On the island of Borneo, the students traveled to areas outside the city of Miri, in the state of Sarawak, to investigate how deforestation policies have impacted the natural landscape and indigenous communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe had a fantastic, eye-opening workshop with SAVE Rivers, which is protesting against the construction of the Baram Dam,\u201d says CMC Associate Professor of History Albert Park, an EnviroLab Asia principal investigator. \u201cWe learned about the environmental issues in Sarawak, Borneo, and heard about the connections between environmental and political issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Malaysian Borneo (Sarawak), the students worked with a local NGO, Baram Kini, to visit sites related to deforestation, oil palm and other serious environmental issues like the dam construction that could impact hundreds of villages in the Baram area. Baram Kini arranged for EnviroLab Asia Fellows to stay in villages and talk with people affected by the various issues being studied. \u201cWe visited an oil palm plantation to learn more about the industry as well as the issues faced by indigenous people who are trying to prevent the takeover of their lands by oil palm corporations,\u201d says Park. Malaysia and Indonesia account for more than 90 percent of global palm oil production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI imagined Borneo to be a place of untrammeled wilderness,\u201d says Mayeri, whose work bridges the disciplines of scientists and artists. \u201cOn our way through Sarawak, Malaysia, we drove on logging roads for five hours and still didn\u2019t reach primary forest. The forest has been logged, burned and transformed into one crop, the palm oil plantations. We saw hardly any birds or other animals, and that was really surprising and frankly pretty depressing to see. It\u2019s one of the most important zones of biodiversity in the world, and there\u2019s just very little primary forest left.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Singapore, students visited organic farms in order to learn more about food security and land tenure issues. They attended workshops with BirdLife International and the Wildlife Conservation Society to learn more about conservation efforts to save forests in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe also had a productive meeting with Wilmar International, which is the largest producer of oil palm. We heard about their sustainability efforts. We held meetings with Wilmar and other organizations to gain a holistic\u2014not one-sided\u2014view of the issues we are studying,\u201d Park says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Land Rights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
But perhaps the greatest insight about the problems facing Southeast Asia came from the villagers who live there. One of the biggest issues faced by the Dayak people in the Baram area is that of land rights and land tenure. According to Park, the Dayak people believe in Native Customary Rights (NCR), which are traditional rights over land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no documentation proving NCR because Dayak land is transferred, held and protected based on customs,\u201d he says. \u201cThe Sarawak government and several corporations do not acknowledge NCR because it is not protected and sustained based on modern law. Hence, the government believes it can acquire the land without consent from the Dayak people in order to build a dam, which, according to many experts and NGOs, is unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The clash of tradition versus progressive modernism over land rights seems to be at the heart of environmental issues in the region. \u201cIn some ways, we connected the land issue to things happening in Singapore,\u201d Park says. \u201cFor example, organic farms in Singapore have limited leases on their lands because the government always seeks to reclaim land for development and military purposes. We also learned from the people about how much they rely on the Baram River to sustain their daily lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe also heard from them about how they try to create movements when they have little political power to achieve their goals of protecting their land,\u201d he continues. \u201cThey are pushing their goals in the face of a government and corporations that have a large amount of power and resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Experiential Learning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
For students, the trip provided a new take on the subjects that many are studying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs an engineering major with a focus on environmental sustainability, I was surprised to see such impassioned opposition to the construction of a hydroelectric dam that would generate clean energy,\u201d says Salud, shown left. \u201cHowever, once I heard the protestors\u2019 and villagers\u2019 stories, I began to understand that issues like this are never black and white.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Salud adds that the ongoing conversations students had with the local population, coupled with the immersive and intimate nature of the trip, opened his eyes to the many complexities involved in solving environmental issues through engineering, especially in the developing world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe success of an engineering solution goes far beyond how well designed it is. Social, cultural, historical and economic factors all come into play in determining whether a particular solution is the right fit for a certain time and place,\u201d Salud says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The on-the-ground experience offered lessons that cannot be found in textbooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou design systems in the classroom or lab, yet you never actually see how your system will affect the people who use it and live near it. Witnessing such tension and injustice surrounding the proposed dam in Baram firsthand has inspired me to become an engineer that greatly values both environmental and social factors in the design process,\u201d says Salud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Park sees environmental and sustainability issues as being linked to larger political, social, economic and cultural concerns. \u201cMoreover,\u201d he says, \u201cEnviroLab Asia Fellows saw what grassroots activism looks like and how people cooperate together to achieve the goal of preserving the land, culture and ways of life. It was a real eye opening experience to hear about struggles to protect the river and lands and the pressures they face.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Park adds that the trip highlighted the need to study and tackle issues through a multidisciplinary lens. \u201cBy approaching an issue from different angles, we are able to come up with more nuanced explanations as to why things have happened and how to solve a problem. It is only through a multidisciplinary lens that we are able to explain what drives and limits change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Fernando](\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/03\/12509051_10205838529586805_3221143442759314597_n-165x300.jpg\")
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