Location: Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Focus: Human rights and democracy education; community empowerment.

Current Work:

KOMAS is currently doing several video projects such as Mari Kita Beraktivism, Selepas Tsunami, Gadoh, Real CIt ED - PSA series on rights of residents and local councils, Lot Umah Am and Huruf J (FFF2011 winners films), BERSIH2.0 and soon to be released, Ahli Majlis Penghubung Rakyat.

Most of the films are available on the KOMAS website.

Selected videos/history

• Drowning: a documentary on the Anti-Bakun Dam campaign.
• Zalim, Keras, Ganas: a video on police brutality.
• Bangsa Malaysia: a series of short educational films on the issue of discrimination.
• A cartoon and short film series on voters' rights and citizenship education.
• Through FreedomFilmFest, an annual film competition, KOMAS has produce three documentaries on human right issues in Malaysia every year since 2003.

In your own words

EngageMedia: Tell us more about KOMAS.

Anna Har: KOMAS was established in 1993 to support marginalised communities and human rights NGOs in Malaysia. It is a human rights NGO using creative methods to promote and advocate human rights.

We do facilitation, community organising and media training and we also produce resource materials. At present, our main programmes are on non-discrimination, citizenship and voter education, the FreedomFilmFest, and grassroots advocacy.

EM: How did KOMAS come to video as a medium? Why does KOMAS work with the moving image?

Anna: KOMAS was a pioneer in Malaysia in using video for community and human rights education. Video was one of the creative mediums that we could use to enhance education, awareness and advocacy of human rights. We also use other creative methodology and media such as cartoons, role play, photos and creative writing.

KOMAS is not a video production house nor do we specialise in producing films; rather, we see it as part of the strategic and creative use of media tools for the advocacy of human rights.

EM: What are the main issues you address in KOMAS video work?

Anna: Human rights issues in Malaysia - too many to mention - but in general it would be about democracy, freedom and non discrimination.

EM: Tell us about your favourite piece of video that KOMAS has made on the topic of social justice or the environment.

Anna: I have no particular favourites but Gadoh, a feature film on racism in schools, is a popular one with young people.

EM: How do you think online distribution is changing the field of independent video making? How do you use online tools in your work?

Anna: Online distribution combined with social media like Facebook and Twitter has made it very easy for alternative news and images and messages to get out there in a short time and has made spreading the word so much easier. It has also allowed normal people to make their own stories and share it with the world - so it's also democratised and increased the number of people who are in control of producing and distributing media.

We use online tools every day - it's become part of our daily work and lives to share and exchange and be updated about human rights issues.

Links

• KOMAS
• Freedom Film Festival
• Freedom Film Festival on Facebook

If you know of any interesting filmmakers around Asia Pacific you'd like to see featured on EngageMedia.org, write to us today!

Represented by the group Lawyers for Liberty, Zunar is seeking the return of confiscated property as well as aggravated losses and damages incurred in the incident which took place on 24 September 2010. That night, hours before the launch of Zunar's latest compilation of political cartoons titled 'Cartoon-O-Phobia', the police raided the artist's office in Kuala Lumpur, seized all copies of the book and arrested him for sedition.

"ARTICLE 19 fully supports Zunar in his efforts to seek damages from the Malaysian government. We recommend that the High Court sanction his wrongful arrest and detention and immediately lift the ban on all of his publications," said Dr Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE 19 Executive Director. "Ahead of anticipated elections in Malaysia later this year, Zunar' s case calls into question the government's commitment to bolster free speech," continued Dr Callamard.

ARTICLE 19 is deeply concerned about the continued use of restrictive legislation to silence legitimate, creative forms of political expression in Malaysia. Zunar was initially arrested under the Sedition Act 1948, government officials later claimed that he had also violated the Printing Presses and Publications Act. Both offenses carry punishment of up to three years' imprisonment and/or fines.

ARTICLE 19 finds the deliberate ambiguity surrounding Zunar's arrest and detention process problematic. Despite being moved to several police stations over the course of the night, the police neither offered a definitive explanation as to Zunar's offense, nor questioned him during his wrongful detention. After being held on a further day of remand, Zunar was then released without charge. Under international law, arbitrary arrest and detention such as that experienced by Zunar is prohibited.

In a career spanning two decades, Zunar has produced popular political cartoons which dare to lampoon public figures and institutions in Malaysia, with the aim of exposing the abuse of power by the police, judiciary, election commission and government officials. His work is considered sensitive, even radical, in Malaysia.

ARTICLE 19 therefore urges the Malaysian government to hasten progress on a raft of reforms, including an immediate review of regressive media and censorship legislation such as the Sedition Act 1948 and the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984, both of which exert a serious chilling effect on freedom of speech and of the media.

