Aboriginal diminishing accessibility to natural capital - The vulnerability of the Malaysian Lanoh

Previous studies on aborigines (Orang Asli) tended to emphasise more on the dependence of these communities on natural capital and less on the increasingly vulnerable nature of this capital. This paper brings the spotlight on the reality of accessibility and vulnerability of the Lanoh aborigines to their natural capital. The questionnaire survey involved 44 Lanoh household heads in the Air Bah village, Lenggong Perak . The findings revealed that Orang Asli Lanoh were faced with the problem of deteriorating natural capital as manifested by both their increasing difficulty to obtain it and their declining ability to use it. The Lanoh had to deal with three types of vulnerability, namely, the negative impacts resulting from the process of development; shocks resulting from the spread of deseases, and seasonality that threatened their daily life. It looks like the authorities need to intervene to ensure continuous supplies of natural capital to the Lanoh through conservation measures of the resource as well as extension of appropriate resource management skills to this community to enhance the sustainability of their life.