Smarter way for Penans to settle down

By Desmond Davidson
KUCHING: A private researcher specialising in forestry said he could help the state government redefine its blueprint on getting the Penans to switch from being hunters and gatherers to farmers and planters. Dr Elli Luhat, who had over the years conducted extensive research on the state's most backward ethnic group, which gave up its nomadic life only 20 years ago, said the current policy of teaching the Penans to plant and farm was flawed. Despite the success of getting 97 per cent of them to give up their nomadic lifestyle, the Penans still hold strong to their tradition of eking out a living by going into the forest to hunt and gather edible plants for food.They do not plant or rear livestock."Don't force the Penans to do things that they find alien. They won't adapt."We know they find it difficult to adopt our methods of farming," Dr Luhat said after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between two non-governmental organisations, Yayasan Ikhlas and DLT Institute, on the development of "smart farming" in Sarawak.

The institute is adopting his concept in the smart farming programme.He pointed to the failure in getting the Penans to plant rice and tapioca as examples of the flaw in the state's policy."What they farm should be more suited to their environment."It should be more about meeting their needs and what they like to do."Dr Luhat said he could assist the state government in formulating a smart farming system for the Penans. His system seeks to harmonise the social, economic and environmental factors to achieve optimal benefits for the farmers. He said as such, better results could be achieved if the Penans were taught to do things that they were familiar with, like planting the agar wood (gaharu), which they often gathered for their own consumption.Planting the scented wood, he added, could also uplift the economic standing of the

Penan as they could also sell the excess.He said the wood could fetch as much as US$150,000 (RM523,500) per kg and the income derived could help them get out of the poverty trap.
Other economic activities "that are their thing" to undertake, Dr Luhat believed, were the rearing of ikan empurau and ikan kelah and wild boar. The ikan empurau, often described as the "swimming gold", fetches RM450 per kg in the market.