ETHNOBOTANY OF THE PENAN BENALUI OF EAST KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA: DIFFERENCE OF ETHNOBOTANICAL KNOWLEDGE AMONG VILLAGERS OF LONG BELAKA

Abstract

Penan Benalui of East Kalimantan are a subgroup of Western Penan, one of the hunter-gatherer groups of Borneo in Indonesia. The Penan Benalui were nomads living in the forest of the interior part of Borneo until they settled down in villages in the 1960s. During the fieldwork in a Penan Benalui village in 2002, about 560 species of wild plants were collected and their ethnobotanical features were documented. Informants could identify most of the plants and gave about 550 local names. About 75% of the plants were reported to be in use and there were about 70 different uses. The difference in ethnobotanical knowledge was large between men and women of the younger generation. Men knew plants better than women. This was probably because men still go to the forests very often for hunting and gathering while women spend more time in the village.