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Ferry landing to Pulau Jerejak

View to Penang Island

Theiva facilitating

Waiting area at ferry landing

Deddy giving a presentation on REDD projects and the struggle (indigenous) communities in Malaysia face as a consequence

Hello Friends,
finally I managed to upload some impressions from here! Yesterday was a very interesting day under the title: "Ecological Equity. Sharing our Stories. Reclaiming our Rights." There were several sessions called "Community Sharing: Stories of Right. Stories of Might." I was able to listen to attend some of the sessions and was really impressed by the stories of community members from developing countries throughout the world.
I want to share the information Tijah Yok Chopil (indigenous community member) gave us with you, to give you an impression on what problems we are talking about:
The Orang Asli are the indigenous people in Malaysia. They face severe problems today: for example forests where Orang Asli communities live in are logged for oil palm plantations to be installed there (both an ecological and a human desaster). Orang Asli are not seen as Malaysians and various rights, such as the right to traditional territories, the right to practise their culture, to decide the type of development they desire, the right to access natural resources (not even on recognized territories!) are not recognized by the Malaysian government.
Tijah is fighting for a better future for Orang Asli. She could have been arrested for traveling to this conference here (as Orang Asli, she is not allowed to come to another state). Nevertheless she took the risk and came. Her work is bearing the first fruits: this year, the first mass protests for justice took place.
At this moment I am sitting in a conference room where a discussion on sustainable palm oil. Palm oil is in more and more products we european can buy. Especially in the meat production soy is used to feed animals. The meat production is emitting more greenhouse gases then the entire transport sector! So we should really eat less meat.
I need to leave for a group photo shoot...
Hope you have a nice veggie day!
Love,
Fluxy