Re-imagining the Forest: Eco-Tourism Developments in Ulu Geroh, Malaysia

Abstract

Forests are repositories of great wealth and ecological importance, and as such have become critical sites of struggle between states intending to exert their supremacy, nature conservation organisations who are claiming to protect biodiversity, and indigenous peoples endeavouring to assert their customary rights to the land. The tropical forests have always been a vital part of the cultural ensemble and cosmology of the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia (otherwise known as Orang Asli). The Malaysian government ever since Independence in 1957 has viewed forests as sources of natural timber extraction, and as sites for potential clearing for development programmes. Increasingly, government management emphasis has begun to shift from timber production to developing " forest recreation areas " to stabilise the environment. This thesis aims to examine the implications of eco-tourism development on a village in the state of Perak called Kampung Ulu Geroh, with the help of a non-governmental organisation, Malaysian Nature Society. My primary interest is not to identify the driving force of conservation and eco-tourism development per se, but to investigate what is happening in the spaces between them - the spaces of conflict/borderzones. In a process of "transculturation" , locals' ideas about nature and the environment changed in relation to tourism, and tourists believe they are learning about and connecting with local culture, but in a very ambiguous way.<br>