Semporna Islanders’ Socio-Economic Profile

The settlements on the islands are made up of semi-permanent houses, shacks and some permanent structures. Power is supplied by generators to some homes, and cooking is done mainly with gas or wood. Rainwater is collected or water obtained from streams on the high islands, from wells or from the mainland.

There are no medical facilities on the islands and the only school is on Pulau Selakan, for primary age children. Many of the children who live on the other islands remain unschooled, and all students have to go to the mainland for secondary education. The local community visit the mainland for essential supplies, but all the settlements have access to small ‘tuckshops’ that sell basic items such as snacks, drinks and tinned food.

Several censuses of the island population were made during the Semporna Islands Project (SIP), with the most comprehensive one being carried out by Sabah Parks and SIP staff in November 1999. The island communities comprise a mixture of Bajau Samal (settled Bajau), Bajau Laut (nomadic sea gypsies), and Suluks (originally from the northern Sulu archipelago), and at the time of the census the total population was 2061 people, spread between 12 villages and about 100 stilt houses in diffuse clusters on the Sebangkat-Selakan reef top.

A new census of the Tun Sakaran Marine Park community was carried out between June and September, 2006, in order to see what changes had occurred since 1999, and to gather essential data for management. All the settlements in the Park were visited, and data collected from 387 households (over 99% of households present in the Park). The population was up slightly and stood at 2501, with the majority (44%) living on the Sebangkat Reef Top.

Conducting the SIDP Community Census, June 2006 © Irwan Mustapa

Socio-economic surveys have also been carried out, particularly to investigate resource use. For many years, the main economic activities of people living in the park have revolved around the extraction or cultivation of natural resources. Feedback from 243 islanders carried out during the second Boatshow in November 2005 showed that the main occupation was seaweed farming (56% of respondents) while 31% were fishermen. Minor categories were as follows: fruit planting 2.5%, cottage businesses 2.1%, sea-cucumber collectors 2.8%, live fish traders 0.8%, seaweed buyers 0.4%, boat building 0.8% (n=2) and housewife: 3.2%. It is common for people to have several jobs, and no one was unemployed. During the time of the project, there were no jobs in the tourism sector – the few visitors who came to the Park were brought in by tour operators based on the mainland.

via Semporna Islands Project – Socio-Economic Profile.

Tuntutan Pewaris Pulau-Pulau Semporna

Enam Ketetapan diputuskan oleh LCF-TSMP :

1. Meminta supaya Sabah Park di TSMP menghentikan semua aktivitinya di dalam TSMP dengan serta merta sebelum merujuk kepada waris dan Undang-Undang Pengwartaan dilaksanakan.

2. Meminta semua pembangunan dan Pejabat Sabah Park di Pulau Bohey Dulang dan Pulau Sibuan dirobohkan dalam masa 2 minggu.

3. Meminta Kerajaan melaksanakan menguatkuasakan Undang-Undang Pewartaan Tun Sakaran Marin Park di bawah Ordinan & Enakmen Penubuhan Taman Sabah 2004 di bawah Perkara 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 (Warta Negeri Sabah).

4. Semua Pemilik dan Waris Taman diminta mengabaikan peraturan yang dikeluarkan Pihak Pengurusan Sabah Park dan tidak mematuhi arahan merobohkan kawasan kereka Sehingga Undang-Undang Pengwartaan dilaksanakan.

5. Melarang Pihak Pengurusan Taman membenarkan Bot Bot Pelancong dari Luar Taman dan bukan pemilik memasuki TSMP termasuk larangan Kakitangan Sabah Memasuki Tanah-Tanah Waris serta Hak Hak NCR di dalam TSMP dengan serta merta.

6. Membatalkan semua Zon Zon Larangan yang dicadangkan dengan sertamerta dan meminta Pemilik, waris serta Pemilik Hak NCR di laut TSMP tidak mematuhi semua peraturan sehingga Undang-Undang Pewartaan dilaksanakan.

Tindakan dan keputusan ini, kata Hj Sulaiman, dibuat adalah disebabkan pihak pemilik Tanah, Waris dan Penghuni Taman Marin Tun Sakaran tidak pernah dibawa berunding dalam perlaksanaan dan kuatkuasa peraturan oleh Pihak Pengurusan Taman Sabah.

