The Ulu Ai Experience – A Model For Responsible Tourism In Sarawak
Borneo Adventure, an inbound travel company was established in 1987 with aim to provide tours that featured the best of Sarawak’s spectacular nature and cultural heritage. The company has been working with several communities in the upper Ai River of Sarawak for close to 40 years promoting tourism to these areas to support conservation and community development. In addition to the community, rivers and rainforest, a core attraction is the chance to view orang utan in the wild. The local communities are partners in the tourism endeavour and receive direct benefits through employment and other economic opportunities. Tourism to the area has not only provided economic benefits to the people but has also fostered a sense of stewardship for the surrounding habitat and the resident wildlife.
Aims for Tourism
Borneo Adventure’s aim from the company’s inception was to promote conservation of Sarawak’s natural assets while at the same time providing tangible benefits to the local communities. However, to realise these lofty goals and ensure that they became more that just marketing points it was necessary to diversify the communities’ economic base. Tourism provided this means by building partnerships with the local communities and providing employment and economic benefits as well as promoting conservation of the surrounding area.
The creation of employment in tourism in this remote rural area had a profound impact on the economies of the communities. By providing in situ employment, community members (and importantly, women) were able to earn cash income at home. Borneo Adventure’s experience with community-based tourism has revealed several key considerations regarding this economy.
Tourism brings money into the community
Typically, to earn cash, members of remote communities (mainly men) would have to travel away to other areas in the state, other states and even other countries. This not only disrupts families but also incurs expenses. Cash earned at home tends to stay at home, especially if this money is being earned by the women.
Earning money at home means it is possible to continue with other forms of livelihood such as farming and handicraft production. This not only diversifies income streams but also increases the potential amounts of household income earned.
Women are able to take up employment in a range of tourism jobs while continuing their important roles in the community.
Currently, Borneo Adventure contributes around RM 1 million annually to the communities in wages and other tourism related services.
The money from tourism flows through the community
People within in the community employ other members in the community – thereby creating an internal economy. Before tourism there was very little cash in the economy and as a result, money did not move through the community.
Money gets used for education, medical expenses, and other necessities.This is especially so for money that is in the hands of the women.
The money brought into the economy breaks subsistence agriculture cycles allowing farmers to invest in cash crops that will increase household incomes. Before tourism farmers depended on growing rice as a crucial subsistence crop. Any failure to the crop would put them in a precarious position. The additional money brought in by tourism provided options and released the farmers from total dependence on their rice crops. These options allow for diversification of their economy.
Currently, Borneo Adventure contributes around RM 1 million annually to the communities in wages and other tourism related services.
Giving Back
In addition to creating employment, Borneo Adventure has also re-invested money to assist in the development of the communities involved. Profits from tourism have been used for community services such as:
The Aki Along Education fund. Named after the former headman who provided guidance when Borneo Adventure first started bringing tourists to the area; this was established to support school children and encourage staying in school. To date there have been over 30 graduates from the communities.
Micro loans. One of the early challenges was the inability to afford outboard motors (critical for travel in an area with only rivers and no roads). Borneo Adventure provided interest- free loans that could be paid back over time as they worked providing tourism transport services. This effort provided access to a means of production. This service was extended to include chainsaws after fire destroyed the longhouse and all its contents.
Medical assistance for those from the community needing support in hospitals.
Community projects to improve infrastructure and rebuild community buildings. Borneo Adventure has provided funds and sourced additional funds for sewerage and drainage systems as well as rebuilding the longhouse after it burned down.
Crop compensation. The success of the conservation efforts have come at a cost to the local farmers. Increased sightings of wildlife have resulted in increased crop depredation, which impacts the livelihoods of the community. Borneo Adventure has provided an annual conservation bonus to recognise that the crops have been damaged by wildlife. There is now a project with WWF Malaysia to seek methods to protect crops and provide compensation.
