By Bri Reid Bali and other highly populated islands in Indonesia are struggling to ensure that there is enough water to maintain their current lifestyles. Indonesia as a whole is experiencing a crisis when it comes to accessibility to enough clean water to sustain its large population of both locals and tourists. This crisis spans from drought due to lower rainfall amounts, water pollution, and overconsumption within tourist destinations. All three of these issues affect Bali especially, as one of the more densely populated and popular tourist locations within the country.  Bali is a ..read more

By Bradley Russ Indonesia is home to some of the world’s most beautiful and biodiverse biomes and culturally and historically significant communities. There are multiple areas protected for conservation purposes, such as Gunung Leuser National Park, and communities or peoples given protections for preservation, such as the subak system in Bali. However, issues of expansion of key industries, such as oil palm, timber, or tourism, have threatened these areas. What should also be examined, however, is if legal protections in these areas result in similar zones with fewer protections to be targete ..read more

By Elshaddai Siressa Palm oil is a commodity used in products from cosmetics to cleaning products to biofuel. Due to this versatility, the palm oil industry has grown at an enormous rate. However, palm oil is a contentious topic because of the environmental impacts that come with production. One of the main concerns about palm oil production is the resulting deforestation. The effects of deforestation can be seen in the rise in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with Indonesia ranking fourth in the world in 2013 in global GHG emissions (Varkkey et al 2018). Deforestation raises a number of subseq ..read more

By Thomas Wainman Food self-sufficiency has been a priority for every Indonesian president since the country won independence from the Netherlands in 1945. Beginning with Sukarno, who began associating food self-sufficiency with rice production, through his successors, initiatives to free the country from dependence on foreign rice have been at the forefront of national food and agriculture policy (Mears 2006). Before continuing to unpack the historical and political context surrounding national food and agriculture policy, it is necessary to understand the significance of rice as it relates t ..read more

By Diana Allos Sitting in Bukit Lawang, it may feel like you are “off the grid.” Yet, this is not the case. For me, the illusion cracked at the sight of a phone set up on a tripod, apparently live-streaming the activities of our bustling local hotel restaurant. Twenty-four hours later, I was sitting deep in the Sumantran jungle when a tour guide from that day’s adventure asked a friend of mine in the group for help with the jungle trekking tour company’s website. The following morning as the group made our way out of the jungle by tubing down the river, the tour guides continued to answer our ..read more

By Patricia Boccard During our trip, my class and I traveled to both the rainforest in Madre de Dios and the mountains in Cusco, seeing firsthand the environmental and socio-political links between the Andes and the Amazon Basin. In both locations, the forest and the mountains seemed immense and impenetrable. Yet, from above, during our plane ride, it was possible to see more clearly the deforestation that is harming the ecosystem.   There is a critical relationship between the Andes and the Amazon. Millions of years ago, the rise of the Andes Mountains through shifts in tectonic pla ..read more

By Laura Levine While visiting Bali, I was introduced to an indigenous bee species that I had never heard of before: the Trigona bee. My first encounter with the bee species was at the home of local legend Chakra Widia. A champion of permaculture and a dedicated member of the community, Chakra is determined to improve the lives of fellow Balinese people through a series of projects focusing on environmental education and initiatives that establish environmentally and economically sustainable occupations for locals, mostly involving agriculture and, soon, tourism as well. Many of his previous p ..read more

By Jennifer Solan Indonesia is the second most biodiverse country in the world, home to tropical forests, coral reefs, mangroves, tropical peatlands, and two of the world’s biodiversity “hotspots” (UNEP). One of these hotspots is the Leuser ecosystem spanning across Northern Sumatra and includes protected forest under the Gunung Leuser National Park. The Leuser ecosystem is the only place where tigers, elephants, orangutans, and rhinos live together in the wild (Putra and Griffith). Maintaining the forest as a carbon sink, protecting biodiversity, and overcoming threats to the Leuser ecosystem ..read more

By Bradley Phelps Protecting or enhancing biodiversity is not new as a policy objective. As ecological systems are threatened in greater amounts due to climate change and human development, biodiversity will likely be even more front of mind for policymakers, scientists, and the public. [1] As authors from Chatham House argue in their report, the global food system is the primary driver of this biodiversity loss. [2] Moreover, they specifically cite monocropping as an unsustainable agricultural practice. [3] If the subaks of Bali mostly grow rice, do the common concerns of monocropping apply ..read more

By JaKyah Beatty In recent years, the sustainability discourse surrounding palm oil has become a complex terrain to navigate, reflecting both the environmental benefits and the potential pitfalls of its cultivation. Delving into the heart of this ongoing debate, it’s worth questioning whether the green label attached to palm oil is genuine or a mere facade – an act of greenwashing. The sustainability conversation around palm oil is often broad, encompassing diverse viewpoints on its cultivation, economic significance, and environmental implications. While some argue that palm oil is a key driv ..read more