Abstract
The establishment of nature conservation projects often bring dilemmas for local communities in Southeast Asia, including in Sabah, Malaysia. On the one hand, the enactment of Kinabalu National Park has triggered the dispossession of local people from their customary lands, but on the other, it offers various economic opportunities. Employing ethnographic method, this article explores the transformation of Dusun community living in nearby Kinabalu Park and its connection to the influx of foreign migrants from Indonesia. Besides Mount Kinabalu, agriculture acts as the core of cultural pattern for the local people. However, the establishment of Kinabalu Park has offered tourism as the more profitable economic sector, therefore, agricultural lands tend to be abandoned, left for the elders and foreign workers from Indonesia. Recently, scores of Indonesian migrant families are inhabiting several villages nearby Kinabalu Park, basing livelihood primarily on vegetable cultivation. Religious factor and the advance communication technology also play role to this migration pattern. According to direct observation, the majority of Indonesian migrants are predominantly Christians, similar to the religion of the host community. With the advent of ICT, these Indonesian migrants living in Sabah ensure that their family ties even though separated by Sulawesi Sea remains unhindered. Keywords: tourism, migrant, transformation, Kinabalu Park, agricultural land
Highlights
In the last few decades, tourism has been placed as one promising economic sector for several countries in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia that has engagedNur Widiyanto & Emanuela Agra with global tourism market through the exploration of both it's eco and cultural tourism “resources”
The transformation of Mount Kinabalu to be a part of modern conservation system can be traced from the era of British colonisation
Gunting Lagadan until today is recognised as the local legend, the pioneer of the mountain guide or malim gunung at Kinabalu. He was considered as the first person who proved that local people are the real “sons of the sacred mountain”
Summary
In the last few decades, tourism has been placed as one promising economic sector for several countries in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia that has engaged. Nur Widiyanto & Emanuela Agra with global tourism market through the exploration of both it's eco and cultural tourism “resources”. Tourism development in Malaysia is strongly connected to the shifting of political agenda since 1987 when the government located tourism as the major economic sector (Hjulmand, Nielsen, Vesterløkke, Busk, & Erichsen, 2003). Eco-tourism relied on natural parks, including Kinabalu Park in Sabah, and is part of the policy to protect natural resources while supporting a stable economic growth from tourism. Michel Picard (1990) offers “cultural tourism” to describe further engagement between culture and tourism development in Southeast Asia, and Bali is the example of an advanced level of such engagement. The direct and in-direct engagement between local people and its fragile culture with tourism activities are something inevitable, and it may trigger various dynamics
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