28-30 March,1994
Surrey, United Kingdom

THE 14TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN
STUDIES UNITED KINGDOM

Co-convenor Raymond Bryant (King's College London) opened the
conference with a keynote paper on 'political ecology', the study
of the roles played by political and economic forces in the
shaping of the environment. Longitudinal case studies of forest
control policies in Burma, Thailand and Indonesia were exploited
so as to demonstrate the colonial origins of ideologies of forest
control, their relationship to imperial and post-colonial
patterns of commerce or economic development and the 'ubiquitous'
deforestation, environmental degradation and local cultures of
resistance which are part of their legacy today. Emphasising his
detachment from sustainable development outlooks, Bryant stressed
that 'development', incremental policy reform or even economistic
attempts to alleviate poverty can contribute to current
resource-human dilemmas. These could only be understood, he
argued, by locating their origins in the control by states of
most resources.

By Laura Summers

Three papers highlighted the role of Asian Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs) as the most formal political expression of
public concern about environmental degradation and threatened
resource use rights. Larry Lohmann (The Ecologist) drew attention
to the recent rise of "globalized" systems of timber production,
wood processing and trade in fibre or pulp. The "mechanisms of
global enclosure" of resource domains include multilateral
development projects, technology transfers (e.g. plantations),
subsidies, master plans and the engagement of local entrepreneurs
or politicians in profit-taking ventures. The risks and interest
are thereby very widely distributed even as the "management" of
local resistance to resource appropriation and environmental
degradation is becoming more sophisticated. Bernard Eccleston,
David Potter and Annie Taylor (Open University) argued that the
NGOs operating in political systems with multiple centres of
power and regular elections have nevertheless succeeded in
acquiring access to policy makers and in influencing policy
formation. But their research also produced little evidence to
suggest that Asian states are neutral in their "arbitration" of
competing interests as is expected in democratic systems. Owen
Cameron (Cambridge University) in a survey of the emergent
environmental movement in Japan noted Japanese activists
displayed temporal, spatial and cultural outlooks which sharply
diverged from western "environmental orientalism". For one thing,
Cameron stressed, "the duality between "self" and everything else
doesn't hold in Japan". His research exposed the need to clarify
whether Asian activists understand ecological change and
degradation in terms of power, violence, domination and rights or
in terms of natural laws of change which embrace human as well as
physical degradation.

COMPUTERS-BASED APPLICATIONS
Another group of researchers offered demonstrations of the newest
computer-based applications for mapping the physical environment.
Julia McMorrow and Helen Lawes (University Manchester) explained
the compilation of geographical information systems (GIS) with
reference to land-cover conversion in Sabah. John Wills
(Huddersfield University) demonstrated a GIS for the rainforests
of Brunei. Duncan MacGregor and Mark Floyd (Royal Holloway,
London) reported on the conversion of the Williams-Hunt  aerial
photograph collection (from the 1940s) into digital formats
suitable for PC-based ARC-INFO systems. These presentations
raised questions about the long-term limitations of such
information systems. There was no consensus of opinion on these
important issues.

HUMAN RESPONSES
Ten of the 21 papers presented to the conference focused on human
responses to environmental change and degradation. Peter
Boomgaard (Leiden) surveyed the encounter between people and "big
cats" (tigers and leopards) in Indonesia, 1600-1950, arguing that
the man-eating tiger phenomenon appeared in Java only after 1870
just as natural habitats and tigers began to disappear and before
tigers "learned" that it was prudent to avoid humans. Colin Sage
(Wye College, London) reported on research into the household
dynamics and resource constraints affecting transmigrant
communities. Fieldwork data based upon Rapid Rural Appraisal
techniques revealed transmigrants are enduring diverse forms of
food insecurity as well as serious health problems even as the
contribute to irreversible forms of land-cover conversion. In
another look at the special difficulties of relocated people,
Rili Djohani (WWF, Indonesia) offered a critical assessment of
attempts by Indonesia to establish marine reserves and to develop
alternative near-shore opportunities for dislocated Baju people,
traditionally a boat-dwelling, fishing community. In related
papers on the rapid development of national parks, eco-tourism
and sustainable tourism, Michael Hitchcock and Sian Jay
(University of Hull) argued that national desires for growth in
tourism industries together with improved environmental
protection may be impossible to achieve in many cases.
Ecologically sensitive tourism might nonetheless be of benefit to
some local communities and environments. Janet Cochrane
(Eco-tourist Consultant) was altogether more pessimistic. The
buoyancy of market demand for "new and exciting" destinations
close to nature and to the exotic combined with the difficulties
inherent in organising or regulating tourism suggested to her
that the long-term contribution of tourism to sensitive
ecosystems would be negative. She questioned the validity of the
new concept "sustainable tourism".

