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Carbon stock assessment work is carried out 100% by the Kg Gana community.
KOTA MARUDU (Nov 6): The community of Kampung Gana could potentially expand a small project aimed at improving their livelihood into an impactful contribution to Sabah’s food security.
As a beneficiary of an eight-year European Union-funded Sabah-EU REDD+ Project, the rural indigenous community are beginning to reap what they have sowed, and only time can tell how far they will go to become not just mere farmers, but ‘foodpreneurs’.
Through the project, the community have built a certain level of capacity to develop their land into profitable ventures. Unlike other more commercial agricultural investments, theirs is small scale, community-based and arguably organic.
It was not too long ago that this community had to depend on forest resources to sustain their livelihood.
Through the project, which primary objective is to raise communities’ living standards while restoring and rehabilitating degraded forests in Sabah, they now have a better and more sustainable option.
“Villagers have planted pineapples, coffee, organic vegetables and hill rice,” says project manager Alexander Minsong, a local of Gana.
“Some of them have grown “keladi cina” (yam) and mushrooms.”
According to him, these can fetch a good price in the market and in turn, a better income for the villagers.
He believes that in time, if the community continues to master the art of business, their small ventures could potentially grow to become a lot bigger.
Situations might offer a push for the previously forest-dwelling community to build self-belief and resilience. One significant situation is the Covid-19 pandemic.
The importance of sustainable food resources and an undisrupted supply chain to consumers has been one of the key lessons learned ever since the pandemic hit the state and the rest of the world.
Given the opportunity through the project, the community of Kg Gana has every reason to become a small food bank in the state, growing healthy food to feed the ever-growing Sabah population and possibly beyond.
REDD+ is an international framework that stands for “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, and the plus denotes conservation of existing forest carbon stocks, sustainable forest management and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
The project started in 2013 and is set to end on Nov 30 this year.
REDD+ is part of the EU’s programme entitled “Tackling Climate Change through Sustainable Forest Management and Community Development.
During the eight-year term, the project team worked with communities living adjacent to forest reserves in three areas: four villages in Kinabatangan River Corridor, 10 villages in Kg Gana in Kota Marudu, and seven villages within the Kinabalu Ecolinc Zone.
The project supported the development of sustainable alternative livelihood activities for the communities, one of which sustainable farming.
But in Kg Gana, which comprises ten villages, the project also contributed to solving a major issue: clean water supply.
While the solution is simple with three gravity water systems built to meet the daily needs of villagers, one activity around this has given a more meaningful and impactful input into the project.
Malinana Japin
“We planted trees inside the forest. I was personally involved in this project,” says Malinana Japin.
She explains that trees would ensure the water catchment stays resilient and healthy for generations to come, and would continue to supply clean and undisrupted water supply to the community.
The project has also helped establish community cooperatives and carried out forest restoration activities.
One of the earliest project participants, Aendialiana Enam, recalls how the project held hands with the community in almost every step of the way to ensure they started on the right footing.
Aendialiana Enam
“The project supported us with things we needed to start like planting materials. We were given seedlings and they told us to take good care of them so they would grow. We were also given the proper trainings including marketing,” she says.
Villagers would have to travel 30 minutes to Kota Marudu town to sell the farm produce.
The successful demonstration of the project in Kg Gana would set the right template for the full implementation of REDD+ activities in Sabah in response to the global fight against climate change through sustainable forest management and community development.
Thanks to the lroject, many participants reported that their income had increased and diversified. They also owed it to have better access to the market.
However, better income means earning just a little extra than what they previously did for many of the project participating villagers in Kg Gana. Even though small by any standard, it is still life-changing for them.
“It gives me a sense of accomplishment whenever I can make some earnings from the sale of crops I planted. It doesn’t matter if it’s RM5 or RM100,” shares Malinana.
Now that the community of Kg Gana have developed a greater sense of self-confidence and purpose from small results attained, they express determination to go further and bigger.
“One of the positive changes I see is that my community is excited about learning new things. It’s the only way if we want to continue moving forward. Soon, we look forward to having a team from UMS Sandakan to teach us how to grow mushrooms spawns,” he says.
Being able to see, they could add value to whatever they sow on their land would help this once forest-dwelling community participate in the entire complex fight against climate change. They start by changing themselves – by becoming productive players in the market economy.
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