RIVER COMMUNITIES ALONG PAHANG NATIONAL PARK, MALAYSIA

 Abdullah Jamalunlaili, Mara University of Technology, Malaysia

Pahang National Park is part of Malaysian National Park in the middle of Peninsular Malaysia, the oldest national park in Malaysia. It is part of the oldest rainforests in the world. The National Park was gazetted in 1936. The National Park is a wholly protected area where there is no human living within it. However, there are some Malay communities living upstream the river along the boundary of the park. Their only means of transportation is by boat and almost all of these people work in the agriculture sector. A few work in the tourism industry associated with the National Park. Some of these villages have been abandoned while many others have experience population decline. They are considered as marginal community living on the edge of a protected area.

This paper analyzes the lives of these communities and look at how their lives are impacted by the remoteness of their locations as well as their proximity to the National Park. It also documents activities of these communities and their involvement in the eco-tourism activities of the National Park. In addition, their relationship with the protection of the National Park is explored in this paper.