BORNEO INTERNATIONAL BEADS CONFERENCE 2010

The Borneo International Beads Conference 2010 is taking place this weekend in Miri, Sarawak. Various programs have been organised for this first ever occasion in Miri. Please visit http://www.crafthub.com.my/ for details on what's on offer.

BIBCo promises to be a weekend of total immersion in a vibrant bead culture.
Attend formal lectures by acknowledged experts in the field.
Get down to the real thing in hands-on workshops.
Meet indigenous Orang Ulu ladies with centuries of bead-tradition behind them.
Browse your fill at the Bead Exhibition and Bazaar.

Objectives of BIBCo:
To improve the earning power of home-based cottage workers in Sarawak
To preserve the Sarawak bead tradition
To encourage the production of top quality beads and beadwork in Sarawak
To promote competent modern design in beads and beadwork
To facilitate creative interaction between Sarawak’s artisans/designers and their international counterparts

Friday 8th Oct

1200 hrs Conference Registration

1400 hrs Setting up and ‘soft opening’ of Beads Exhibition & Sales

1700 hrs Visit Bead Exhibition at Miri Pustaka Library

Saturday 9th

All day: Bead Exhibition, Demonstrations & Sales

Session 1 : Chair Datin Valerie Mashman

0830 hrs Conference Paper 1 Ms Reita Rahim "Organic materials used as beads by Malaysia's indigenous peoples"

0910 hrs Conference Paper 2 Mr Ipoi Datan "Pre-historic and early historic beads of Borneo"

1000 hrs Official Opening by Dtk.Patinggi Tan Sri Dr.George Chan,Minister of Tourism Sarawak followed by Morning Tea

1115 hrs Conference Paper 3 Ms Eileen Paya Foong "An Uma Pawek Family's Heirloom Beads@

1200 hrs Lunch Break at Loon Jin Restaurant

Session 2: Chair YM Datin Raja Fuziah Tun Uda

1400 hrs Conference Paper 4 Dr Cheah Hwei Fen "Nyonya Beadwork"

1445 hrs Conference Paper 5 Dr Poline Bala "Kelabit/Orang Ulu value beads conservation"

1530 hrs Afternoon Tea Break

1800 hrs Board Transport to East Valley Golf Club

1900 hrs Gala Dinner at East Valley Golf Club, graced byDt.Patinggi Tan Sri Dr. George Chan

Fashion Show by Von Jolly Couture

Sunday 10th Oct
All day: Bead Exhibition, Demonstrations & Sales

Session 3 : Chair President of WCC Mdm.Usha Krisha

0900 hrs Conference Paper 6 Mr Jamey Allen "The heirloom beads of Island South-East Asia"

0945 hrs Conference Paper 7 Mrs Heidi Munan "Borneo Bead culture in the 21st Century"

1030 hrs Morning Tea Break

1100 hrs Conference Paper 8 Ms Nor Azmah "Making ceramic and glass beads in Malaysia"

1200 hrs Lunch Break at Loong Jin Restaurant

Session 4 : Chair President WCCAPR, Mdm. Surapee

1400 hrs Conference Paper 9 Ms. Yekti Kusmastono "From shards to art - antique beads, recycled glass"

1445 hrs Conference Paper 10 Dr David Baradas "Beads in the Philippines"

1530 hrs Afternoon Tea Break

1615 hrs ‘Meet the Speakers –Show and Tell’; Informal discussion Session – show your best beads to the experts!

1730 hrs Conclusion of BIBCO 2010

There'll be plenty of interesting wares on display and sale!

Maiden be-decked with all manner of beads on opening day at the conference.

October News & Updates

Dear Valued Members,

We hope you have enjoyed the Hari Raya holidays with family and friends, while being surrounded by delicious and glorious food! Now that the festivities are over, we have planned a few exciting activities for our members this month.

Here are the upcoming events slated to take place in October:

Oct 9: CFZ along Kuala Nyalau

This is an overnight sunset cruise along Sungai Nyalau to check out fireflies (among other things). There are only limited seats available so book your place as soon as possible. Interested participants must bring a life-jacket.