Conservation Benefits
These efforts have also served to promote conservation of the surrounding area. Wildlife tourism has provided employment and a much-needed source of cash income. Only once basic needs were addressed was it possible to gradually shift the focus to what the surrounding area had to offer and to highlight conservation of wildlife, in this case orang utan. The initial steps were very simple. During hikes through the surrounding rainforest, if orang utan were sighted during the tour, the guide asked the clients to tip the guide after the tour.
The amount of the tips was not large, but the impact was immediate and directly connected to seeing the wildlife. Gradually there was an understanding that visitors were interested in seeing wildlife; and they were willing to pay for this experience.
The community began to see wildlife in a slightly different light – the employment created through wildlife-oriented tourism provided an incentive and served to monetise the viewing of wildlife. Now an asset, wildlife viewing provided a means to range of employment opportunities in the community for whoever was able to work, including (and importantly) women.
Borneo Adventure’s experience with community- and wildlife-based tourism has resulted in several observations regarding the impact of tourism on conservation. There are now increased sightings of wild orang utan throughout the area. As visitors increased and their presence along the trails became more common place, sightings of orang utan in the wild also increased. These results have been verified by surveys conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Tourism as a force for conservation
Tourism has become a positive force for conservation, especially conservation of habitat outside the existing protected area network. In 2011, much of the area in Ulu Ai had been placed under license to be logged (and in all likelihood converted to oil palm). This area was known orang utan habitat, but there was no data to support this claim. To address this, Borneo Adventure convened a meeting with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Sarawak Forest Department (SFD) and the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC).
Tourism has become a positive force for conservation, especially conservation of habitat outside the existing protected area network.
The objective was to conduct surveys in the area to gather data regarding the presence of orang utan. Orang utan nest count surveys were conducted over a period of 2 weeks by 4 separate teams in 4 separate locations in 2012 and 2013. The data from all the surveys were collated and analysed to obtain an estimate of the size of the resident orang utan population in the area in question. It was estimated that the area proposed to be logged was habitat for up to 200 orang utan (over 10% of the total estimated Sarawak orang utan population).
This information was presented to the then Chief Minister who declared that the licenses were to be revoked and the area to be designated as an orang utan conservation zone. A contributing factor to this decision was the fact that at least 4 communities in the area were employed in wildlife-based tourism and receiving significant incomes through this endeavour.
Engaging the community in conservation through tourism
While there has been some success in protecting habitat and increasing wildlife numbers, this has come at a cost. As the orang utan have become more accustomed to seeing people they now tend to come closer to the communities in search of food. The forest provides a range of food, but this is not always consistent so the orang utan must move about in search of sources of food. This includes incursions into local fruit orchards and other sources of food used by the local community. This has placed the orang utan in conflict with the community.
The community have co-existed with the orang utan for centuries and their folklore recognises the orang utan as special – harbouring the souls of the departed. Thus, there was already a level of tolerance to their presence. The economic benefits through tourism have helped to further encourage this tolerance. Nonetheless, Borneo Adventure has recognised the communities’ contribution to conservation and has been providing an annual conservation bonus to each community as a form of appreciation. This bonus is funded based on the tourism the area receives.
The next steps
The next steps in this journey will be to seek methods and new projects to improve local livelihoods. To this end Borneo Adventure has established a not-for-profit, Ulu Ai Conservancy (UAC). In addition to continuing Borneo Adventure’s community support project, UAC is investigating (with WWF Malaysia) potential crop compensation and conservation models. The aim is to build on the existing conservation bonus and seek methods that will provide an encouragement or reward to the communities for participating in the conservation of orang utan.
Tourism has been the catalyst and will continue to underpin these efforts and contribute to the continuation of the projects. Borneo Adventure started with the goal to provide a great tourism product that contributed to community development and supported conservation. This continued partnership with the communities has demonstrated that it is indeed possible to provide a meaningful and sustainable product and the best Heart of Borneo experiences.
