The Influence of Palm Oil on Deforestation, Indigenous Land Rights, and Environmental Instability in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.

“We had to fight for oxygen. We didn’t have a place to hide from the smoke,” explained Emmanuela Shinta as she approached the front of the stage at the Global Landscapes Forum: Peatlands Matter in Jakarta, 2017. The horror of the fire and haze that happened on Borneo brought a chill to the spines of many in attendance. Shinta comes from the most recognizable indigenous group in Indonesia. Wrapped in her traditional clothes, she drew the attention of global media to the plight of the Dayak people.

Shinta will discuss her travels throughout her country and beyond its borders to commence a dialogue with both NGOs and national officials about the environmental degradation in Kalimantan, triggered in large part by logging concessions and palm oil plantations.