Does switching to agriculture mean a richer diet for hunter-gatherers in Indonesia?

Does switching to agriculture mean a richer diet for hunter-gatherers in Indonesia?

Published Oct 2008

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Edmond Dounias, Audrey Selzner, Miyako Koizumi, false et al.

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Does switching to agriculture mean a richer diet for hunter-gatherers in Indonesia?

Almost 60 years ago, the Punan people in Borneo, who were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers, began to cultivate rice while continuing to collect some food from the forest. Now the Indonesian government is giving them incentives to abandon their foraging lifestyle altogether and to leave the forest. What impact has shifting to agriculture had on their diet and health?

Research led by the Centerfor International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the French Research Institutefor Development (IRD) in Indonesia compared the diet and nutrition standards of threePunan communities living in East Kalimantan, Borneo. The peri-urban Punan Tubupeople live in settlements near cities and have become farmers. The remotePunan Tubu people no longer live nomadically, but still move around theregion’s forests in some seasons. The Punan Benaluipeople also live in a remote area, but have easy access to other settlementsand markets.

Over afour-year period, the researchers surveyed food consumption in each community.At the same time, they made measurements of people’s bodies to assess people’sphysical fitness. This included measurements of weight, size and body massindex (BMI) – the ratio of height to weight.

Theresearchers found that the two remotecommunities had higher standards of nutrition and physical fitness. They atemeat and fish more often than the peri-urban community, partly due tofood-sharing traditions, and had more diverse protein sources.

Important research findings include:

  • The average BMI of the remote Punan Tubu wassignificantly higher than that of the peri-urban Punan Tubu, meaning they wereless overweight.
  • Depending on the season and availability of differentfoods, up to 18.8 percent of peri-urban women were overweight, but no more than2.1 percent of women in remote villages were overweight.
  • The proportionof forest resources in people’s diet decreased the closer a community lived tourban settlements.
  • The Punan Tubu living near the city ate nearly twiceas many vegetables as the remote Punan Tubu.
  • The remote Punan Tubu consumed little oil or fat, onlyoccasionally cooking with wild boar fat. In contrast, the peri-urban Punan Tubuused a lot of palm oil in their cooking.

Punan people’sdiet and physical fitness has deteriorated as they move nearer to cities. Thisis not due to a shift to agriculture, but because of the rapid changes to theirway of life. The researchers conclude that:

  • Easier access to cities and markets can be anadvantage for Punan people living in forests. In times of shortage, they canstill get regular supplies of fruit, vegetables and dairy products.
  • However, regular access to markets can lead to agreater dependence on cash incomes. This can threaten traditional Punancultural behaviour, which is based upon helping each other and sharing food.
  • The rapid switch to farming, which has led to animbalanced diet, puts the peri-urban Punan Tubu at risk from health problemssuch as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

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