Wisut Tangwitthayaporn, publisher of the city newspaper "Inside Phuket", was driving to work when he was shot four times by a gunman on a motorbike, reports SEAPA. His wife, who was in the car with Wisut, was unharmed, SEAPA adds.

District police said their initial investigation would take into account the newspaper's exposé on corruption involving Phuket's granting of land titles to a group of influential businessmen and politicians. For instance, Wisut has fought against land encroachment on Freedom Beach, a remote stretch that lies within the boundary of a forest reserve, and has been reporting on the issue for the past two years, reports IPI.

According to local media, Wisut was a local leader of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, also known as the "Red Shirts", in the predominantly Yellow-Shirt province. The group, whose members are drawn largely from Thailand's rural areas, was formed in 2006 to protest the military coup that deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

He was set to lead a delegation of pro-Red-Shirt Pheu Thai party officials from Bangkok to inspect Phuket's Freedom Beach the day after he was killed, says SEAPA.

The Thai Journalists' Association (TJA) and its provincial branch are investigating the case.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 20 environmentalists and human rights defenders have been killed in Thailand since 2001, and few of those responsible have been held to account.

Last year, prominent environmental activist Thongnak Sawekchinda was killed just days after reporting that he had been threatened with death if he continued to protest against pollution generated by the coal industry in Samut Sakhon. Only after his murder did the provincial governor order police to provide protection to Thongnak's family and other members of his network.

Human Rights Watch says that investigations into these types of cases have historically suffered from inconsistent and sometimes shoddy investigatory procedures by the police, the failure to provide adequate protection for witnesses, and the inability to tackle political influence connected to the crimes.

You can contribute and find out more by going to http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/4673/description/0/0

Citizens right across the Asia Pacific still struggle for justice on a daily basis - from human rights abuses in West Papua, Southern Thailand and the Philippines, to environmental destruction in Borneo or the widespread exploitation and abuse of migrant workers.

Taking inspiration from the Arab Spring, activists from across the region have recognised the power of video and new technologies to bring about change.

You can help them get their stories to the world by donating to the Camp Sambel Travel Fund!

Find out more about Camp Sambel here.

Dispatches are a series of 25 minute, issue based compilations for distribution online, DVD and most importantly to television stations. Each edition will engage an expert partner organisation on the issue and employ hybrid distribution practices to reach new audiences with human rights and social justice content.

For full details go to http://www.engagemedia.org/jobs/migrant-dispatches-project-coordinator

See here the first 13 films selected. Until March 2012 the Uranium Film Festival Team will select further 20 to 30 films for the screenings and the competitions in Rio de Janeiro, scheduled for June/July 2012.

Check out: http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/

“The shooting of peaceful protestors is completely unacceptable anywhere in the world, but with an Australian company involved because of its mining operation, it is imperative that the Australian Government step-in immediately to help calm the situation and ensure no more people are killed,” said Derec Davies of Friends of the Earth Australia.

Davies said Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd must respond and investigate the role of Arc Exploration and its dealings with the Indonesian National Police where the response to the peaceful protest at the Sape Harbor over the Bima Gold Mine project was violent and fatal.

“Indonesian police attacked on Christmas Eve, and three days later, questions and concerns from locals go unanswered.”

FOE Australia stated in its release that after the police shootings, protestors responded by taking up weapons and petrol bombs. The organisation also pointed out the video footage by local media that shows unarmed protestors being shot by security forces. While the Indonesian Government has said it will ‘evaluate’ the police response, FOE Australia says it is clear that the police exceeded the use of necessary force to calm the situation and in fact they have inflamed the situation.

“Friends of the Earth is a global organisation and we work with local communities to support their peaceful non violent environmental struggles. We are appalled by the response of the Indonesian police,” said Davies.

“The community was protesting against environmental damage caused by the mine. No Australian company should be complicit in any way in this level of violence. It is unacceptable in Australia and shouldn’t be acceptable in Indonesia,” he said.

“Many tourists to Bali visit the island of Sumbawa. The company has been a trusted partner of locals. But with the problems of the Bima gold mine that trust has turned to outrage. The locals of Bima demand more, and so should Australians of our companies operating in the area”.

“Foreign Minister Rudd must step in now and call a halt to Australian operations of Arc Exploration in the Bima area. Halting the mine operations will allow police to pull out and calm to settle. Foreign Minister Rudd is responsible for calling on Chairman Mr Bruce Watson to explain his companies involvement. Australian shareholders have the right to know what is going on” said Davies.

According to Davies, the first killings occurred on Christmas eve, yet the 'battle of Bima’ continued.

"The current violent response is at Pelabuhan Sape Bima," he said. "The community is outnumbered by heavily armed national police, which is being supported by the military.”

