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Radio Bario (Image: eBario)
With the intention of countering the external imposition of development, the UNIMAS researchers paid
considerable attention to discovering how ICTs could be used to contribute to the development aspirations of
the residents. An agenda was formulated that emphasized social communications, education, health care,
enterprise development and cultural preservation. In 2010, the community was able to install Radio Bario,
Malaysia's rst community radio station; a volunteer-operated limited reach broadcaster that sends news in

the Kelabit language into the remote homes and longhouses in the Highlands, and which precipitating a
change in the Nation's broadcasting policy. By 2016, 10 years after the eBario project was handed over to the
community, ex-residents are returning to live in Bario; everyone knows and uses the internet; computers are
well-known and mobile phones are near ubiquitous; a solar-farm provides 24-hour electricity; agriculture is
mechanized; the Highlands road network has greatly expanded, including access to Miri, from which there are
upwards of three daily flights to Bario.

With easier access, community-based eco-tourism tourism, promoted on the internet, is now a major source
of incomes; once-scarce goods are now commonplace; a community museum houses a collection of cultural
artifacts (including digitized materials); researchers from top universities around the world regularly visit;
households boast a wide range of electrical appliances and there are even occasional problems with road
tra c. Bario has been elevated to a sub-district, with a new administrative centre. High-level dignitaries
frequently visit, including the Prime and Deputy-Prime Ministers. Local functions have become xed features
on Sarawak’s event calendar. The eBario project, which has won multiple international awards, does not claim
the credit for all these improvements, but, as one resident described it, "eBario put us on the map" and can
therefore claim some in uence, direct or indirect, on the positive developments that the community now
enjoys.

Furthermore, with sustainable development now rmly premised on environmental protection, we should
recall that the territories that indigenous peoples occupy span across 24% of the earth's surface and they
manage 80% of the world's biodiversity. These areas su er the most from the impacts of climate change, yet
their indigenous occupants contribute the least to its causes. The architects of the SDGs acknowledge that a
strong set of goals will be needed in order to achieve a high-ambition climate agreement, which in turn will be
key to achieving the goals. Indigenous knowledge has been shown to be capable of contributing considerably
to a better understanding of climate change and its impact on fragile eco-systems as well as providing
important insights into the adaptation methods that can mitigate its e ects. In order to do so, it is essential
that their traditional lifestyles can be maintained but in a way that they allows them to enjoy the bene ts of
contemporary technologies, just as their compatriots do.

The world is belatedly acknowledging the contribution that the traditional knowledge and wisdom of
indigenous peoples can have in sustainably managing the environment and preserving our planet, the only
one we have. Empowered with ICTs and the knowledge and wisdom to use them according to their own
aspirations, indigenous peoples are able to bring themselves out of poverty and to overcome some of the
historical injustices and exclusion from which they have su ered for so long. The eBario project began by

bringing Bario to the outside world. By mobilizing the traditional knowledge of the residents and