Jesteru itu pihak LCF-TSMP yang mewakili Para Pemilik Tanah, Pewaris dan Penghuni Taman Marin Tun Sakaran telah membuat ketetapan itu sebelum Undang-Undang Pewartaan dapat dilaksanakan sepenuhnya seperti mana dijanjikan dalam pewartaan Taman pada 2004.

Dalam mesyuarat yang berlangsung kelmarin, semua Pewaris dari 8 buah Pulau iaitu Pulau Sebangkat, Pulau Sibuan (Sibuun) , Pulau Selakan, Pulau Maiga, Pulau Tatagan, Pulau Bohey Dulang, Pulau Gaya (Pulugaya), Pulau Mantabuan (Silangau) telah diwakili oleh wakil masing masing bagi membuat ketetapan itu.

Manakala wakil dari dari Pulau Sebangkat, Ismail Khatib Gupurani, Al Konso Hj. Abdul Salleh dan Mamat Balhana turut hadir bagi mewakili pulau berkenaan, Maiga Haji Sulaiman bersama dua orang, Sibuan, Mohd. Noor Im.Jiarah dan dua orang wakil dari Bohey Dulang, Jaluddin dan Julumuddin bersama dua wakil dan Pulugaya Musalkalim dan Basanuddin.

LCF-TSMP adalah wakil dan suara Pemilik Tanah, Waris NCR dan Penghuni TSMP kerana setiap pulau diwakili oleh tiga orang wakil dari pulau masing-masing disebabkan terdapat 26 geran tanah, 277 orang waris berdaftar dan 3,000 orang penghuni mengikut laporan sebelum diwartakan 2004.

Pihak LCF-TSMP juga sangat kesal dan kecewa dengan Pengurusan Taman Sabah yang tidak pernah memanggil waris untuk berbincang sejak 2005 selain membuat arahan atau tindakan bersendirian tanpa merujuk kepada para waris yang jelas mempunyai hak terhadap Ordinan/Enekmen Pengwartaan Taman berkenaan.

Pihak LCF-TSMP juga meminta Taman Sabah jangan lagi mengeluarkan peraturan atau penguatkuasaan sehingga semua hal-hal yang berbangkit dapat diselesaikan.

Turut hadir dalam mesyuarat berkenaan beberapa Persatuan Pengerusi Nelayan Kawasan dari Tawau, Kunak dan Semporna dan Pegawai LKIM, Ketua Ketua Bahagian Penaja USNO dari Dun Senallang dan Sulabayan serta Penyelia Mukim DUN Bugaya yang bertindak sebagai pemerhati.

Sementara itu, Setiausaha LCF-TSMP, Salleh Hj. Abdul Salleh dan Timbalan Pengerusi LCF-TSMP Mohd. Noor Imam Jiara diminta supaya memaklum ketetapan ini kepada pihak yang berkenaan secara rasmi.

via “TAMAN SABAH! KAMI JUGA BOLEH MAIN-MAIN!”.

Sabah Land Reforms Masterplan?

The reforms on land and NCR laws will ensure unequivocal and clear recognition of NCR as well as the establishment of Sabah Land and NCR Commission, Sabah Native Land Foundation and Sabah Land Tribunal.

There will also be a decentralization of land administration from central-based to region-based while the native land rights will be uplifted, strengthened and protected. A demographic mapping will be undertaken to identify and confirm native rights, NCR, land occupation and population while the category of land use in Native Titles (NT) will be extended to include commercial, industrial and other uses and not just restricted to agricultural use.

Land and NCR Commission will be established to implement and manage a new land policy based on a masterplan

The Commission would be responsible for the supervision of the land administration in the state where power and authority would not be concentrated in the hands of one person only, he said, adding that in the present system, the authority and decision of the director in alienating lands to anyone under Section 9 of the Land Ordinance could not even be appealed as provided in Section 41.

“Under the new land policy, NCR will be recognized first in land alienation after which Sabahans will be accorded priority. The present policy of the state government in failing to recognize NCR and alienating land to companies against existing original settlers will be abolished.

“The director of land recently disclosed that out of 2.1 million hectares of land available for alienation, the state had already alienated about 1.9 million hectares of which only 31 per cent was alienated to natives and the other 69 per cent to others.