“During this time of holiday peace, we call upon Arc Exploration to halt operations and the Australian Government to intervene to halt the unnecessary and forceful action,” said Davies.

I am currently living in Nepal and looking for collaborations (articles, videos, photos) to implement my newly published website : www.world-chronicles.com
Please contact me at bibbi32@hotmail.com for more info.

The eviction operations were carried out over a week in mid-August and have already sparked an international controversy. Andiko, Executive Director of the Indonesian community rights NGO, HuMa said:

Forced evictions at gun point and the destruction of the homes of men, women and children without warning or a court order constitute serious abuses of human rights and are contrary to police norms. The company must now make reparations but individual perpetrators should also be investigated and punished in accordance with the law.

The operations occurred in August 2011 in the 20,000 hectare oil palm concession of PT Asiatic Persada, a 51%-owned subsidiary of the Wilmar Group. Singapore-based Wilmar is represented on the Executive Board of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and as well as holding over 600,000 ha. of plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia, has expansion plans in other continents, is the world's largest palm oil trader and has processing facilities in Sumatra and Europe. Abetnego Tarigan, Executive Director of the Indonesian NGO, SawitWatch, which is also a board member of the RSPO, stated:

Frankly we are very disappointed. We expect leading members of the RSPO to scrupulously adhere to the agreed standard which includes respecting people's customary rights and resolving disputes. RSPO member companies should pro-actively reach out to communities and not resort to the heavy-handed tactics of past eras.

As detailed in the report, underlying the present problems is a long-standing land conflict with the local communities whose lands were taken over by the oil palm plantation without recognising their rights, without compensation and without their consent. Wilmar, which took over the plantation in 2006, has refused to recognise the communities' land claims or offer them smallholdings within its concession instead offering them shares in a 50/50 1000 ha joint venture further west. Some community members, who did join this scheme, have since repudiated it claiming it has brought them few benefits and further conflicts.

The Forest Peoples Programme, which coordinated the field investigation, notes that the NGOs have now filed a third complaint about Wilmar with the International Finance Corporation's Compliance Advisory Ombudsman (CAO). The previous complaints led to the suspension of all World Bank funding to the palm oil sector worldwide. Currently the CAO still has an ongoing process to mediate the disputes between Wilmar subsidiaries and the communities. However, in Jambi, these efforts broke down in June this year.

The CAO has now agreed to look again into the complaint, and the company, some community representatives, local government and some local NGOs have also agreed to the CAO mediating the dispute. Meanwhile, however, the dispute remains unresolved and other activists, impatient with the slow progress, recently took their complaints to Germany where, with the help of German NGOs, they demonstrated outside palm oil processing facilities in Hamburg. The German NGOs have called on Unilever, one of the world's largest users of palm oil, to cease trading with Wilmar.

SawitWatch, the Indonesian NGO which monitors the palm oil sector has, through its own network, catalogued 663 cases of land conflicts between communities and oil palm plantations in Indonesia. The National Land Agency of the Government of Indonesia has admitted that there are some 3,500 such cases on its own books.

Underlying these desperate disputes is the problem that, contrary to Indonesia's international human rights obligations, national laws only weakly recognise the customary rights of rural communities. Less than 40% of all land holdings in Indonesia have been titled. Despite being the third most populous country in the world the Government treats over 80% of the national territory as State land and liberally hands areas out to companies for logging, mining and plantations without community consent. Academic studies show that the deals offered to local people by the oil palm companies are worse today than during the dictatorship of President Suharto. The United Nations human rights treaty bodies have repeatedly brought these issues to the attention of the Indonesian government urging the reform of laws to recognise indigenous peoples' and local communities' rights. The Indonesian Government however has not even replied to the UN, apparently ignoring its responsibilities to protect the rights of its citizens.

A wider regional review of palm oil expansion in South East Asia, also published by Forest Peoples Programme and SawitWatch in November, shows that where community rights are ill-protected and law enforcement weak oil palm continues to expand through large ‘land grabs', leading to conflict, repression and further human rights abuses. The same pattern can be seen in Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and even in Papua New Guinea. Where farmers' lands are more secure, however, as in lowland Thailand, the crop is being chosen by smallholders who can independently market their produce on terms of their choosing, leading to better outcomes for local people. The study also shows that such expansion in South East Asia is not only being driven by global demand for palm oil, which is expanding exponentially, but also by national policies to develop the crop to serve local markets, save foreign exchange and promote energy security.

In December, a regional meeting of the national human rights commissions of South East Asia was convened by the Indonesian Human Rights Commission, KOMNASHAM, to examine these problems. The conference issued the ‘Bali Declaration on Human Rights and Agribusiness' which calls on South East Asian States to secure the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples, including their right to food, and establish stronger frameworks to oblige companies to respect human rights.

