in the past. While local farmers would
not harm the orang-utan themselves, they were reluctant to protect them from outside
hunters, as they can cause extensive damage. Because local village guides are tipped
over and above their daily wage when orang-utan are seen, longhouse people now view
this species as a precious commodity, keeping track of their movements and informing
authorities if hunters are believed to be in the area. A secondary benefit has been
the re-kindling of traditional stories and lore concerning the links between the
Iban and the orang-utan, which are often referred to as “grandfathers”.
The village involvement in tourism has also benefited other wildlife in the area.
Fish catches have recovered from the pre-tourism days when one of the few sources
of cash income was to sell the fish to down-river buyers. With no control over catch
rates, the stocks were in danger of being depleted–and with that an important source
of protein and revenue. With a reasonably steady alternative cash flow from tourism,
stocks have now been stabilized.
In 1999, 26 families received over RM 300,000 ($82,000) in tourism-related pay. In
addition to the wages earned as guides, boat drivers and cooks, as well as rental
for the guesthouse, the village people also earn money selling traditional handicrafts
such as woven blankets ($10,000 in 1999). This income has also allowed the village
to break out of the subsistence agriculture cycle and diversify their economy to
include more efficient cash crops. The reduced demand for expansion onto new land
means that less forest is cut, ultimately providing more habitat for wildlife.
The project receives about 1,000 visitors a year, considered a threshold number.
Villagers are gradually taking on more managerial roles, such as overseeing quality
control. Fearing that they could lose a valuable source of income and employment,
they are also intent on ensuring that the land surrounding the longhouses is secured
and managed by them. They recently presented a proposal to the government of Sarawak
to this effect. Their desire is to have the state land area beyond the longhouse
land and before the existing National Park officially designated as village conservation
land to be managed for tourism by the village.
As of today, the government has not answered their proposal. In the meantime, visitors
are still enjoying the experience of the lush, tropical Iban supermarket and sightings
of wild orang-utan are on the rise.
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