LIVING LANDSCAPES, CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

Culture, Environment and Change Across Asia

This book documents the highlights of a three-year journey of exploration to deepen our understanding of the human dimension of the global environmental crisis among different communities throughout Asia. This undertaking emerged as the Regional Project of the Asian Public Intellectuals, a fellowship comprising a cross-disciplinary assortment of academics, artists and activists united by a commitment towards a greater regional consciousness and collaboration beyond national borders. The Project titled 'Community- based Initiatives Towards Human Ecological Balance' provided the platform to bring diverse perspectives to the task of interpreting these communities' lives and links with the environment, and potentially explore broader themes across contrasting experiences and observations between study sites.

The Project presented an opportunity to better understand the role of local wisdom, cultural practices and traditions, and the importance of community and identity in facing change. By capturing the strategies being taken by local communities to conserve nature, preserve environmental health and improve their lives, the study offered the potential to broaden perspectives of the people-environment linkage across contemporary Asian landscapes.

Water provides the thematic link between each of the sites-such as the communities of Mukugawa and Harihata in the catchment basin of iconic Lake Biwa in the outskirts of Kyoto, and those from the picturesque village of Khiriwong situated on the steep slopes on the borders of Khao Luang National Park in Southern Thailand that are renowned for their practice of Suan Som Rom or mixed orchards which characterises the ideal of living in balance with nature. In Indonesia, we visit Yogyakarta's dense urban settlements along the Code River, where community organisations tirelessly pursue their vision for reversing environmental degradation and a better living environment despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges posed by the eruption of the Merapi volcano, limited voice, and scarce resources. In Malaysia's Lake Chini we became acquainted with an environmental crisis which emerged not through a violent encounter with the earth's forces but through the disruption and pollution of the natural ecosystem motivated by arrogance, folly and greed and threatened the livelihoods of the indigenous Orang Asli communities. Finally, we learn of the remarkable and remote islands of Batanes, Philippines, where the rhythm of life and economy is arranged around the migrating dolphin fish (dorado) which come to these waters in the summer. For the mataw fisherman that devote themselves to catching these fish in single-person sailboats, this practice is a spiritual one involving rituals, reverence and sacred passageways.

In Batanes, time seems to stands still as we witness this ancient practice. But we know also that this is an illusion. As in all the places we explore in the pages of this book, local people are constantly buffeted by change-population changes, economic change and contending with the tensions between conflicting belief systems, identity and the challenge of continuing traditional practices in an era of globalization.
In the pages of the book, we have endeavoured to capture the rich diversity of cultures, values and beliefs which influence relationships with our living environments, paying special attention to celebrate communities and their capacity for creativity and collective action stand as a bulwark against fatalistic views of environmental degradation as final and inevitable. Despite their differences, common themes connect all five sites. We have met individuals and
connect all five sites. We have met individuals and organisations that have inspired us across so many different environmental and social settings that have shown us that people are able to bring about change at many different levels, even in adverse situations. If there is one lesson that we have taken home from this journey of discovery, it is that no situation is so desperate that it cannot be reversed, and there is no crisis that cannot be improved with the timely assistance of friends and allies, the provision of political space for local voices to be heard, and the opportunity to make people participants in bringing about change or retaining what is considered precious. Associate Editor : Narumol Aphinives (Thailand Fellow Year 5) Editor/Coordinator: Justine Vaz

Batanes (phot: Dave Lumenta) Biwako (photo: Center for New Cinema) Kali Code Kiriwong (photo: Center for New Cinema) Tasik Chini (Photo: Colin Nicolas)