Politics of nature and strategies of environmental education in Indonesia

Arts Building, LT3 (Royal Holloway)

Professor Agus Suwignyo, History Department, Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta, Indonesia 

Deforestation has been the most pressing environmental issue in the history of contemporary Indonesia. While the problems emanating from deforestation have mainly resulted from unsustainable policies of government, they have also stimulated cultural strategies of environmental education among the Indonesian communities. The aim of this talk is to explore the transformation of the politics of nature focusing on deforestation in Indonesia and the cultural strategies of environmental education that have emerged therein. It intends to propose a time-lined category of the environmental policies and to sketch out community-based environmental activisms and narratives. It will argue that the environmental activisms and narratives represent not only a type of resistance of community groups against the government or industrial enterprises. They were also educative in nature, hence constituting an ‘inward’ strategy by which non-government communities were to raise an awareness of environmental issues.

Admission is free, no booking necessary.