“It is wrong for the government not to give priority to natives and Sabahans in land alienation. This land policy will put a stop to the current land and NCR disputes where companies are given vast tracts of tens of thousands of acres leading to destruction of plants and crops of the original settlers, and the destruction of homes and eviction of natives will be stopped,” he stressed.

Read More at: BorneoPost Online

Total Investment In SDC Hits RM107 Billion In First Quarter

By: Newmond Tibin, BERNAMA, April 19, 2012

KOTA KINABALU, the total cumulative committed investment in the Sabah Development Corridor SDC has reached RM107 billion as at the end of the first quarter of this year, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

He said this reflected private sector confidence in the state’s economy following the alignment of SDC and other projects with national-level plans.Musa also announced that the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority SEDIA, a one-stop authority to drive the SDC, has endorsed the governance structure for Entry Point Projects EPPs.

In this respect, a Steering and Delivery Management Office has been established under SEDIA for this purpose, he said in his opening remarks at the Ninth Meeting of Members of the Authority at Wisma Sedia near here today.

He said the structure, which is integrated into SEDIA’s existing investment processing and monitoring mechanism, will make SEDIA the One-Stop Authority to plan, attract, process, facilitate and monitor investments into the SDC.”New investments identified as EPPs may be submitted through this mechanism. I believe this will enable SEDIA to help the nation expedite the implementation of the Economic Transformation Programme ETP,” he said.Musa, who is also State Finance Minister, said the lab for Sabah placed emphasis on aligning the ETP, Government Transformation Programme GTP and Tenth Malaysia Plan with the SDC and local development plans.

“This process for SDC and Greater Kota Kinabalu identified 31 Entry Point Projects EPPs with a target investment of RM77.5 billion by the year 2020,” he said.He said these EPPs are expected to generate RM35.5 billion in incremental Gross National Income GNI, and create about 144,000 new jobs.Musa said the implementation of these EPPs is estimated to be able to drive Sabah’s economic growth at an annual average of nine per cent.He said during the launch of the SDC Open Day two months ago, the Prime Minister had made special reference to and applauded the close working relationship between the Sabah and the Federal governments.

“The implementation of SDC and the establishment of SEDIA has indeed facilitated and enhanced a closer working relationship between the State and federal governments.”As the chairman of SEDIA, I wish to assure you that all outstanding SDC projects will be carried out, and we will implement new projects including the identified EPPs,” he said.Musa said SEDIA will accord greater emphasis on measures to encourage investors to partner or enter into joint ventures with Government-Linked Companies GLCs and SDC implementing agencies, and to team up with local entrepreneurs.

via BERNAMA

Analysing SDC-SEDIA through Scott’s Seeing Like a State?

Looking at SDC-SEDIA partnerships, father-son relations through Scott’s Seeing Like a State revealed deep and valuable understanding about state land and natural resource governance. Scott begins with a ride through eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German forestry. In Germany, “scientific” forestry led to the planting and harvesting of large monocrop forests of Norway spruce and Scotch pine. And for the first century or so the pockets of forest-owners bulged as more and more valuable trees were harvested from the increasingly-ordered and managed forests.

But the foresters did not understand the ecological web that they were trying to manage: Clearing of underbrush to make it easier for lumberjacks to move about in the forest “greatly reduced the diversity of insect, mammal, and bird populations” (p. 20); the absence of animals and the absence of rotting wood on the forest floor greatly reduced the replenishment of the soil with nutrients. In places where all the trees are mature, of the same age and of the same species, storms can wreak catastrophe as trees knock each other over like bowling pins. Pests and parasites that attack a particular species find a bonanza and grow to epidemic proportions when they find a monocrop forest. The result was what Germans call Waldsterben–the death of the forest, as it becomes both a pale shadow of its previous ecological richness and an inefficient source of timber for human use.

Why does Scott begin with such a tale of pseudo-scientific hubris in Germany before 1900? After all, he could have looked across the North Sea at England a century or so before, where the systematic experimentation and analysis of the agricultural revolution had led to a quite sophisticated understanding of what patterns of crop rotation, nutrient addition, and farm diversity could produce maximum sustainable and maximum economic yield. Why not tell a story about how human communities successfully managed a sustainable agriculture, rather than one about how human communities unsuccessfully created an unsustainable forestry?

