Protecting the Forest and Its Fauna against Local Residents in British Malaya

Abstract:In the early 20th century, the conservation of the wild fauna of the Empire became a concern for the British government, which set aside large areas to create parks, reserves, and wildlife sanctuaries. The main supporter of this effort in Malaya was Theodore Hubback, a former big game hunter and game warden, who was instrumental in creating two large protected areas in Pahang: the Krau wildlife reserve and the King George V National Park. These projects threatened the rights of local populations who used the forest and its products, but forest dwellers and Malay villagers made claims for access with the support of the sultans, especially Sultan Abu Bakar of Pahang, and the regulations for the National Park and wildlife reserves took their needs into account. Intense negotiations involving different factions within the colonial administration, the sultans and their courts, and local inhabitants forced proponents of the preservation of the fauna to make concessions which, in the long term, appear to have been beneficial for the conservation of wildlife.This article is an updated version of an article published in French under the title ‘Protéger la forêt et sa faune contre les indigènes en Malaya britannique’ in the journal Péninsule, no. 75, in 2017. The translation was prepared by Colin Dyer and Mathieu Guérin, and the article is published with permission of Péninsule.