Biocultural Diversity in the Rainforests of Central Borneo
Principal Investigator: Rajindra K. Puri
Project dates: 2008-2009
Funding: TBA
Partners: Prof. Bernard Sellato, Kayan Mentarang National Park, WWF-Indonesia, East-West Center
The aim of this project is to understand the impact of humans on the vegetation of the remote and now abandoned Iwan valley in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The primary research question concerns how human settlement patterns and activities have influenced floristic structure and diversity over the last two centuries. Secondary issues include the consequences for animals, such as orang-utan, reasons for abandoning the valley, and identifying and dating abandoned villages and cultivated areas from remotely sensed images. Activities include pre-classification of several remotely sensed images and field research to a) ground-truth these images through vegetation sampling, b) collect archaeological material for dating, and c) collect oral histories and landscape interpretations from former Kenyah, Kayan and Penan residents of the valley. This research will enhance knowledge of the role of humans in forest patch dynamics as well as reveal the extent of the cultural landscape in the Central Borneo rainforest. Findings will address wider debates on the impact of humans on biocultural diversity and the role of local people and indigenous knowledge in the management of protected areas.
Publications
Puri. R. K. 2005. Post-abandonment ecology of Penan fruit camps: Anthropological and ethnobiological approaches to the history of a rainforested valley in East Kalimantan. In Conserving Nature in Culture: Case Studies from Southeast Asia, edited by Michael R. Dove, Percy E. Sajise and Amity Doolittle. Monograph Series #54. 368 pp. New Haven: Yale University Council on Southeast Asia Studies. http://www.yale.edu/seas/Monographs.htm
Puri, R.K. 1998. Post-abandonment ecology of human settlement and activity sites in the Lurah River Valley, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Quarterly report to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta.