The name ‘Borneo’ evokes visions of constantly changing landscapes, but with important island-wide continuities. One of the continuities has been the forests, which have for generations been created and modified by the indigenous population, but over the past three decades have been partially replaced by tree crops, grass or scrub. The loss of forests has been most severe in Sabah, where the plantation model is long established. In Kalimantan, populations have grown and both government-backed and illegal forest clearing have increased exponentially, bringing imminent or more distant threats to traditional livelihoods, but also possibilities to engage with new opportunities. Activities in support of conflict resolution and participatory action research have assumed greater importance and find fertile fields for operation. Before the authoritarian Suharto regime ended in 1998, the role of civil society was quite restricted in Indonesia. Since reformation and democratisation, this has changed, with Indonesia now more liberal than Malaysia. Decentralisation, however, has created its own set of problems. This volume tackles issues of tenure, land use change and resource competition, ‘tradition’ versus ‘modernity’, disputes within and between communities, between communities and private firms, communities and government. While there are an equal number of chapters from Kalimantan and East Malaysia, it must be said that there is not equal coverage of the various regions. Three of the four Kalimantan papers are from East Kalimantan, where there is more surviving intact forest than elsewhere.

There are many Borneos: I have my own, as do all researchers on this fascinating island. Crossing the Meratus Mountains in South Kalimantan by motor cycle in 1988, we used old logging roads, the memories of their creeping vines and broken bridges being vividly re-created by Anna Tsing’s Friction (2005: 29). On the southeast coast I encountered my first oil palm estate with its Sumatran owner, one of the early bridgeheads of that commodity now transforming so much of Borneo. In her introduction to this volume, Majid Cooke has noted that, despite the rapid increase in oil palm planting in Kalimantan, the contributors on the Kalimantan side have not chosen to focus on it. One reason for the lack of discussion is probably that the case studies tend to be located within the hilly borderland of Indonesia and Malaysia, and some are in high mountain areas inherently unsuitable for oil palm, including the sole study set in Sabah. This is the ‘Heart of Borneo’, especially the large Kayan Mentarang National Park. In Kalimantan, most plantation development lies further south, closer to transport facilities within reasonable distance of the coast. This may be changing, however, with the announcement of a central government-supported ‘plantation corridor’ along the Indonesia-Malaysia border, in association with road development. A major aim would be to control the illegal logging so graphically described here, but the environmental impacts could be much more serious. The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), a main proponent of the ‘Heart of Borneo’ conservation initiative, leads the critics of that plan.

Whatever outcomes may still lie in the future, this volume, the first in the series of Asia-Pacific Environmental Monographs, provides much interesting, up-to-date and useful material. I commend it to the reader.

Lesley Potter

The Australian National University

November 2005

Tsing, A.L., 2005. Friction: An Anthology of Global Connection. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.