Kampung Pueh

Although Kampung Pueh is located by the sea, the community is predominantly made up of farmers. They cultivate both wet (swamp) and hill/dry rice, and plant fruit trees in the nearby orchards. Wet rice are usually harvested twice a year. Apart from these subsistence agricultural products, the Kampung Pueh community also plant traditional cash crops such as rubber, coconut, cocoa and pepper.  Sea fishing is a seasonal activity and it is usually done during the dry season between March and September.

Tourism in Kampung Pueh started in 2003 when the Borneo Inbound travel agency proposed to establish a homestay program in the village. This homestay program, under Homestay Association of Sarawak (HAOS), has been officially endorsed by the state’s tourism council called Majlis Tindakan Pelancongan Negeri (MTPN) under the Ministry of Urban Development and Tourism. The tour package in the village includes jungle trekking, waterfalls, cultural shows, and recreational activities.

 Kampung Pueh land area is under the Native Customary Rights (NCR) status. In 2003, the Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (SALCRA) proposed to develop their land by planting oil palm in the area. This development affected the more than 120 participating households when the landowners lease their land for the plantation. Now, as a result of the decreasing land size and land shortage, the landowners are finding it difficult to manage their agricultural activities (e.g. shifting cultivation, lack of space to plant cash crops).

Apart from the oil palm plantation, the Kampung Pueh community also faces some problems with the ‘forest reserve’ in their area. The Forest Department delineated an area within the village territory as a forest reserve, which strictly prohibits the community from collecting and exploiting forest products in their own area. However, the villagers also claimed that there have been logging activities within this ‘forest reserve’ in the late 1990s, and it went on for five years before it ceased its operation.