Our member conducting his assigned task (photo credit: Faye Osman).

This is a working trip, therefore participants are expected to be able to conduct small assigned tasks while in the boat.

Oct 18 - 23: Mount Murud trek

This trek is now fully subscribed. Participants will trek from Ba'kelalan to Church Camp via Lepo Bunga before attempting the climb to the highest peak in Sarawak.

Oct 30: CFZ along Sibuti

This is a cruise along Sungai Sibuti to check out fireflies (and certain reptiles!). This outing might be an overnight trip. Again, there are only limited seats available, as we can accommodate only a small number of people in the boats. 

Our participant recording GPS waypoints (photo credit: Faye Osman).

As with all our CFZ trips, participants are expected to conduct assigned tasks while we are traversing the river.

There are also other bird-watching related events taking place this month:

Oct 08 - 09: Sarawak Bird Race 2010 by MNS Kuching

Oct 15 - 17: Borneo Bird Festival by Borneo Bird Club and Sabah Tourism

Oct 23 - 24: Festival of Wings by KSNP, MNS, Selangor Bird Group, MNS BCC-WG

More details can be found in our birdwatching blog.

Election Results from the 63rd MNS AGM, Gunung Ledang Resort, Johor

70 years of MNS, the 63rd AGM was the only the second AGM where a new President was elected and duly installed.

These are the results of the 63rd MNS AGM at Taman Rimba Lagenda Ledang, which
ended around 1950 hours yesterday , 25 Sept 2010 (votes garnered in brackets):

1) President:
Tan Sri Salleh (239)
Dr Maketab Mohamed (333)

2) Vice Presidents:
Dato' Prof Dr Zaini Ujang (208)
Jeffrey Phang (465)
Kalaimani (410)

3) Council Members:
Harban Singh (516)
Kanitha (505)
Catherine Yule (497)
SM Muthu (418),
Prof Ahmad Ismail (413)
Datin Nazriyah (336)
Henry Goh (309)
Omar Kadir (299)

"Congratulations to the new Council members and thanks to the outgoing Council
members.

Thanks to all MNS members who participated in the voting process
either by postal voting or in situ voting.

Let us now close ranks and forget our differences and work together for the betterment of Mother Nature and the Environment", our new President's message to all MNS members.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM HQ : HAVE YOUR SAY!

Postal Ballot Forms will be mailed to MNS members and you will needto send the form back to MNS HQ by 23 September 2010 if you are notable to attend the 63rd MNS Annual General Meeting.

Ballot forms can be delivered by hand on 25 September 2010.

Theforms must be sealed in the envelope provided by MNS. All forms must be signed by MNS members. Members must write andsign their name on the outside of the envelope provided by MNS.

Members can raise matters for discussion during the 63rd MNS AnnualGeneral Meeting by writing in to MNS Honorary Secretary, Dr CheahSwee Neo. Her email is jessie1303@gmail.com and the letter or emailmust reach MNS by Friday, 17 September 2010.

CHECK YOUR MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTIONClause 66 of MNS Rules and Regulation states that “No member shallbe entitled to vote at any meeting unless all subscription due by him/herto the Society in respect of the year in which meeting is held have beenpaid in full not less than one week prior to the meeting and he canproduce a receipt from the Society proving this fact, if his right to vote is

Borneo’s Husband-and-Wife Mountain Gods Look Down on Illegal Logging

The news that Norway has sold all of its shares in a Malaysian timber company it accuses of illegal logging has brought back memories of one of the best experiences of my life, and of a pair of sad brown eyes I wish I had not seen.

My distant cousin with the beautiful dark eyes was lonely, anxious and unnaturally thin. I felt certain that she would die a sorry death.

I had found the forlorn gibbon in a tiny cage in a logging camp in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo in September 1998. Just a few days earlier I had seen gibbons as they should be seen — swinging through the treetops — and had been lucky enough to hear them warbling and whooping their territorial calls from on high. The music they make is unforgettable.

But after nine days of walking through the pristine forest where I encountered these and many other wonders, my journey had ended with a shocking vision of the future.

