EDEN LECTURES OF THE ENVIROMENTAL HISTORY OF INDONESIA

By L. Nagtegaal

EDEN, the research project of KITLV on the enviromental history
of Indonesia started its lecture series on October 25, 1993, with
a contribution from Dr Robert Cribb of the University of
Queensland. His topic was `tourism and the enviroment in The
Netherlands Indies'. With the relaxation of restrictions on
travel in the Indies at the beginning of the 20th century, a
small but significant tourist book took place in the Netherlands
Indies. Although this was the era in which Bali first became a
tourist destination, tourism on Java was rather more important.
Colonial tourists followed the classic route between Batavia
(Jakarta) and Surabaya, but their itinerary paid far more
attention to what the Dutch called `natural monuments' than do
most of today's tourists. This was partly a consequence of the
low value placed on traditional Javanese culture and partly a
consequence of incipient Dutch colonial nationalism which had
begun to see symbols of a separate Indies identity in the natural
beauty of the colony. 
The next speaker in the lecture-series was Dr Robert Elson
(Griffith University), who spoke about the ecological
consequences of the Cultivation System in Java. Among its
consequences were deforestation, expanded settlement and
cultivation, and increased population mobility. His presentation,
among other things, raised such issues as the usefullness of the
historical study of ecology and the influence of values in
thinking about ecological matters.
In November 1993, Jeroen Peeters M.A. (a historian from the
University of Leiden - presented what he called `a reconnaissance
of the historical landscape of South Sumatra between 1821 and
1942. He questioned whether the popular concepts of ulu and ilir,
or up- and down-stream, are useful as ecological frames of
reference. He demonstrated how the environtment of Palembang
changed because of population growth and commercialisation of
agriculture. These changes did not fall into nicely separate
ecological categories, like ulu and ilir.

The remaining lectures organized by EDEN this academic year are:

28 March 
Dr G.A. Persoon (University of Leiden)
Tribal Societies and their Changing Environment'

26 April
Professor R. Schefold (University of Leiden)
`Visions on the Wilderness in Indonesia'

16 May 
Dr Amarjit Kaur (University of New England)
'Forestry and Deforestation in East Malaysia'

4 July 
Professor Roy F. Ellen (University of Kent)
'The Ecology of Maluku'

Place:
KITLV building
Reuvensplaats 2
Room 138
Leiden
Time: 3:00 P.M. sharp.