KUCHING: The Institute of Borneo Studies at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) has initiated a research enquiry entitled “Climate Change, Biodiversity and Borneo’s Indigenous Peoples”.
The enquiry, among other things, will help to substantiate claims by previous research that helping the indigenous residents of rainforests to maintain their eco-friendly lifestyles contributed to the conservation of forest biodiversity.
It will also show how the traditional knowledge and practices of such communities have been affected by climatic change and how they are able to adapt to it.
Details from the enquiry will also be used to advise global efforts towards a better understanding of how to sustain the world’s critical eco-systems that are vulnerable to climate impacts.
“The learning derived from the research will carry lessons of global significance for the wider achievement of the SDGs and the healthy future of our only planet,” the institute said in a statement today.
The institute’s director Associate Professor Dr Poline Bala will be leading the team. Other team members include Dr Gaim James Lunkapis of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Haijon Gunggut Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara, and Dr Roger Harris, Visiting Professor and Senior Research Fellow in Unimas.
The study is expected to derive a detailed understanding of: (i) the impacts that climate change is having on Borneo’s tropical rainforest and its biodiversity as they are being experienced by the resident indigenous communities.
(ii) The strategies for mitigation and adaptation that such communities have adopted in line with the continuation of their traditional lifestyles and their role as stewards of their natural environment and its rich biodiversity.
Results from the study will also address two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely (SDG#13) which calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts and (SDG#15) to uphold the need to sustainably manage forests and halt biodiversity loss.
The researchers will be interacting closely with indigenous residents of the forested national parks in Borneo to conduct in-depth interviews and focused group discussions.
They will also hold workshops and carry out direct observations in order to understand, document, codify, and categorise indigenous knowledge and practices relevant to climate change and the preservation of the biodiversity of Borneo’s rainforests, the institute said in a statement today.
It pointed out that the emergence of the SDGs with their imperatives for protecting biodiversity and the rainforests as well as combating climate change focused greater attention on the role of indigenous peoples as stewards of fragile ecosystems that were highly susceptible to global warming.
The project is funded by the Malaysian Comprehensive University Network (MCUN), which is a collaborative network between Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara (UITM) and University Malaysia Sarawak (UMS).
The comprehensive network aims to promote collaborations between the three institutions in the areas of collaborative research and teaching including cultural exchanges between students and staff of the three institutions.
The institute hopes to extend this initiative to other individuals and agencies that are interested to explore ways to integrate and adapt indigenous and local knowledge into policies and practices to deal with risks, hazards and vulnerability induced by climate change.
