Focusing on the coexistence of competing and contested interests in intercultural natural resource management (NRM) systems in Australia and Malaysia, this paper explores the ways in which ontological pluralism and the interplay of socio-cultural, political-economic and biophysical influences shape NRM systems. We aim to foster a discursive space in which to reframe the challenges of capacity building in the rapidly changing spaces of intercultural NRM systems. The paper synthesizes the conceptual arguments of field research to conclude that capacity deficits of dominant institutions, processes and knowledge systems drive many systemic failures in land and sea management affecting Indigenous peoples. We advocate urgent action to build intercultural competence and new capacities and competencies in those institutions. The paper reframes intercultural NRM in terms of coexistence and invites wider debate about these 'new geographies of coexistence' in intercultural NRM systems.

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Sustainable livelihoods, once enjoyed by native communities, are often threatened and in danger of extinction when new regulations and other forms of restrictions are introduced. These restrictions are often promoted with intended purposes, such as protecting the environment or securing resources from encroachment. However, these acts are slowly replacing the traditional adat (customs and traditions), which are used to define the rights attached to the use of communal and ancestral land. This is especially true when comes to access to forest products and land, in which native communities have used for generations. What the natives see as legitimate and traditional use, the state sees as an encroachment of property; and it has now become illegal to utilise these resources. This paper presents how native communities have adapted to such restrictions and continued to live in a sustainable manner through an adaptive strategy that is in line with state policy changes. A combination of quantitative and qualitative method is used to understand the dynamics of the strategy used by the native communities to adapt to these policy changes. The findings reveal how the natives have employed an adaptive strategy in response to state policy changes. The lessons learned from this study can provide useful pointers as to how state policies, in relation to highland settlements in the state of Sabah, Malaysia, can be improved.

Confusion over land rights issues and opportunities created through communal titles may just be rhetoric to some, but for the poor rural communities, it is a matter of survival. As this paper reveals, this may be due to contradictory interpretations between native communities and state agencies of what constitutes native customary rights. The methods and materials used are based on case studies in the state of Sabah, Malaysia with regard to the policies, programmes and projects that have been implemented in rural areas. This was made possible through interviews with key informants, textual analyses and state documents, and through observations of projects implemented in the rural areas of Sabah. Based on the information gathered, this paper reveals a worrying pattern of state and peoples' interactions over the provision of communal titles and state projects.