‘Pulau buah’ is a fruit grove which contains different types of trees growing wild or planted. Most ‘pulau buah’ are individually owned. Where ‘pulau buah’ is communally owned, individual may claim rights over a large variety of fruit trees such as ‘durians, kembayau, engkeranji, petai, embawang, lensat’ etc. Where a fruit tree is planted by an individual in a communal ‘pulau buah’, rights to it reside on the individual and members of his family.

Some ‘pulau’ are sacred. Such ‘pulau’ are called ‘pulau mali’. ‘Pulau mali’ are either sites of old cemeteries or sites where shamans (manang) get their initiations or sites where people, especially the sick seek solace and healing. Once a forest reserve has been declared ‘pulau mali’, it cannot be cleared for farming for a specific period of time.