ABSTRACT
The most prominent feature of the natural environment of Pahang riverine villages is the river. Through central Pahang, the Pahang River's average width is 200 yards, while at Pesagi it spreads another 75 yards to flow around Pesagi Island. Where the westerner perceives monotony, the Pesagi person perceives great variety. Much of the success of local agriculture depends on economic activities that are well-adapted to small environmental variations to which only the indigenously trained person is aware, or considers significant. The most intensively used areas before cash crops were introduced in the early twentieth century were the swamps and their immediate borders. The well managed paya provided fish, and a wide range of niches for crops such as rice and taro. Today, the customary land use system still pertains, but it is being replaced rapidly by an introduced system of "legal ownership.".
