Orang Asli Case Study

The aim of this study was to estimate of the value of Orang Asli traditional ecological knowledge among public in the Peninsular Malaysia. This was achieved through the application of a choice experiment (CE), which was utilised to directly assess the economic value of the sustainable management of natural resource that are provided by the Orang Asli. The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. The theoretical background is outlined in section two. In section three we describe the data used in terms of stated choice experiment and model results in section four. Finally, conclusions and future directions are presented in section five.

2. BACKGROUND

Orang Asli are the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. They consist of at least
Sustainability is also conceptualised at a wider framework level as defined by the Brundtland et al. 1987 to encompass state and administrative agency-related sustainable development policies. In the Malaysian context, sustainability from the perspective of the Orang Asli refers to the practices of the Orang Asli in managing natural resources within the forest. When Malaysia became a member party to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1994, there is the need to demonstrate its commitment by translating CBD’s objectives of conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits. Under the CBD, the old practices of engaging the local communities in sharing their knowledge on plant resources have been changed. Under Article 8 of the Convention, each Contracting Party shall respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable
It was first developed for marketing and transportation studies and is now increasingly used in environmental non-market valuation (Bennett and Blamey, 2001). It allows the valuation of changes in environmental goods and services, or policies modifying their level of provision. In CE, individuals are presented with sets of choices made up of alternative outcomes based on hypothetical scenarios that vary in their specific characteristics. Outcomes are distinguished in terms of different levels of attributes which are known to influence choices. The extent to which attribute levels influence choice that is, their relative importance can be ascertained by presenting a respondent with a range of choice sets. Price can be included as an attribute in order to determine its relative influence on choice, whilst also permitting the calculation of willingness to pay for changes in attribute