Scott opens with his tale of German foresters because he argues that this type of interaction–people in rooms lined with green silk lay out complicated plans, which are then approved by the politically powerful, implemented with no regard for local conditions or local knowledge, and wind up as disasters–is typical of how states have dealt with problems and people in the twentieth century. When states–bureaucrats in offices in the capital–try to assess what is going on, they use maps: maps of territory, often with the demarcations between plots or regions made to be straight lines that meet at right angles, whether or not such lines of demarcation make any sense for those who live on the ground; maps of people–the lists of names and relationships that allow the state to track those from whom it will claim “obligations”–maps of laws, that fit human relationships of gift, exchange, and indebtedness that have both economic and emotional facets into a few well-defined categories of right and wrong.

But the map is never the territory. Scott reports that the first railroad from Paris to Strasbourg ran straight east from Paris across the plateau of Brie, far from the populated Marne, because the bureaucrat Victor Legrand drew the line so. The consequence was that the railroad was ruinously expensive because Victor Legrand forgot that to be useful a railroad has to carry goods and passengers from where they are to where they or their owners want them to go–not look like a pretty straight line on a map back in Paris (p. 76). By page 87 the reader is well-prepared to agree with Scott that the map is never the territory, and that what the state “sees” is only a very small slice of reality.

The Critique of “High Modernism” However, these discussions of forests and maps are just the warm-up. Scott’s main argument begins on page 87 as he lets twentieth-century states have it with both barrels. Scott then mounts a vicious, powerful, and effective fangs-bared critique of what he calls “high modernism”: the belief that the bureaucratic planner with a map–whether Le Corbusier designing a city, Vladimir Lenin designing a planned economy after what he thought he knew of the German war economy, or Julius Nyerere “villagizing” the people of Tanzania–knows best, and can move humans and their lives around the territory as if on a chessboard, and so create utopia. Scott sees the “idea of a root-and-branch, rational engineering of entire social orders in creating realizable utopias” as a twentieth-century idea that has gone far to making this century a dystopia.

Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) and Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (SEDIA) can be discussed within the context of four domain of thoughts outlined by Professor Ulung Negara Datuk Dr. Shamsul Amri Baharuddin as well as through Scott’s “Thin Simplification” and “High Modernity”

Sabah Development Corridor (IDS Sabah, 2007:82) outlines state strategic development plan to enhance the quality of life of the people by accelerating the growth of Sabah’s economy, promoting regional balance and bridging the rural-urban divide while ensuring sustainable management of the state’s resources. SDC provides blueprint for the development of Sabah for period of 18 years (2008-2025). Sets of principles guide SDC development strategies such as: a) to capture higher value economic activities; b) to promote balanced economic growth with distribution; and c) to ensure sustainable development via environmental conservation. Resulting from these planning, state aspired to become one of the most liveable places and a leading economic region in Asia with its strategic location, natural resources, diverse cultural offerings, heritage, quality of life and clean environment. Subsequently, in order to implement SDC strategic plan throughout Sabah, state established a self planning, self development, self financing, self monitoring and self regulated (as stated in the SEDIA Enactment, 2009) body called Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (SEDIA).

One of the main objectives of SEDIA is to provide one-stop service centre for all development projects in State of Sabah outlined under SDC. In short, SEDIA will appoint agents, contractors, companies and developers. SEDIA will approve, implement and monitor all development projects and will not dependent on any other state regulatory bodies in the course of implementing all projects outlined under SCD blueprint. This was made possible through endorsement of the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority Enactment by the Sabah State Legislative Assembly in 2009. In short, SDC and SEDIA was created to enable the current administration to plan, to finance, to implement and to monitor projects through a well-connected network of state actors and development agents. Scott’s described such development approach as ‘thin simplification’ (Scott, 1998:309-431), where development agent distance themselves from local communities with too-generalised approach that ignore specific local circumstances, local knowledge and Native customary practices. Development agents follow direction from state actors of whom have vested interests on such projects. Indirectly signaling that Native communities are subject to state interest and management strategies.

