The indigenous communities using tech to fight back - BBC Trending podcast, BBC World Service

BBC Trending

2024-04-17

17 分钟
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In Malaysian Borneo, indigenous people have struggled for land rights against companies and the state. Using new mapping ...
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  • My name is Michael Maring Jock.

  • I come from the Kenya tribes.

  • Michael Jock is an indigenous leader in Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo, and his family have lived in the rainforest Balaga river region for generations.

  • I know where my father's land is, but I know where on which stream, on which river my parents farm.

  • So in order to recognize that basically what they do is beside building a small hut on the land, they will plant trees, for example, fruit trees like durian, rambutan, and any other fruit trees that can last.

  • But in recent years, indigenous people like Michael have struggled to defend themselves against timber and palm oil companies trying to turn them off their traditional land.

  • Now Michael is fighting back.

  • Modern technology is allowing his community to map their indigenous land for the first time.

  • The new technology with drones or even the satellite just make life much easier for us.

  • We locate where the logging and all the oil palms or wherever mountains or very important location, historical place where we cannot reach.

  • And activists are finding new sources of support on social media.

  • But the forces they're up against are fighting back, finding new ways of their own to try and gain control of the narrative.

  • Whether they're privately hired by the companies or whether they're stack actors, the output is the same.

  • Their role is basically to paint or to provide the narrative of the state.

  • I'm Jackie Wakefield, and this is BBC Trending's Power series.

  • We're looking at how power is being used and misused online around the world.

  • This is a sound of protest as community members in the Buram region rally against the bulldozing of their longhouse, the centerpoint of the community.

  • Scenes like this have been taking place since the 1980s, when timber companies first came to villages like Michaels.

  • Then, in the mid-2000s, the drive for cheap, more sustainable fuel created a huge demand for palm oil, accelerating deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia.

  • While palm oil has lifted some out of poverty, many locals have not seen payoffs and instead have witnessed only environmental destruction on their traditional land.