08 July 2010
Jakarta (08/06)-With nearly 30,000 visitors, the annual Rainforest World Music Festival, held in Kuching, Sarawak on the island of Borneo is one of Malaysia’s largest musical events.
This year, Borneo’s indigenous cultural traditions will be on show with the participation of FORMADAT, a grassroots, cross border, organization representing the Indigenous Peoples of the Highlands, in the Heart of Borneo (HoB).
Pak Lewi Gala, one of the community leaders in the organization, said he hopes FORMADAT’s participation and exhibition booth at the festival would bring attention to the traditional skills and enterprise of the highland people and promote their vision for sustainable and environmentally sensitive development of their ancestral highland homes.
“We have no other homeland and we need to save the patar dita’ (highland plateau) Borneo where we have lived for generations. We are of one root, one ancestor, and one tradition”, he said.
Dato’ Dr. Dionysius Sharma, WWF-Malaysia Executive Director/CEO said that FORMADAT is an important initiative as it can catalyze a community's interest in conservation and promote sustainable natural resource management. Supporting such ideas in the highlands of HOB can be an effective strategy ensuring the community will be continuous guardians of the rich biodiversity of this extraordinary yet beautiful landscape.
The FORMADAT exhibition booth will be an opportunity to promote local products using the ‘Green and Fair Products’ branding, a new initiative supported by WWF-Indonesia and WWF-Malaysia to grant fair recognition to local products and support sustainable livelihoods.
According to Cristina Eghenter, WWF-Indonesia’s Social Development Advisor, a range of high quality highland products, such as: Adan rice, mountain salt, wild cinnamon, indigenous handicrafts and musical instruments will be displayed and sold at the festival.

""Cultural performances and poster exhibitions in and around the booth will capture the beautiful landscape and culture of the land of FORMADAT as well as promote ecotourism destinations in the highlands,” she said.
“Music and lyrics have the capacity to bind people together with a shared understanding or vision. In many ways this is exactly what FORMADAT represents. Through the Rainforest World Music Festival, FORMADAT hopes to raise awareness of its existence within the community and its vision and commitment to protect and sustainably develop the common cultural heritage and land that lies within both and Indonesia in the Heart of Borneo. Especially when there will be performances by the Dayak community which will portray a strong image of rainforest diversity.”
A ‘green’ economic vision for the Heart of Borneo
FORMADAT”s vision of conservation and sustainable development of Borneo’s highland areas is once shared by WWF’s Heart of Borneo Initiative in its support of the organization and community livelihoods development generally.
HoB Initiative team leader, Adam Tomasek, said the notion of a ‘green economy’, driven by sustainable indigenous business, in harmony with nature, could be a powerful mechanism to protect the globally significant bio-diversity found within the HoB. Therefore, the Green & Fair product initiative at the upcoming festival is one of the examples towards the ‘green economy approach’.
To achieve this vision, development of infrastructure and better transportation are needed to guarantee a market for local agricultural products. It is also important to choose the right kind of economic alternatives such as sustainable farming, ecotourism, and animal husbandry, adapted to the local environmental and social conditions in order to maintain vital natural functions and characteristics of the highlands.
The Rainforest World Music Festival will start on the 9 July 2010 and end on the 11 July 2010.
-END-

For media queries, please contact:

• Chris Greenwood
  International Communications Manager, Heart of Borneo Initiative, WWF International
  Tel: +6088 266 420; Ext 17; Fax: +6088 242 531; Mobile: +012 828 1214;
  E-mail: chris.greenwood@wwf.panda.org
• Nancy Ariaini
  HOB Communications Officer, WWF-Indonesia
  Tel: + 62 215 776 1070; Email: nariaini@wwf.or.id
• Alvin Naden
  Communications Manager, Borneo Programme, WWF-Malaysia (Sabah)
  Tel: +6088 266 420 Ext 19; Fax: +6088 242 531; Mobile: +6012 635 2207;
  E-mail: anaden@wwf.org.my
   

For information on FORMADAT, please contact:

• Cr John Terawe
  Tel: +6019 4381777; Email: jtarawe@bario.net
• Dora Jok
  Community Liaison Officer, WWF-Malaysia (Sarawak)
  Tel: +6082 247 420; Fax: +082 241 531; Email: dorajok@gmail.com
• Cristina Eghenter
  Social Development Advisor, WWF-Indonesia
  Email: awing@samarinda.org,
• Rejani Kunjappan
  Community Education & Engagement, Senior  Manager, WWF-Malaysia
  Tel: +603 7803 3772 Ext 6438; Fax: +603 7803 3250;  Email: rkunjappan@wwf.org.my

About WWF-Malaysia
WWF-Malaysia (World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia), the national conservation trust, currently runs more than 75 projects covering a diverse range of environmental protection work. Since 1972, WWF-Malaysia has worked on important conservation projects, from saving endangered species such as tigers and turtles, to protecting our highland forests, rivers and seas. We also undertake environmental education and advocacy work to achieve conservation goals. By conserving our natural resources, WWF-Malaysia is helping to protect our livelihoods, food and water supply, thus securing our good quality of life and our children’s bright future. We thank our supporters whose donations are our lifeblood. If you would like to donate to WWF-Malaysia or learn more about our projects, please call: +603-78033772 or visit our website at: wwf.org.my
About WWF-Indonesia
WWF-Indonesia is an independent foundation registered under the Indonesian law, governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of The Advisory Board, The Supervisory Board, and The Executive Board. Jakarta is home to WWF-Indonesia’s National Office Secretariat who’s role is to lead and coordinate the work of 25 WWF-Indonesia offices that are operating throughout the country, by developing policies and priorities, fostering exchange of lessons learned between different offices, coordinating national campaigns, providing technical assistance and capacity building, and providing supportive measures to ensure that national operations run smoothly. For more information log on to our website at: wwf.or.id
About Heart of Borneo
The ‘Heart of Borneo’ is the only remaining place in South-east Asia that still holds huge tracts of continuous pristine forest. It straddles the transboundary highlands of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia and reaches out through the foothills into the adjacent lowlands. This programme aims to assist Borneo’s three governing nations (Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia) to conserve the Heart of Borneo through a network of protected areas and sustainably managed forest, and through international co-operation led by the Bornean governments. The forests of the Heart of Borneo are some of the most biologically diverse habitats on Earth, possessing staggeringly high endemism levels across all groups of plants and animals.
About FORMADAT
FORMADAT or Forum of the Indigenous Peoples of the Highlands of Borneo, is a transboundary community forum established by the main ethnic groups in the area - the Lun Dayeh/Lun Bawang, Sa'ban & Kelabit. They number around 15,000 people of whom 75% are on the Indonesian side of the border. The highlands of Borneo, which comprise the sub-districts of Krayan Selatan and Krayan in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Bario, Ba’Kelalan and Long Semado in Sarawak, and Long Pasia in Sabah, Malaysia, constitute one geographic, environmental, and cultural land inhabited by people who share a common origin.