Ethnobotany: Of the Iban & the Kelabit

The island of Borneo is located on the Equator and its natural vegetation is tropical rain forests ranging from large areas of peat swamp forest and mixed dipterocarp forests in the lowlands to montane forests in the highlands. These forests comprise some of the world’s most species-rich ecosystems (Whitmore 1984, Clinebell et al. 1995). The annual precipitation ranges between 2,000 mm and 4,500 mm distributed fairly evenly over the year. In Sarawak, a minor dry season normally occurs in June-August (DID 1993). Politically, the island is divided into several territories. The northern part is part of the federation of Malaysia and comprises the states of Sarawak and Sabah. The small independent sultanate, Brunei, is also located in the north. The southern part, Kalimantan, almost two-thirds of the island, is part of Indonesia. The population of Borneo is approximately 12 million. The majority of the Malay, Indian, Indonesian, and Chinese population lives in the coastal cities and towns. The interior is thinly populated, mainly by indigenous peoples. They comprise a great number of different ethnic groups, more than 26 in Sarawak alone. The earliest evidence of human beings in Borneo dates back 39,000 years (Chin et al. 1991). These early peoples of Borneo were hunters and gatherers and only more recently did they settle down as shifting cultivators. However, some form of primitive agriculture or selective management of wild plants is believed to have existed for the last 5-6,000 years, or even longer. The early shifting cultivation systems were probably based on sago (Eugeissonia utilis), taro (Colocasia esculenta), yams (Dioscorea spp.), and bananas (Musa spp.) (Hutterer 1984, Mackie 1986). But after the introduction of rice, around 500-1,000 AD., this became the most important crop, displacing other staple crops (Pelzer 1945, Li 1970, Strickland 1986) and today only a few indigenous communities still rely on and prefer to eat sago (Hoffman 1983, Lau 1987). But hunting and gathering continued and are still an integral part of the livelihood for most people living in the interior. Through many generations they have accumulated extensive knowledge on how to use their surroundings to provide them with everything they need, and therefore, the traditional indigenous subsistence communities in the forested interior possess a comprehensive ethnobotanical knowledge. Certainly, much data on ethnobotanical knowledge from Borneo has been reported, but no one has evaluated all knowledge accumulated within one single community. Much ethnobotanical knowledge has been compiled and presented in general studies (Ochse 193 1, Burkill 1966, PROSEA I – 10). The majority of studies conducted in a single community are concentrated on medicinal uses (Lim 1992, Riswan et al. 1992, Salim 1992, Ahmad 1993). Some have included edible species (Dept. of Agri. Sarawak 1992, Kulip 1996). Other publications on medicinal uses deal with many communities and several ethnic groups (Chai et al. 1989, Dept. of Agriculture, Brunei 1992 & 1994). Other studies have dealt with ethnobotanical aspects, but mostly as an adjunct to agronomic studies (Chin 1985, Cramb 1985, Pearce et al. 1985, Christensen & Mertz 1993), anthropological studies (Padoch 1978, Dove 1985, Janowski 199 1, Saccheri &Walker 199 1), studies on particular aspects of Borneo culture, such as handicrafts (Haddon & Start 1982) or religion (Primack 1984), and taxonomic studies (Primack 1983, J. Dransfield 1992). Pearce et al. (1985) recorded uses of plants in three Than communities and documented uses of 144 species within many different use groups. Yet, this study included only few cultivated species and was restricted to the fieldwork of three weekends. Other studies relate only to species found in a one-hectare plot (Voeks 1994). Common to all these studies is that none of them gives any idea of the total ethnobotanical knowledge accumulated within a single community. It is generally assumed that Sarawak’s many indigenous cultures possess a great diversity of ethnobotanical knowledge, but we really do not know how much. Today, modern ways of life penetrate further and further into previously isolated communities. This development most often erodes people’s traditional knowledge of their environment. Further, the environment itself most often changes into less species-rich assemblages. The day is close where such in-depth ethnobotanical studies of traditional communities will no longer be possible. And the present study has probably been conducted in the last hour, so to speak. It is my hope that more studies like this will be conducted within a few years as the next ten years will probably be the “last call” for conducting comprehensive reference studies on the ethnobotanical knowledge of traditional communities in Sarawak. It is obviously a never-ending job to record all known uses of plants within an indigenous subsistence community in the interior of Sarawak; nevertheless, the aim of this study is to come close to such a figure, not only for one, but two such communities. Further, the study aims at comparing the knowledge found in the two communities.