**2. Literature review**

Over the last decade, there is increased awareness that the vast collection of traditional knowledge of indigenous communities holds the key to solve many complex problems. Built over generations through close interaction with natural surroundings and a deep understanding of nature's sociality, indigenous knowledge has helped communities to be resilient, live sustainably, and face global challenges such as climate change.

Due to its significance as a tremendous resource, there have been attempts to include indigenous knowledge to deal with global causes and concerns. A robust example is an effort by James David Wolfensohn, who served as president of the World Bank (1995–2005). In 1998, the World Bank acknowledges that indigenous knowledge "represents an important component of global knowledge" (World Bank, 1998, as cited by [1]). With that, there was a deliberate attempt to shift the institution's focus towards humanitarian efforts by drawing on indigenous knowledge as a resource to enhance development processes.

Over the years, considerable progress has been made in promoting indigenous knowledge. In 2010, the World Bank's [2] published its Indigenous knowledge for development: a framework for action. The framework explains the need for indigenous knowledge to play strategic roles to expand the benefits of development assistance through the organization's development activities. Henceforth, the framework for action to increase understanding on the significance of IK amongst its development associates and to provide suggestions on how best it can be integrated into development practices. What is obvious is indigenous knowledge is considered essential for maintaining global cultural diversity and biological diversity.

The UN special rapporteur on indigenous issues has pointed out that indigenous communities around the world are the most effective custodians of millions of hectares of forest, which act as the world's lungs. It was suggested that localized indigenous perceptions of ecosystems and natural habitats are able to provide solutions to many of the world's problems from climate change to biological diversity.

Today, the role of indigenous knowledge are increasingly becoming part of the development agenda; national initiatives and policies have emerged, with civil society forming a broad base of support and the number of development projects as well as programs integrating traditional and indigenous knowledge has doubled up. This includes movement by indigenous peoples themselves to build a capacity building to maintain and protect biodiversity while at the same time creating alternative sources of economic income. A good example by the indigenous

communities themselves is the FORMADAT initiative. It was set up in 2015 as The Alliance of the Indigenous Peoples of the Highlands in the Heart of Borneo. According to Bala, et al. [3] the initiative is "to build on the shared historical and cultural bonds between the Lundayeh, Kelabit, Lun Bawang, and Sa'ban peoples living in the highlands of the heart of Borneo. The group aims to integrate conservation and development at the landscape level and to generate benefits for local people by preserving the rich natural and cultural diversity of the region, an area that includes the largest surviving intact forested and traditionally farmed catchment area on the island of Borneo."
