Background

Pos Tohoi (5°1'51.36"N 101°45'8.04"E) and Pos Pulat (5°5'10"N 101°52'52"E) are indigenous people (orang asli) settlements in the district of Gua Musang, Kelantan. Both villages are inhabited by the Temiar tribe, and have a combined population of approximately 900 people. Sungai Nenggiri (Nenggiri River) springs from Lojing Highlands in the Peninsular Main Range and brings life to the basin before it joins Sungai Lebir and Pergau into Sungai Kelantan. Gua Musang is the nearest town to the aboriginal community.

Sahabat Sungai Nenggiri (SSN) is a community-based organization which has been dealing with local environmental problems such as land clearing for agriculture, degradation of river water quality due to sedimentation from expansive logging activities, unsustainable harvesting of forest products and illegal fishing methods, i.e. electrification, bombing and poisoning. These destructive activities have been depriving the indigenous Temiar people of a simple and healthy livelihood. As a result, the poverty level among the local community is relatively high because they are dependent on forest and river products.

The event

Commemorated on 5th June since 1972, World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated all around the world. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) website, WED 2010 is aimed to be the biggest, most widely celebrated, global day for positive, environmental action. Through WED, humans will able to know about environmental issues and enable people to realize not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development. WED can also be considered a day for advocating partnerships among all stakeholders or even among all species living on this one planet and sharing a common future.

In conjunction with World Environment Day 2010, SSN together with Global Environment Centre (GEC) organized the celebration activities and tree planting programme in both Pos Tohoi and Pos Pulat on 5 and 6 June 2010. The celebration was funded by Bridgestone Tyre Sales (M) Sdn. Bhd. A few SSN committee including indigenous members and GEC staff carried out the 2-day community programme. There were several contests held in the villages such as:

• School children coloring contest (Lower and Upper Primary)
• Handicraft competition (for Pos Pulat, Sewang performance instead)
• House landscaping and cleaning
• Tree planting activity

Tree planting, as the primary activity aims to provide local community input about forest conservation and management. Principally, the objectives of this community programme were:

1. To establish the local community awareness and participation in forest conservation
2. To empower the Temiar communities and recognize their role for natural resources management in Nenggiri River Basin
3. Celebrate World Environment Day 2010

In both Pos Tohoi and Pos Pulat, more than 300 people (about 200 children) participated in the event which provided an opportunity for the community to enhance their skills in restoration works. In fact, the main goal was to prepare the indigenous people with knowledge to deal with various environmental issues on their own. Since the degradation of nature has direct impacts on the native people, they have to understand their rights on their homeland and willingly step up against any violations to their livelihood. Furthermore, GEC and SSN were trying to promote the Temiar unique handicraft culture to the outside world. This art industry is expected to have great prospects and will likely generate income for the villagers.