THE RAINFOREST
Shifting discussion back to rainforest, Randi Jerndal (Gotenburg)
attributed the rapid loss of forest cover in Laos to widespread
reliance on swidden agriculture, a subsistence driven trend which
was exacerbated by the failure of the ruling communist party to
control access to forests or to create effective alternative
systems for the production and distribution of food. Alan Dykes
(King's College, London) drawing on research conducted under the
auspices of the Brunei Rainforest Project presented a highly
informative overview of the essential characteristics of Brunei's
nearly pristine rainforest ecosystem. He emphasised that
opportunities for further research into natural hydrological and
geomorphological processes and vegetation in pristine rainforest
may soon be lost because the government of Brunei is considering
proposals for a dam to be located in the Temburong valley and for
National Park in the Batu Apoi Reserve. Jay Bernstein (University
of Kent at Canterbury) discussed the ethno-ecology of the Dusun
people of Brunei. Their unique but rapidly disappearing knowledge
of rainforest plants and herbal pharmacology is likely to prove
very important in establishing the extent of biological diversity
in rainforests. Michael Parnwell (University of Hull) presented
findings from research into the uses made by Iban communities in
Bintulu Division, Sarawak of non-timber forestry products
(NTFPs). Respondents to a survey of 13 longhouse communities
reported sharp falls in the availability of some NTFPs and
identified many serious forms of environmental degradation (e.g.
water pollution, decline in fish stocks, soil erosion and
over-exploitation). Victor T. King (University of Hull) in paper
issuing from the same project reminded the conference that the
Iban in this part of Sarawak are recent, "resource-hungry"
migrants. It is difficult to perceive them, he stated, as
"necessarily and generally in harmony with their environment".
The Iban in Bintulu also displayed some adaptive responses to
resource problems which indicated they would increasingly turn to
the marketplace to meet resource needs.

WESTERN NGO CONCERNS
The final session of the conference was devoted to a look at the
current concerns of western NGO activists. Ann Danaiya Usher
(Sveriges Natur, Stockholm) presented preliminary findings from
her research into the "Nordic Connection" to hydropower projects
in the Mekong basin. She argued that a complex of Nordic
construction companies, government agencies, consultants and
engineering firms who lacked opportunities in Europe had
succeeded in persuading Scandinavian governments to support
projects in Laos without the usual environmental impact
assessments and precautions. Chris Lang (Earth Action Resource
Centre) reported on his recent research in Vietnam. Good quality
forest cover there currently amounts to less than 10 per cent of
land area. He offered sharp criticisms of the Tropical Forest
Action plan for Vietnam whose authors failed to carry out
research into the agricultural systems of some 20 ethnic
nationalities. Geoff Nettleton (Philippines Resource Centre)
described the struggle of the Lumad peoples residing in Mt. Apo
National park, Mindanao against central governmental plans to
exploit geothermal fields on Mt. Apo. The proposed project would
destroy watersheds, pristine rainforest and the way of life of
the Lumads, non-Muslims with long ancestral and spiritual links
to the site. The government seeks to "externalise" costs by
inflicting them on the powerless Lumads. Nettleton observed that
all local candidates for public office have campaigned against
the plant which has not yet secured final funding.

Animated discussions from the conference room were usually
extended into the evening hours at least partly because of the
otherworldly touch of comfort and opulence provided by Royal
Holloway's Founder's Building. The annual dinner in the Picture
Gallery with its Victorian displays of weather and wild animals
was an especially memorable occasion. Warms thanks must be
expressed to Tony Stockwell (Royal Holloway) and co-convenors
Michael Parnwell and Raymond Bryant for their superb
organisational efforts.

(SOURCE: ASEASUK NEWS 15 (1994))