Book Description

In light of the tremendous changes that have come to the island of Borneo in recent decades, this volume takes a detailed historical look at the Borneo environment from native, colonial and national perspectives. It examines change and continuity in the economic, political and social dimensions of human-environment interactions. Reflecting the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of environmental history, the book brings together an international group of historians, anthropologists, geographers and social foresters, all looking through a historical lens at the environment in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the Indonesian province of Kalimantan and Brunei. Drawing on extensive archival research and fieldwork, these ten original contributions encompass eleven centuries of history on Borneo, examining interrelated topics that include long-distance trade, conservation, land tenure, resource access, property rights, perceptions of the environment, migration, and development policy and practice. The chapters in this volume are extensively revised versions of selected papers presented at an international seminar on "Environmental change in native and colonial histories of Borneo: Lessons from the past, prospects for the future" held in Leiden under the auspices of the International Institute for Asian Studies.