I was in the highland forests on an Malaysian Nature Society expedition to record the natural history of an area that had long been proposed as a new national park. Our team included biologists and geologists and local guides who knew the forest inside-out.

Our schedule was tough and our backpacks were heavy but we still recorded 26 mammal species and 67 birds, including the endangered Sun Bear and Helmeted Hornbill, in just over a week. We found orchids and pitcher plants that exist nowhere else on Earth other than the mountain forests of Borneo.



Batu Lawi from Gunung Murud. (Image : MNS Pulong Tau Expedition)

The highlight for me was seeing the fabled twin peaks of Batu Lawi – a sandstone mountain that the local people revere as husband-and-wife gods who are the original parents and protectors of all highland people.

A couple of days after we had climbed the Batu Lawi’s female peak, I took this photo (above) from the summit of Sarawak’s highest mountain Gunung Murud. From there we could see that logging roads were already approaching Batu Lawi. Having denuded much of Sarawak’s lowlands, the timber companies were closing in on the riches that remained in this isolated area.

Our expedition report (PDF) urged the government of Sarawak to include Batu Lawi in the national park – but when Pulong Tau National Park was finally gazetted seven years later in 2005, the Kelabit gods were left on the outside, looking in. These ancient protectors were now the vulnerable ones.

As we descended towards our expedition’s end-point in the village of Ba Kelalan we saw just how well advanced the campaign to extract Batu Lawi’s timber was when we found ourselves in a logging camp. It was here that we discovered the caged gibbon.

She may have been a pet but more likely she was destined for the pot, for wherever logging companies go, their workers hunt for bush-meat. A few months later the US Wildlife Conservation Society would publish a paper in Science that conservatively estimated the wild meat trade in Sarawak to exceed 1000 metric tonnes a year. It said that in 1996 workers in just one logging camp there killed more than 1,100 animals — totalling 29 metric tons.

I saw red dusty soil of the recently cleared forest reflected in the gibbon’s haunted eyes and realised that this particular primate would never again swing through the trees. Nor would she ever again disperse the seeds of forest trees whose fruit she ate, species like the ecologically important strangler figs that I was studying elsewhere in Borneo.

The creature’s capture was both an insult and an injury to an ancient forest. Gibbons are supposed to be protected species in Sarawak but laws count for little in remote areas where there is big money to be made from natural resources.

There was nobody about to talk to about the gibbon but we saw vehicles and equipment emblazoned with the logo of the Malaysian logging giant Samling, which had been allocated the area’s logging concessions. And it is in this very area that Samling stands accused this week of “extensive and repeated” breaches of Sarawak’s state regulations.

Norway’s State Pension Fund pulled its investment out of the company after its Council on Ethics concluded in a detailed report (PDF) that Samling’s activities had contributed to “illegal logging and severe environmental damage” both in Malaysia and Guyana.

Samling Global, which operates more than 1.2 million hectares of logging concessions in each of these countries, refutes the allegations.

But the Norwegian report includes satellite imagery of the area around Batu Lawi, which the authorities in Sarawak had approved as an extension to Pulong Tau National Park in May 2008. This meant all logging there should have ceased but the red areas of the image, taken in May 2009, indicate extensive logging within the Batu Lawi reserve area (white line).


Satellite image from May 2009 showing intensive logging inside the Batu Lawi reserved area.
(Reserved area marked with white line). Logging areas are coloured red. (Image : Norway State Pension Fund)

Norway’s pension fund is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, so its move to withdraw its investment in Samling on environmental grounds is noteworthy. But even with 8 million kroner (US$1.25 million) in Samling shares, the NPF investment represented just 0.37% of the company’s total worth.

The Malaysia’s Star newspaper quoted a source who said: “The investment fraternity may consider the exit of NPF from Samling as no big deal given its insignificant stake, however, NPF accusations on Samling Global can to a certain extent affect the stock in the long term.”

Nongovernmental organisations such as the Bruno Manser Fund say the move will put the spotlight on logging companies that for years have been accused of infringing the rights of indigenous people.

But unless many other investors adopt the ethical stance of the Norwegian Pension Fund we can probably expect business as usual in Borneo.


Posted by mikeshanahan