SARAWAK from its colonial days to the present time has always come from two complementary sources:

1.      The beauty of our tropical rainforest with its diversity of flora and fauna unequalled except by its marine cousin, the tropical reef and
2.      The attractive attributes of our local people: their innate dignity, self-reliance and obvious competence in dealing with their daily lives isolated in their jungle and river domain.

To see all these natural phenomena require a high level of ecotourism ethics and adherence.  
 ​
The creation of the term ecotourism has been credited to the Mexican Consultant, Hector Ceballos-Lascuráin, in July of 1983. He stated that ecotourism “involves travelling to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific objective of studying, admiring, and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural aspects.” 

Sarawak is a land of hidden treasures. Approximately two-thirds of Sarawak’s land area is covered in dense rainforests. This means that it is home to a large variety of flora and fauna, many of which are endemic to the land. To retrack, these natural elements attracted Europeans during its early years like Spenser St. John who first documented our forest along with its abundancy of flora and fauna in 1858 via the present day’s Mulu National Park, followed by Alfred Russell Wallace, Odoardo Beccari, Sir John Shore and the list would have gone on and on.

Let us now look at how magical those flora and fauna have been, that lured these renowned people from as far as the other side of the globe? Spot on – we have fish that walks, mammal that uplift in a flight, insect that shines, flower that stinks, natives clothed in heavy tattoos and ears elongated below shoulder-length, people that dwell in 100+ door longhouses, and the list is endless.