Changes and diversity in rules of natural-resource tenure by the Iban of Sarawak, East Malaysia

Abstract

Land use based on secondary fallow forests created by the Iban, natives of Borneo, plays an important role for biodiversity conservation. It has been maintained and supported by the Iban's rules on natural resources. Previous studies clarified, for example, that the holder of land and the holder of fruit trees on it do not necessarily coincide; that there may be several holders of a fruit tree through inheritance; and that a land is held not by only one person, but also simultaneously by the community. Therefore, a single individual cannot determine conversion of land use. This prevents land with use based on secondary forests from being developed rapidly and on a large scale for monocrop plantation, for example. This paper, however, clarifies that today's tenure-rules of the Iban on natural resources, such as lands, forest products and fruit trees differ in several details from those reported previously. Those differences are brought about by changes of the rules toward 'modern' tenure institutions. For example: coincidence of the holder of land and fruit trees on it; possession of fruit trees by only a single person; and stronger holding rights of lands by individuals. The background to the changes includes the increase of value of the natural resources as commodities. It is also clarified that the rules are not always the same among different Iban longhouse communities, or even among persons living in the same longhouse community. In recent decades, the Iban's rules have changed, and the changes may ease the progress of conversion of their lands, for example to mono-crop plantation, or to more profi table land use, but at the same time to land use bringing about serious biodiversity loss. Their institutions and society, however, have mechanisms which make the rules change gradually. Therefore, in their lands, developments will not progress in as short a time and in as large a scale as developments by corporate enterprises. The Iban's rules, though they have been changing, still retain mechanisms to conserve biodiversity.