Development, environmental impact and local community participation in development programmes: A preliminary observation at the Iban longhouses

Rural development programmes are certainly desirable but their meaningfulness has a lot to do with real participation of the targeted local community in them. The participation of this community is dependent, in turn, on its perception of the impact and consequences of the development projects which are purported to work to their benefit. This study takes a closer look at the Ibans’ participation in development programmes around the longhouse to assess whether and to what extent this participation is influenced by the community’s perception of the environmental impact and consequences of those programmes. A a questionnaire survey was conducted involving randomly sampled 260 Iban household heads in the District of Song. Data gathered were then analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 16.0. The findings establish that all members of the Iban community surveyed at the longhouses share the opinion that development has seriously altered the original pristine state of their physical environment, in particular, its landforms, localities and rivers, prompting them to re-consider the wisdom of their participation in existing development programmes around the longhouses.