The District of Malinau still has extensive forest resources and is home to numerous ethnic groups that rely on natural resources and forest products for their subsistence. Their livelihoods are based on swidden cultivation of upland rice and collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). These ethno-linguistic groups include swidden-farming Dayak groups, such as the Abai and Kenyah, and hunter-gatherer communities, known as the Punan. Villagers rights to land in Malinau and natural resources are legally unclear: overlapping customary ("adat") claims to land have fuelled conflict over natural resources. These fluid boundary agreements have made it important to address the definition of clear rights. The lack of secure access to natural resources is not only a result of social conflict and ambiguous land tenure but also of the increasing presence of logging, mining and oil-palm concessions. |
