Community leader and advocate of organic farming for sustainable development and nature conservation in Long Pasia, the Heart of Borneo in Sabah Malaysia.
Activist and Advocate for People and Nature of Long Pasia
I came back to Long Pasia, from work in Brunei, because I think I can make a positive difference in my community. Since most of our youth have migrated to work in cities, our village is not managed properly, and our older generations are not taken care of. I want to contribute my little effort as an activist to improve on all the problems left by commercial logging – bad roads, broken bridges, poverty, river pollution, and habitat destruction.
As the chairperson of FORMADAT Sabah, I try my best to educate and inspire our community, especially the leaders. We connect with NGOs from Peninsular Malaysia, and participated in international forum and conferences in Korea, Japan, and Indonesia. With knowledge learned from successful examples, we encourage our leaders and local organizations to gazette our water catchment as conservation area, and develop ecotourism for sustainable economy.
Local Conservation and Organic Farming
Personally I have set up my own fish tagal (fish conservation) near my own house for the kids to play, and as a way to educate people on the importance of rivers. Now I have started a new wildlife conservation project on my own NCR land. I have also received from UNDP a small grant of RM15,000 to replant wild trees along the river and on community lands.
I started my integrated farm not only for the economy, but also as a platform to educate our community. My organic rice program is now supported by the state government and local agriculture experts from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). I also rear fish, kampung (village) chicken, goats, and buffalos, as well as planting vegetables and fruits like pineapples. With this initiative, my backyard is my own nature supermarket.
Currently I am selling rice, goat, and buffalo to cover my expenses, and mission in getting more farmers involved in organic farming. I hope more people will buy from us and visit us in Long Pasia to support our cause.
