Mobilizing Organic Farmers in Malaysia

Noah Jackson’s Forest Voices is working on a new project, Searching the Feast, Hunting the Farmers, to highlight sustainable farmers and to search for endangered edibles, heirloom plants and other rare wild edibles such as cermai and tampoi.

Armed with video, audio and photography, Forest Voices will be documenting the story of farmers and the journey to seek out these sustainable farms,with a focus on the food system, challenges to farming practices and the benefits of sustainable agriculture.

In partnership with CETDEM (Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia), the project aims to “give individual farmers a voice that will raise awareness, inspire others and help change people’s attitudes towards a future that involves sustainable food systems.” (Noah Jackson)

The project includes Titi Eco Farm, Green Wish Vegi Garden, Nadi Kembangan Enterprise and Terra Organic Farm among others. These farms grow herbal, permaculture and spices while some, like Green Wish Vegi Garden, host visitors who wish to experience living and working on a farm.

For more information, visit Hope in Light.

2009 Seed Grants Recipient: Noah Jackson

Project: Finding the Seeds

A previous recipient of 2008 Seed Grants, Noah continues his work with the forest communities in Baram and Limbang, Sarawak documenting local ecological knowledge. A photographer and writer, Noah creates a landscape of images through his lens, unearthing stories hidden from the urban world.

Forest Voices encompasses not only capturing knowledge through photography but also through holding workshops, such as seed and tree sharing workshops in order to utilize forest knowledge into wider practices. These workshops intend to create a platform where forest experts can share and exchange ideas on collection, planting and managing wild trees in their lands, farm plots or in hunting and gathering forests.

The project also involves the completion of a long-term book project on forest knowledge and management as well as two children’s books on forest culture.

Visit Hope in Light for more information.

2009 Seed Grants Recipient: Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Bird Group (Selangor Branch)

Project: My Garden Birds Census

Working in the Selangor state of Malaysia, the MNS Bird Group (Selangor Branch) will be conducting a long-term project involving enthusiastic birdwatchers and their families to conduct biannual census of the bird life in urban residential areas. The project will take off in Klang Valley where the birdwatchers primarily reside and eventually will be expanded to include other states through MNS’s branch networks in the country.

The objective of conducting this census is to provide an idea of the population health of various kinds of birds, both migrant and resident, that can be found in urban gardens and to gauge the bird species distribution in various residential areas across the Selangor state.

The first census of its kind in Malaysia, this project compliments the vision of Wild Asia to involve more urban folks in safeguarding their natural surroundings and wildlife. As this project involves birdwatchers and their families, it is also encouraging when conservational values are shared with families and passed down to our young ones as well as creating greater awareness among the urban communities.

For more information on MNS Bird Group (Selangor Branch), visit piedfantail.com

2009 Seed Grants: Lisa Safarik

Project: The Seedy Food Report

A film-maker, Lisa had worked with Pun Pun Sustainable Living and Learning Centre in Northern Thailand, producing a web documentary about the Centre’s work in fostering community-based agricultural sustainability and the philosophy behind it. The importance of seed-saving and empowering Thai farmers were ultimately highlighted in this documentary which then sparked an educational production in Thai for Thai farmers as they are not exposed to information concerning the food systems and hence, vulnerable to fall victim to manipulation.

“Many people are simply unaware of what is really going on with our deteriorating food situation and the collective long term negative effects that emerge from this lack of information. We intend to address a broad audience since the state of our food affects everyone.” – Lisa Safarik

“The Seedy Food Report” is an extension of this Thai educational piece, to highlight the complexities of the global food system in crisis. Right from the beginning of seed sowing to the critical food situation, the documentary will be produced in hope to foster more sustainable agriculture. Due to its global relevance, the documentary will be translated into English for international audience and will also be subtitled into languages of non-English speaking countries respectively.

For more information on Lisa Safarik’s work, visit Tangent.

The Learning Farm: Youths, Organics & Empowerment

Thanks to Antonia Gorag, I learnt a little more about this teaching organic farm in Indonesia. It works with youths between 16-24 and takes them through a 5 month programme to teach them the basics of farming & entrepreneurship.

Watch their video:

How did WA come about?

Wild Asia: now it's not quite that awe inspiring story but our journey towards becoming a "Social Enterprise" might be of interest to those wanting to learn from our story. The following radio interview was made over our local business radio (BFM) and was recorded in Oct 2008. One thing that is clear, 10 years down the road, is that there are few journeys you can do alone. Along the way there has been so many people that have inspired me, motivated me, challenged me, suffered my crankiness, but with each step, I think we got stronger and we evolved to be where we are today. This journey has not stopped...

Listen to the interview:



Click here to download the recording.

Health in Harmony

Working in one of Indonesia's national parks, Gunong Palung, Health in Harmony has been supporting medical centers and providing health care to communities that have taken to protecting their own local environments.

Kinari Webb (picture shown here), the founder, says "In parts of West Kalimantan 25% of children die before age five, mothers often die in childbirth, and even "simple" injuries like a cut on the hand can lead to death without access to tetanus shots or antibiotics." Their organisation today works to combine "health, nature, and balance" and their "activities lie at the interface between healthcare and environmental conservation."

Health in Harmony works to support their Indonesian project Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI) which translates as: "healthy nature everlasting". Reza, who was in Bogor (Indonesia) recently, and had a chance to catch up with ASRI's Conservation Director, Antonia Gorog, to share a little about what the organisation does, its beginning and how this is making an impact.

Listen to the conversation:


Click here for more info on their work. Download the podcast.