Relationships among secondary forests and resource use and agriculture, as practiced by the Iban of Sarawak, East Malaysia

Abstract

Previous research has dealt with the relationships between forests and the people living in and around forests practicing swidden farming, in tropical rain forest climates in insular Southeast Asia. It was pointed out that hill swidden farming with a long enough fallow period has been considered to be in harmony with the forest environment. However, there have been few studies on the relationships between forests, and resource use and agriculture as a whole. This paper, as a result of a case study in an Iban village in Sarawak, demonstrates that the Iban allow all their agricultural lands (swamp paddy fields, Para rubber gardens, fruit gardens, pepper gardens, and, of course, hill swiddens) to return to natural forests, or construct man-made forests that are similar to natural forests. In addition, considering other activities such as fishing, hunting and collection of forest products, it can be seen that the resource use and agriculture practices of the Iban are based on secondary forests.
In resource use and agriculture, the natural, social and economic environments play important roles. One important natural factor is strong vegetation recovery. As the villagers recognized, when forests recover, thick weeds on agricultural lands disappear and the fertility and structure of soils are improved. After the return to secondary forest with a strong recovery of vegetation, agricultural land is opened again. The villagers benefit with less labor and capital, as tillage work and fertilizer application are not necessary. Large fluctuations in social and economic conditions outside the village affected the villagers’ attitudes toward resource use and agriculture. Within this setting, the Iban in Nakat have survived by rapidly changing activities regarding resource use and agriculture, adapting to the social and economic conditions of their surroundings. For the Iban, secondary forests have a high potential value. The secondary forests house plants and animals that are current and potential resources. These forests can also be easily converted to other kinds of agricultural use at a low cost. These are the reasons for the Iban’s secondary forest based resource use and agriculture.