According to the 2010 SUHAKAM Annual Report, development projects and issuance Communal Land Title through ‘Fast Track Land Alienation’ under SCD Blueprint (SUHAKAM, 2011:38-39, 111 and 118) involve an areas claimed under Native Customary Rights where Native customary practices has been in existence since time immemorial.

James C. Scott is the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University and current president of the Association of Asian Studies. He is the author of Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, and The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia, all published by Yale University Press.

What is Good Governance?

Source: UNESCAP | What is Good Governance?

Recently the terms “governance” and “good governance” are being increasingly used in development literature. Bad governance is being increasingly regarded as one of the root causes of all evil within our societies.

GOVERNANCE: The concept of “governance” is not new. It is as old as human civilization. Simply put “governance” means: the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). Governance can be used in several contexts such as corporate governance, international governance, national governance and local governance.

Since governance is the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented, an analysis of governance focuses on the formal and informal actors involved in decision-making and implementing the decisions made and the formal and informal structures that have been set in place to arrive at and implement the decision.

Government is one of the actors in governance. Other actors involved in governance vary depending on the level of government that is under discussion. In rural areas, for example, other actors may include influential land lords, associations of peasant farmers, cooperatives, NGOs, research institutes, religious leaders, finance institutions political parties, the military etc. The situation in urban areas is much more complex. Figure 1 provides the interconnections between actors involved in urban governance. At the national level, in addition to the above actors, media, lobbyists, international donors, multi-national corporations, etc. may play a role in decision-making or in influencing the decision-making process.

All actors other than government and the military are grouped together as part of the “civil society.” In some countries in addition to the civil society, organized crime syndicates also influence decision-making, particularly in urban areas and at the national level.

Similarly formal government structures are one means by which decisions are arrived at and implemented. At the national level, informal decision-making structures, such as “kitchen cabinets” or informal advisors may exist. In urban areas, organized crime syndicates such as the “land Mafia” may influence decision-making. In some rural areas locally powerful families may make or influence decision-making. Such, informal decision-making is often the result of corrupt practices or leads to corrupt practices.

Characteristics of good governance are….

Read the rest: here

SEDIA implements SDC (the architect and the engineer = power)

KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman has called on members of the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority SEDIA to ensure that all development plans under the Sabah

Development Corridor SDC are implemented.“I would like to take this opportunity to call upon members of the committee to assist in ensuring that all planned investment and development projects under the SDC be effectively implemented in line with the role of SEDIA as a one-stop authority.“The State Government may also consider having SEDIA to function not only as the one-stop authority for SDC, but also as the central agency for investment promotion and fast-tracking approvals in Sabah,” he added when speaking at the eighth SEDIA meeting here yesterday.

The state Finance Minister also reminded those present to take stock of their achievements this year, and review what they were unable to accomplish, and how to overcome such challenges in the coming year.According to Musa, under the Second Rolling Plan of the 10th Malaysia Plan, in 2012-2013, SEDIA will continue to implement outstanding SDC projects and will carry out new projects, including entry point projects under the ETP.SEDIA’s programmes under the Second Rolling Plan will be guided by the SEDIA Corporate Plan 2012-2013 and during this period, the authority will accord greater emphasis on measures to realise planned investment and promote investment in industries with the potential to generate higher value-add to Sabah’s economy.

These included the setting up investment liaison offices/satellite Offices in designated locations/clusters to provide business support services, customise investment incentives and develop non-fiscal packages to attract investments and develop a research and development network, clearing house and database to exchange and share information and fast-track access to expertise.“We will also provide support services for Public-Private Partnership programmes, develop SMEs, agro-entrepreneurs and start-ups through business-links to provide business support services, and incubator programmes to support start-ups, facilitate foreign investors to partner or enter into joint ventures with GLCs and SDC implementing agencies as well as monitor, review and co-ordinate the implementation of projects under the SDC and the Greater Kota Kinabalu Economic Transformation Programme,” he said.

