Traditional knowledge of orang asli on forests in peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

It is estimated that the population of indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia (called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Orang Asli</i>) is around 178,000. Traditionally, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Orang Asli</i> lived in the forests, and, for them, the forest is the source of their livelihood. This study investigates the traditional knowledge of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Orang Asli</i> about the forest. This study covered 53 villages in six states of Peninsular Malaysia and involved primary data collection from the fieldwork and information obtained from the policy documents of the Malaysian Government and previous research. In this survey, eight variables were used to assess the traditional knowledge of forests among the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Orang Asli</i>. The results showed that knowledge relating to forests, lakes and rivers along with knowledge about farming, gardening and hunting scored the highest percentage among the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Orang Asli</i>. This study also revealed that for all eight variables relating to traditional knowledge, males have higher participation compared to women. The findings demonstrated that there is a direct relationship between age and knowledge – the older generation tend to have higher traditional knowledge compared to the younger generation.