LINKING CULTURE
NATURE & COMMUNITIES
THROUGH ECOTOURISM
IN THE INTERIOR OF
EAST KALIMANTAN

Gallery

Hulu Punjungan

Hulu Bahau

Krayan Highlands

 

Why Community-Based Ecotourism

In 2002, in the heart of Indonesian Borneo, the communities in Hulu Pujungan, Hulu Bahau (Malinau) and the Krayan Highlands (Nunukan) started pilot projects in community-based ecotourism, with the support of WWF and the local government. The main objective was to develop alternative ways to generate income while protecting the forest and the natural beauty of the area. The ecotourism pilot projects are located in the customary land of Dayak people. Part of the area is inside the Kayan Mentarang National Park, the first park in Indonesia to be managed collaboratively with local communities. Involving communities in ecotourism development is critically important in order to achieve broad and equitable benefits. Equally important is that the communities maintain control over the level and kind of tourism they want in their land.

Malinau and Nunukan in the Heart of Borneo

The sub-districts of Pujungan and Bahau Hulu, in the Malinau District, and the sub-districts of Krayan and Krayan Selatan, in the Nunukan District, are part of the heart land of Dayak Kenyah, Lun Dayeh, Sa' ban and other groups who settled this area hundreds of years ago.

The Kayan Mentarang National Park is a vast area of over 1.3 million ha covered with rich montane tropical forest that still harbors some of the most extraordinary wildlife on earth. Traditional practices of Indigenous Peoples have helped shape and conserve the landscape as we see it today. The area straddles the far interior of East Kalimantan, bordering with Sarawak (Malaysia) to the west and Sabah (Malaysia) to the north, in the Heart of Borneo.

Some areas are ideal destinations for ecotourism expeditions and jungle trekking, short- and long-distance, amidst primary and secondary forest. A world of wild rivers adventures, old village sites and archeological remains, traditional culture and village life, and Dayak warm hospitality await visitors.