To complement the National Budget, Musa disclosed that the State Government had approved an expenditure of RM4,048.28 million in the 2012 State Budget in order to accelerate development and enhance the well-being of the people.This is the biggest expenditure ever in the State’s financial history, and one of its objectives is to stimulate economic growth by improving basic infrastructure and public utilities for the benefit of the people and investors, he pointed out.“I am pleased to announce that the total cumulative investment committed under the private sector-led Sabah Development Corridor SDC projects as at 30th November 2011 has reached RM63.16 billion while realized investment amounts to RM16.05 billion.“These figures do not include new SDC entry point projects identified following the Regional Cities and Corridors Lab, which I believe will be announced during its open day scheduled for early next year.“I am also pleased to announce that out of the total allocation of RM1.27 billion for SDC projects during the Ninth Malaysia Plan, a sum of RM1.01 billion has been channeled to SEDIA as at November 30 this year,” he said.According to Musa, a total of RM958 million or 94.02 per cent of the total allocation disbursed to SEDIA has been spent as at December 5 as payment for work and services rendered for SDC projects listed under the Ninth Malaysia Plan 9MP but carried over into the 10MP.“The balance of the outstanding allocation is expected to be channeled to SEDIA in 2012. During the Second Rolling Plan commencing next year, I was informed that SDC will be given an allocation of RM416 million; comprising RM206 million for 2012, and RM210 million for 2013,” he said.

via BorneoPost Online

Sabah leading the way to make country a global seaweed producer

KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) is trying out the mini estate concept to boost seaweed production that may help Malaysia emerge as a global seaweed producer.

The projects are now under trial in Semporna as location seen most suitable as it is part of the Coral Triangle encompassing leading seaweed producers Indonesia and the Philippines. UMS School of Science and Technology Assoc Prof Dr Suhaimi Md Yasir said phase one of the project will stretch over 2,000ha and should yield about one to five million metric tonnes of seaweed per year.

“We will try to achieve this figure, which has a value of about US$130mil (RM404.3m)”, he said. UMS is in the Malaysian Seaweed Development Industry Steering Committee chaired by the Fisheries Department.

“In phase one, we look at the database including oceanography, water quality for that area and so on.

Mass producer: UMS has developed mini estate concept to boost seaweed production that might see Malaysia edging out some of the present global producers.

“Because when you have the database, it is easy for the investors to come in. They know the water quality, area, topography and weather pattern. “How you manage the nursery for the seedling collection is very important in maintaining growth rate and quality”, said Suhaimi.

Phase two is from 2011 to 2015 (10th Malaysia Plan), covering not only Sabah but Sarawak and the Peninsula too. The seaweed planting trial has been conducted in Langkawi and Terengganu as well. Suhaimi added while phase one of the project is about capacity building among others, the second phase will aim for national development, meaning seaweed becomes a commodity.

“It will no longer be small-scale but involves 50,000 to 100,000ha with a production target of about 200,000 to 300,000 metric tonnes per year.

“We want the private sector and government-linked companies to be involved. We also want to nurture small and medium scale entrepreneurs in this field. We work on the quality.”

Towards the end, UMS had enlisted the collaboration of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).

Even now, a company founded by Salleh Mohd Salleh in 2009, with a few foreign investors and Tawau-based Tacara Sdn Bhd are producing and exporting 500 metric tonnes of seaweed produce per month.

UMS Marine Science graduate Japson Wong, 25, from Kota Kinabalu is also a participant in the mini estate concept.

His interest in seaweed aquaculture was sparked by experience while doing field work in Banggi under Prof Dr Mohd Rizuan Nordin and further exposure to seaweed farming during his industrial training. He applied through the Sabah Fisheries Department to be included in the Graduate Farmers Programme.

By April 2009, he was already in Pulau Omadal, where he and 21 other participants, including four women from Lahad Datu, Keningau and Kota Kinabalu were allotted two hectares each, a house and the necessary tools to start their respective project.

“When we started we encountered a lot of problems. Bad weeds were growing because the area was quite shallow”, he said.

The unwanted weeds affected growth rate. Progress was slow and to make matters worse, the seaweed would sometimes just drop into the sea. There is also that seasonal challenge – the north and south winds. “The north wind is good because the waves it creates contains the nutrients that nourish the seaweeds,” said Wong.

Wong realised it is a tedious endeavour which will not make him rich in the near future, but the thought that he will eventually prosper from all the hard work keeps him going. At present, Indonesia is the leading producer of seaweed with an output of 150,000 metric tonnes in 2009 having overtaken the Philippines which could only manage 100,000 metric tonnes.

Presently, Malaysia is placed insignificantly under ‘others’ accounting for just five percent. World demand is expected to reach 400,000 metric tonnes by 2012.

