Indigenous community awareness and rights to forest in Kawang Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract

This empirical study measured the community's level of awareness toward forest use rights and the socioeconomic attributes influencing the community's awareness within three villages surrounding the Kawang Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia. A total of 149 respondents were selected by stratified random sampling from the selected villages. A total of 29 scale-based queries related to community awareness from eight major categories (e.g., the forest resources utilization, forest resources extraction, access to forest, knowledge, encouragement, involvement, willingness and interest) were made to attain the objectives. Overall, the respondents possess moderate level of awareness on their rights as forest users with mean value of awareness of about 2.83. The respondents had a higher awareness of forest resources utilization, forest resources extraction, access to forest, encouragement and interest. However, their knowledge, willingness and involvement level in forestry activities were poor (mean awareness value ranges from 1.50 to 2.99), suggesting a need for forestry extension and motivation. There were several negative correlations among the attributes, for example, knowledge about the role of forest to community with r = −0.233. It is suggested that appropriate policy and organizational steps to integrate the local community in the forestry activities through community-based natural resources management in the buffer zone of the Kawang Forest Reserve can be a win-win situation for the local community and the forests in the long run.

A systematic review of Asian community participation in biosphere reserves

“…Malaysia is not exempted from the low participation of the local people in biosphere reserve activities. Nelson et al (2014) found a negative correlation between the characteristics. For instance, knowledge about the role of the forest to the local people in Kawang Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia.…”

“…Amongst the major recommendations across the Asian authors is two-way communication mechanisms, development of employment opportunities, cross-sectoral participation and collaboration, implementation of locally-based management solutions and techniques to improve the biosphere reserves awareness via education. In Malaysia, Nelson et al (2014) recommended appropriate policy and organisational steps to enhance the community in the participation of community-based resources management. Also, proper training and motivation in the form of employment creation should be provided for the community.…”

“…A total of 30 out of 35 studies focussed on possible solutions to enhance community participation in biosphere reserves. Several studies including Khadka and Nepal (2010), Nelson et al (2014), Lestari et al (2015), Nath et al (2017), Cuong et al (2017aCuong et al ( , 2017b, etc., acknowledged the role of locals in the biosphere reserves management regarding social development and biodiversity conservation. Amongst the major recommendations across the Asian authors is two-way communication mechanisms, development of employment opportunities, cross-sectoral participation and collaboration, implementation of locally-based management solutions and techniques to improve the biosphere reserves awareness via education.…”

Local people´s demand for forest ecosystem services and drivers of change in Vo Nhai district, northern Vietnam

“…People´s awareness can influence their attitude and participation in natural resource use and management (Arjunan et al 2006;Heinen and Shrivastava 2009;Sirivongs and Tsuchiya 2012;Tesfaye et al 2012;Nelson et al 2014). Thus, this research considers human awareness as a factor that affects forest ecosystems as well as changes people´s demand for FES.…”