"When we get full rights to our forests, we protect them, preserve huge stores of carbon, and help mitigate climate change."
By Kynan Tegar
Kynan Tegar, 15, is an Indonesian photographer, filmmaker, and activist for Indigenous land rights. You can see many more of his photos on Instagram @kynantegar.
The author. Courtesy of Kynan Tegar
Your country and mine are suffering from literal floods (1.5 meters of water in my home as I write this!) as well as a flood of bad news, so I want to share some rare good news: It’s about how a big step for my Indigenous community could become a giant leap for all of us.
Since I spend a lot of my time taking photos and
Our elders had the wisdom to reject that offer as well as others from loggers, pulp-and-paper companies, and palm-plantation owners. In the words of our revered elder Apai Janggut, who speaks in the Iban language in the video below, “We knew if we lost our forest, we’d lose our culture.”
My community is very lucky. But many other communities — especially those that lost key elements of their Indigenous traditions — were not able to protect their lands. My friend and mentor Mina Setra, who is now a well-known Indigenous activist, lost her entire home village to oil-palm plantations. “A state-owned company turned the whole community into a plantation producing oil for American and European lipstick, Nutella, and chocolate,” says Setra.
Indigenous activist Mina Setra, deputy secretary general of Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN). Kynan Tegar
Back in 1973, forests covered more than 75 percent of Borneo. Today, only
The good news is that our community and thousands of others around the world have a powerful tool for fighting back: land ownership. In May, my father was the first to receive the news that the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry had
In our traditional longhouse, members of my community react to receiving the news that the Indonesian government had just given us full rights to our land. Kynan Tegar
Here’s why it matters for everyone: When communities like ours get full rights to our forests, we protect them, preserve huge stores of carbon, and help mitigate climate change. According to the World Resources Institute, legally recognized Indigenous territories have dramatically
In 2019, I was lucky enough to fly to New York with Apai Janggut, Mina Setra, my father, and other members of our community to accept a
During the past 20 years, local communities across 40 countries have won rights to more than 900 million acres. If that protected land were a country, it would be one of the 20 largest in the world!
You can learn more about this work through the
I know that many of you on the West Coast are feeling the effects of forest destruction right now, and many of you, like me, are cleaning up from floods. I don’t wish this upon anyone, but I hope these disasters will motivate people to see the connections between the plight of Borneo’s forests, the Amazon’s, and your own. Like
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Related to SDG 13: Climate action