Indonesia has indicated it would ban raw seaweed export by that time, hence Malaysia’s necessity to increase productivity, in order to cater for export and domestic needs. The Coral Triangle is capable of supplying 80% of the world demand with the kappaphycus seaweed, known for its thickening and gelling properties, that can be found in abundance.

It is a major source of carrageenan, a colloidal substance chiefly used as an emulsifying and stabilizing ingredient in foods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. — Bernama

Sleepless In Ulu Papar:

By: Rabani Ayub

Sleepless in Ulu Papar: Photo Credit Rabani Ayub

Ulu Papar is that kind of valleys…where some state governments like to flood for one reason or another. While everybody else in other parts of Sabah could sleep easy, the villagers of the Ulu Papar Valley wonder whether they would still have their idyllic homes in the near future…The thunderstorm and lightning under a starry night over Ulu Papar Valley, from the relative safety and comfort of the kitchen of my homestay.The lit buildings in front are the Pusat Sumber and eBuayan

via: Credit – Rabani Ayub.

Agrometeorological Learning of Farmers through Measuring Rainfall and Observing Fields and Crops

BY: Yunita T. Winarto, Kees Stigter, Esti Anantasari, Hestu Prahara and Kristyanto

Farmers are known as good observers of their own fields and habitats. Their ways of knowing and the body of their local knowledge is called ilmu titèn (the ways of carrying out careful and detailed observations, and the results that are memorable) by the Javanese farmers in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. They were recently questioning the indicators for decision making they traditionally referred to at the time they used to start planting according to their local cosmology (pranata mangsa). These indicators appeared no longer adequate in their present form. From their training in a Climate Field School (CFS), they knew that climate change was influencing their habitat.

Introduction: Farmers are known as good observers of their own fields and habitats. Their ways of knowing and the body of their local knowledge is called ilmu titèn (the ways of carrying out careful and detailed observations, and the results that are memorable) by the Javanese farmers in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. They were recently questioning the indicators for decision making they traditionally referred to at the time they used to start planting according to their local cosmology (pranata mangsa). These indicators appeared no longer adequate in their present form. From their training in a Climate Field School (CFS), they knew that climate change was influencing their habitat.

Agrometeorological Learning in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta

A group of researchers (anthropology and other disciplines, of the Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta) doing their ethnographic fieldwork and a visiting agrometeorologist recommended these farmers to continue their detailed observations, for a better understanding of the changes in their habitat. Yet, no reliable measurements of rainfall, of which the basics were taught in the CFS, were carried out. We therefore ordered ten farmer rain gauges with engraved calibrated scales from the USA for farmers’ daily rainfall measurements and assisted the farmers in where and how to mount the rain gauge, how to meaure the rainfall, and what to observe in their fields related to these measurements. That was the beginning of a collaborative research between farmers and scholars coming from very different disciplinary backgrounds.

After deciding on 10 points-of-observation based on areal representation, variations in soil conditions, field elevations and cropping patterns, and after reaching consensus of when and how to observe what and by whom, the daily rainfall measurements and field observations began in early November 2008 and lasted for 8 months, till June 2009. Throughout that period, continuous intersubjective reflection and evaluation took place between the two parties, farmers and scholars. Going to the field many times throughout the planting season is common for farmers. However, going every morning to the field at a particular time and taking note of what they measure and observe were new habits to get used to. Being consistent in doing that needed additional efforts and discipline that initially was not always there. Neither were all of them happy to carry out the observations without any compensation for their time and gasoline (for using motorbikes).

Bringing notes and pens to the fields and taking notes while observing were also a new practice. We discovered that not all of them did their note taking immediately after measuring the rainfall and observing the fields. They relied on their memories as they were used to and did the writing at home. Filling in the data-sheets we prepared was another new task to master. For us, preparing the data-sheets so as to enable the farmers to write down their findings in a simple way was also a new challenge. Based on a continuous evaluation and critical comments by farmers themselves, we improved several times the sheet’s lay-out, spacing, and items to observe. For the anthroplogy students it was also the first experience of processing rainfall data into graphics and agroecosystem observations into stories and matrixes, so as to be ready for the agrometeorologist to interpret them.

via Agrometeorological