Driving to Ba’Kelalan…

I was both humbled and delighted to have been invited to be a keynote speaker at the e-Borneo Knowledge Fair held in Ba’Kelalan (Sarawak, Malaysia) between 25th-27th October this year.  This unique event, places the emphasis on it providing “opportunities for engagement and knowledge exchange between community members, researchers, government officials, private sector representatives and development professionals”.  Convened by the Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovations (ISITI) of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), it provides a very rare opportunity for academics and others to learn about community-based sustainability from people living in isolated communities, in this case in the Kelabit Highlands on the border of Sarawak and Indonesia.

To give participants from outside the community an impression of Ba’Kelalan’s isolation, the Knowledge Fair began in the coastal town of Lawas, and the first day was spent driving south-east in a convoy of 4-wheel drive vehicles along old logging roads to the village.  The journey took around nine hours, including some short stops on the way, and I hope that the pictures below capture something of the road conditions and the amazing forest landscapes through which we drove. The rapidity with which the tarmac surface laid for part of the way only about three years ago had degraded was quite remarkable, and it is easy to see how very difficult the driving conditions must be in the rain.  Thanks Nelson for doing such a great job in getting us there!  We arrived very shaken, with our bodies still creaking from the journey, but it undoubtedly gave us a much better understanding of the implications of isolation for the people living in the forested highlands in the interior of Borneo.

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(Note that the 18th slide shows not the entrance to Lawas, but rather the route by which to leave Ba’Kelalan so as eventually to reach Lawas).