The 2016 ProSPER.Net Leadership Programme was held in Labuan Island and Beaufort, Sabah, Malaysia. The Programme included workshops, plenary sessions, and fieldwork around the topics of local sustainable development challenges in the region. The main goals of the Programme were to identify local leadership opportunities for sustainable development and to link local and national sustainable development projects to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Climate Treaty, and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction.

1. WHY INDIGENOUS LEADERSHIP IS
MATTER?
Paul Porodong (PhD)
Environmental Anthropologist
Sociology and Social Anthropology
Universiti Malaysia Sabah

5. 5
1960’s

6. Read more: Massey et al, 2011. Beware the animals that dance:
Conservation as an unintended outcome of cultural practices
2016

7. Protected Area (PA) management and
community
• Most Protected Area (PA) networks worldwide
have been established and managed by
Government Departments in a top-down fashion
• ...many ignore the presence local community
completely in PA management (Pimbert &
Pretty 1997).

8. Impact of “top down”
• As a result, the establishment of PAs has often been
accompanied by the displacement or marginalisation of local
populations.
• In India, the establishment of national parks has displaced
roughly 600,000 tribal people (Colchester 2004:146 cited PRIA
1993).
• During the last few decades conflicts between PA managers
and the local populations that surround them have steadily
increased both in rate and magnitude (Pimbert & Pretty 1997;
Castro & Nielson 2003).

9. PA managers failed to integrate community in
management plan...
• Until quite recently few PA management plans
have made any reference to the needs, beliefs,
knowledge and institutions of local peoples
living in or around them, fewer still have
integrated these into the structures of PA
management (Pimbert & Pretty 1997).

10. PA and Community
• The caveat that
emerges from the
history of PA-
community
interactions is that no
PA can survive for long
without local support
(Wells & McShane
2004).

11. “Fortress conservation” vs
Global trends
• Traditional conservation is also challenged by global
trends of political decentralisation, greater local
empowerment and the rise of an increasingly
influential indigenous rights movement, the success of
which resulted in the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP 2007).
• Together these trends are making it increasingly
difficult on a global scale to manage PAs through
traditional means (Pimbert & Pretty 1997).

12. Empowerment

13. Ladder of participation
Empowerment
Delegation of Power
Partnership
Consultation
Feedback
Tokenism
Manipulation
Education
Decoration

14. • What can we learn
from “leadership” of
the past – the
Indigenous
leadership?
How to Empower People?

15. Indigenous knowledge
• Familiar with;
• Indigenous knowledge – tangible ( i.e
medicinal) and non tangible (i.e value system)
• It very often that when a particular practice of
products labelled “indigenous” , the reception
antenna conveniently switch off
• Common notions: ‘outdated’; ‘traditional’
‘primitive’; ‘backward’;

16. Modern knowledge?
• The so called modern knowledge is
relatives. 20 year from now, the so
called technological edge today is
antique of tomorrows.
• i.e farming.

17. Moving forward
• One the greatest human nature is ability
to learn, get hold of the latest knowledge
and moves forward with it.
• Problem with this is, we tend to ignore the
past and fixed our eyes to the future
• Prof. Khoo Kay Kim once said “people
tend to dislike history…past is past they
said, but can they tell what will happen in
the next five minutes?”

18. Lessons from the past
• “Lessons from the past, springboard
to the future” George N. Appell
(Anthropologist)
• What can we learn from “leadership”
of the past – the Indigenous
leadership?

19. Leadership-vision, guidance,
decider
• Leadership is having a vision, sharing that
vision and inspiring others to support your
vision while creating their own." – Mindy
Gibbins-Klein, founder, REAL Thought Leaders
• "Leadership is the ability to guide others
without force into a direction or decision that
leaves them still feeling empowered and
accomplished." – Lisa Cash Hanson, CEO,
Snuggwugg

20. Leader – visionary, motivator, provider,
recogniser
• "Effective leadership is providing the vision and
motivation to a team so they work together
toward the same goal…”
• "Leadership is the art of serving others by
equipping them with training, tools and people as
well as your time, energy and emotional intelligence
so that they can realize their full potential…”
• "Leadership is being bold enough to have vision
and humble enough to recognize achieving it…”

21. Leader – the brain, creator, empowerer,
decider, knows
• "A true leader is secure in creating a
framework that encourages others…”
• "In my experience, leadership is about
three things: To listen, to inspire and to
empower…”
• "I define leadership as knowing when to
be in front to lead and guide a team
during the journey, and when to step
back…”

22. Leader - INDIVIDUAL
•"My perspective of a
leader is an individual
who knows the ins
and outs about the
business…”

28. A leader - individual centric
attributes

29. Indigenous Leadership
• Woyoon/Vozoon (root word:
woyo / vozo = follow
• “A person we decide to follow”
• people - plays active roles

30. I am your leader!

31. You are my leader!
You are my leader!
You are my leader!
You are my leader!
You are my leader!

34. Indigenous leadership
To decide and choose
Follow critically
Evaluate continuously
Vozoon - Passive
People centric
Perform to their best
Experience-credibility
Cannot demand
Action do the talking

35. Empowering local leader
• Understanding local leadership is first step to
empowerment.
• People need necessary environment to play
active roles to sustain culture...identify the
necessary environment to revive local
leadership
• Provide this environment. Never take over or
replace local power structure without proper
consultation.

38. Terima kasih!!