Panda CLICK! participants pose with invited guests at the book launch.
KUCHING: WWF-Malaysia recently launched a coffee table book titled ‘Warna-Warni Borneo Panda CLICK! Bersama Masyarakat Kapuas Hulu, Kalimantan Barat dan Kapit, Sarawak’.
The launch took place at SMA Creative Heritage Innovation Centre here.
The book is a reflection of a colourful Borneo, known for its diverse peoples, cultures, landscapes and nature.
Communities from eight villages in Kapit Division, and Kapuas Hulu in West Kalimantan have come together under one interactive and visual programme known as Panda CLICK! to provide readers with photographic insights into their daily lives.
This includes changes to flora, fauna and their traditions if unsustainable practices continue to take place. This is a book by communities through their eyes and lenses.
What makes this 200-page book unique is that the photographers are farmers and homemakers from the interiors of Borneo, sharing their world with readers through the lens. They learned how to use pocket-size digital cameras to document their daily lives and surroundings in basic photography workshops held by WWF-Malaysia and WWF-Indonesia. What used to be ordinary day-to-day activities for the communities, have inspired them to share with others as well as to preserve some of their oral history and traditional knowledge.
Their photographs also summarise the profile and landscape of their villages, customs and traditions, relationship with Mother Nature, issues and challenges that they faced.
Short stories that come with the photographs by communities from Sarawak are written in Bahasa Malaysia. Those taken by people in Kapuas Hulu are elaborated in Bahasa Indonesia.
This book is a joint publication by WWF-Malaysia and WWF-Indonesia under the transboundary conservation project, Green Economy in the Heart of Borneo, supported by the Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany.
The English version of the book will be made available at the end of 2020.