An experience in documenting forest related traditional knowledge of Orang Asli communities through capacity building workshops

As a party to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBO), there is a need for Malaysia to implement its commitment to CBO's objectives on conserving biological diversity, sustainable utilisation of natural resources, and fair and equitable benefit sharing deriving from the use of genetic resources. Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (RMK9), the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment has allocated a special grant to Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) to establish a database on forest related traditional knowledge of the Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia. This database focuses on the traditional knowledge of Orang Asli on the utilisation of medicinal and aromatic plants. A relevant Prior Informed Consent (PIC) is obtained from participants in the capacity building workshop as stipulated in Article 15 of CBO and its supportive document, Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefits Arising Out of their Utilization. This study focused on two areas, namely, the Semelai community in Iskandar Regroupment Scheme (RPS) in Pahang and Jahai / Temiar community in Banun Regroupment Scheme (RPS) in Perak in collaboration with the Advisory Committee on Traditional Knowledge of Semelai in RPS Iskandar, Tasik Bera, Pahang and Committee for Traditional Knowledge of RPS Banun in Gerik, Perak respectively. The participants for the capacity building workshops comprised of various groups, i.e. youths, women, men and practitioners (bomoh, bidan and puyang). Having signed their PIC, they participated actively in documenting their own traditional knowledge. Both the elders and youths worked closely in documenting their traditional knowledge. The workshops enabled the younger generations to learn from their knowledgeable elders. The participants were very enthusiastic and showed much initiative in gathering specimens and information on the plants used by their communities.