Meeting in the Land Below the Wind

I just got back from a week long conference of Governments and Protected Area specialists. The conference was to help the 10 nations who are members of ASEAN ( Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) to achieve the goals set for the creation and management of Protected Areas (PAs) by the years 2010 and 2012. There are basically two problems. There are still not enough PAs covering all the relevant ecosystems and endangered species and even where there is a PA, it is often still not managed properly. By the end of the week, I’d say that most of us were cautiously optimistic.

Optimistic because, there has been a great deal of progress since the last meeting almost 4 years ago. Cautious because, the entire program is still behind schedule and there are still some serious problems to solve.

The meeting was held in Kota Kinabalu which is the capitol of the state of Sabah, Malaysia. It is located at the foot of the Kinabalu Mountain which is South East Asia’s tallest and on the exotic and heavily romanticized island of Borneo. Borneo is also the world’s third largest island at 743,300 sq km. It is an island rich with natural resources, ancient rainforests, numerous ethnic tribes, endemic plants and animals and natural beauty. It is also a safe and bountiful land.

Sunset on Kota Kinabalu Waterfront

The name “Land Below the Wind” is given to Sabah which basically recognizes that it escapes the typhoon belt and is a relatively safe haven. The majority of the population are Kadazan-Dusun which is the main indigenous tribe but the Murut are particularly famous for being traditionally head-hunters (not the modern meaning about scouting appropriate talents for available corporate jobs; but rather the traditional meaning of fierce warriors raiding, killing and taking severed heads as trophies. More about this in a latter post).

Part of the 200 Delegates

My week in a nut shell:-
Sunday: arrived late in the evening, met my room mate and went for dinner nearby.

Monday:- Opening speeches. I was given the privilege to speak on behalf of the CEO of one of organizing organizations. This required me to dress in a suit ( a rare sight indeed). This was followed by country reports. First one was interesting, second one was reasonably interesting, third….fourth ….fifth…Zzzzzzzz. Woke up for summary session. Cultural performance and dinner for the first night.

Tuesday:- More of the same………Zzzzzzz. Had dinner with a local friend and his family.

Wednesday:- Field Trip to Crocker Range National Park. Woke up at 5.30 am. Had breakfast and boarded bus at 7 am. Visited the Park, Mahua Waterfalls and an interior village of the Murut called Ulu Senangang. Got back very tired and hungry at 9:30 pm.

Thurday:- Previous night and this morning, spent writing and preparing for my paper. Presentation went reasonably well. Had dinner with friend. Worked late into the night.

Friday:- Co-chaired a workshop for the entire morning. Prepared a report and presented it with recommendations for actions. Read that out in the afternoon session. Closing ceremonies. Additional meeting. Rushed dinner. Went with local friend to his bible-study group.

Saturday: Left for home. Arrived home. Had lunch and immediately started reading blogs. Good to be back. Will talk more about the cultural aspects of the trip in following posts.