Ecology

Southeast Asia’s geographical location is blessed with abundant natural resources – minerals, forests, and wildlife. For hundreds of years, these resources have been a source of livelihood and even life for Indigenous peoples, as well as local communities. However, the capitalist perspective of development is rapidly encroaching on the mineral-rich lands of these peoples. 

Amidst wider understanding on the need for urgent and decisive action in order to avert the worst of the climate crisis, there is a nascent global and intersectoral approach for the creation of policies to address climate change that goes beyond just the state-led international negotiations, which has become prominent in the last two decades. 

While there are more ways for the Deaf to access news and information today, the communication barriers they faced three decades ago remain. These persist at a time when a warming planet is causing extreme weather events, such as typhoons, to get stronger and cause more destruction – but basic public information about disasters do not reach the Deaf community effectively. Many among them also lack knowledge about the climate crisis.

This web-dossier serves as a platform to share a wide range of knowledge from Southeast Asia experts. 

The concept of conservation has evolved from being a colonial project of purely preservation to becoming more attuned to multispecies justice, beyond humans and human experience, through to co-existence and recognizing a plurality of voices.