Orang Asli Hulu Terengganu in Adaptation of Nature Changes in the Economic Perspective

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue V, May 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Orang Asli Hulu Terengganu in Adaptation of Nature Changes in the Economic Perspective

Nik Nizam Hamdan¹, Ramle Abdullah¹, Atirah Rambli¹ & Iqbal Jumaat¹

 ¹Faculty of Applied Social Science, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, 20300, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract-Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia is known for the community that has a close relationship with nature. However, in the era of development which leads to the destruction of habitat for varieties of flora and fauna, it makes Orang Asli harder and harder to live by. Development that is meant for Orang Asli or not, had changed their natural ecology and jeopardize their traditional way of living. Thus, the aim for this research is to analyse Semaq Beri in Hulu Terengganu in adaptation on changes of nature in their daily activities of economy and gathering food resources. Research Method: qualitative through ethnography approach. Research data are acquired via participant observation, interview and research documents. Researchers used QSR Nvivo to analyze data that are collected. Findings: From the research, we can conclude that Semaq Beri in Hulu Terengganu still has high dependency towards nature especially in terms of economic returns. Nevertheless, their manifestation changes to other methods of searching for side revenues such as searching for woods in new territory, subsistence agriculture, re-planting of Agarwood (gaharu) and manufacturing of economic equipment. For access to foods, on the other hand, compared to previously, they are 90 percent rely upon outside food resources. Hence, the degree of the dependency of Semaq Beri adaptation process with nature is decreasing. This shows that Semaq Beri is going through modern lifestyle transformation.

Keywords: Orang Asli, Economy, Changes Adaptation.

I. INTRODUCTION

A large segment of indigenous people still practices the old traditional way of life and live in the forest because they inherit their ancestors’ way of life. For Orang Asli, their life is very depended with nature because they still depend on the resources in their environment. Initially, they need to fulfil their basic needs such as foods, drinks, and medicine. (Lye Tuck Po, 2002, Asmawi, 2013, Ramle, 2014). However, the usage of natural resources changes as well with current developments, and Orang Asli used natural resources for added value to improve their revenue and help them economically (Ramle, 2014; W. Amir Zal, Hood Salleh, Mustaffa Omar & Sharina Halim, 2014).

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