Echoes of the Forest: How the Dayak Iban Protect Borneo’s Sacred Songbirds

 Deep within the rainforests of Indonesian Borneo, the calls of songbirds still reverberate through the treetops, a vanishing cadence in a world where rampant deforestation and the illicit wildlife trade have rendered many forests eerily silent. For the Indigenous Dayak Iban of Sungai Utik, these avian melodies are seldom mere natural soundscapes; they are sacred harbingers, celestial emissaries bearing ancestral wisdom. For over four decades, the community has tenaciously defended these birds and their imperiled habitat against existential threats.

For the Dayak Iban, the fate of their forests is inextricably intertwined with that of their omen birds. Elders such as Hermanus Husin, a 66-year-old custodian of their traditions, emphasize the significance of interpreting avian calls—an ancient pratice that informs communal decision-making and portends future events. Safeguarding these birds necessitates the preservation of the sprawling rainforest that sustains them. Against the relentless encroachment of illegal logging and expansive commercial plantations, the Iban of Sungai Utik have emerged as vigilant stewards of their 9,450-hectare ancestral forest, resisting the predations of extractive industries that have decimated much of Borneo’s verdant landscape. 

Unlike myriad Indigenous communities across Indonesia that remain ensnared in protracted struggles for legal recognition of their territorial rights, the Dayak Iban secured official acknowledgment of their customary forests in 2019. This legal approval has fortified their traditional governance, ensuring the meticulous regulation of forest utilization. Logging within protected zones is stringently controlled: each household can fall no more than three trees per annum for construction, with transgressions met by punitive sanctions. More importantly, the hunting or commodification of omen birds is unequivocally proscribed. The rigid enforcement of these statutes is not merely an ecological prerogative but an existential imperative. As Appai Janggut, the spiritual custodian of the Sungai Utik longhouse, admonishes in a recent documentary, treating forests as inexhaustible reservoirs of profit is equivalent to orchestrating one’s demise: “That’s the same as slowly taking our lives.”

Yet, in an era of persistent modernization, the challenge remains the perpetuation of these ancestral doctrines. A burgeoning exodus of young Dayak Iban in pursuit of higher education threatens to sever the intergenerational transmission of oral traditions. To counteract this attrition, village elders impart ecological wisdom at an Indigenous school to contribute to the preservation of medicinal plant knowledge and the intricate lexicon of omen birds. 

The Dayak Iban’s efforts contrasts the paradigms of conservation, which often impose externally prescribed solutions with little regard for Indigenous practices. Ornithologist Panji Gusti Akbar stresses the necessity of decolonizing conservation practices, advocating for an approach that privileges Indigenous knowledge over top-down decrees. Across Indonesia, the songbird trade has precipitated precipitous declines in species such as the white-rumped shama and rufous piculet. With an estimated 70 million birds languishing in captivity across Java alone, the forests now assume a vessel of what they once were. Such losses are seldom ecological degradation alone—they constitute a profound spiritual rupture for the Dayak Iban.

The Dayak Iban epitomize a conservation practice predicated on reciprocity—protecting the land as it, in turn, safeguards them. Their resistance to deforestation, steadfast adherence to sustainable land management, and commitment to intergenerational knowledge transmission offer a push for holistic conservation. As the world contends with increasing biodiversity attrition, the Dayak Iban communicate that true conservation comprises not an imposition of external mandates but an act of profound listening to the wisdom of the people.

Abulu, L. (2024, November 15). Borneo’s “omen birds” find a staunch guardian in Indigenous Dayak Iban elders. Mongabay Environmental News. https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/borneos-omen-birds-find-a-staunch-guardian-in-indigenous-dayak-iban-elders/

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