Links:

For copies of the new report on the human rights abuses in Jambi, Indonesia, see:
http://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/publication/2011/11/final-report-pt-ap-nov-2011-low-res-1.pdf

For a detailed overview of the human rights problems in the palm oil sector in both Malaysia and Indonesia see:
http://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/publication/2010/08/palmoilindigenouspeoplesoutheastasiafinalmceng_0.pdf

For the new report on palm oil expansion in SE Asia:
http://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/publication/2011/11/oil-palm-expansion-southeast-asia-2011-low-res.pdf

For the Bali Declaration see:
http://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/publication/2011/12/final-bali-declaration-adopted-1-dec-2011.pdf

For information on the protest action in Germany see:
http://www.regenwald.org/news/palmoel/3933/tagliche-news-zu-dem-indonesier-besuch-die-indonesier-in-deutschland

Land grabbing is aligned with the large-scale industrial development model that has already caused countless negative impacts on local communities and ecosystems. This is essentially a struggle between the industrial model versus the peasant and indigenous model. It is a struggle to defend the basic right to land, to territory, to the ability to produce food; a struggle to defend the right to food sovereignty.

This is what led La Vía Campesina to organize a historic conference in Nyéleni, Mali, where some 300 participants gathered to share experiences of land grabbing in different parts of the world. From here they also launched a call for the creation of a Global Alliance Against Land Grabbing. We invite you to read the conference declaration and join in the call for an end to land grabbing:

Conference Declaration: Stop Land-Grabbing Now!

We, women and men peasants, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and their allies, who gathered together in Nyeleni from 17-19 November 2011, have come from across the world for the first time to share with each other our experiences and struggles against land-grabbing. One year ago we supported the Kolongo Appeal from peasant organizations in Mali, who have taken the lead in organising local resistance to the take-over of peasants' lands in Africa. Now we came to Nyeleni in response to the Dakar Appeal, which calls for a global alliance against land-grabbing. For we are determined to defend food sovereignty, the commons and the rights of small scale food providers to natural resources.

In Mali, the Government has committed to give away 800 thousand hectares of land to business investors. These are lands of communities that have belonged to them for generations, even centuries, while the Malian State has only existed since the 1960's. This situation is mirrored in many other countries where customary rights are not recognised. Taking away the lands of communities is a violation of both their customary and historical rights.

Secure access to and control over land and natural resources are inextricably linked to the enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and several regional and international human rights treaties, such as the rights to self-determination, an adequate standard of living, housing, food, health, culture, property and participation. We note with grave concern that states are not meeting their obligations in this regard and putting the interests of business interests above the rights of peoples.

Land-grabbing is a global phenomenon led by local, national and transnational elites and investors, and governments with the aim of controlling the world's most precious resources. The global financial, food and climate crises have triggered a rush among investors and wealthy governments to acquire and capture land and natural resources, since these are the only “safe havens” left that guarantee secure financial returns. Pension and other investment funds have become powerful actors in land-grabbing, while wars continue to be waged to seize control over natural wealth. The World Bank and regional development banks are facilitating land and water grabs by promoting corporate-friendly policies and laws, facilitating capital and guarantees for corporate investors, and fostering an extractive, destructive economic development model. The World Bank, IFAD, FAO and UNCTAD have proposed seven principles that legitimise farmland grabbing by corporate and state investors. Led by some of the world's largest transnational corporations, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) aims to transform peasant agriculture into industrial agriculture and integrate smallholder farmers to global value chains, greatly increasing their vulnerability to land-loss.

Land-grabbing goes beyond traditional North-South imperialist structures; transnational corporations can be based in the United States, Europe, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea, among others. It is also a crisis in both rural and urban areas. Land is being grabbed in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe for industrial agriculture, forest plantations, mining, infrastructure projects, dams, tourism, conservation parks, industry, urban expansion and military purposes. Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities are being expelled from their territories by armed forces, increasing their vulnerability and in some cases even leading to slavery. Market based, false solutions to climate change are creating more ways to alienate local communities from their lands and natural resources.

Despite the fact that women produce most of the world's food, and are responsible for family and community well being, existing patriarchal structures continue to dispossess women from the lands that they cultivate and their rights to resources. Since most peasant women do not have secure, legally recognised land rights, they are particularly vulnerable to evictions.

The fight against land-grabbing is a fight against capitalism, neoliberalism and a destructive economic model. Through testimonies from our sisters and brothers in Brazil, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Thailand and Uganda, we learned how land-grabbing threatens small scale, family based farming, nature, the environment and food sovereignty. Land grabbing displaces and dislocates communities, destroys local economies and the social-cultural fabric, and jeopardizes the identities of communities, be they farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, workers, dalits or indigenous peoples. Those who stand up for their rights are beaten, jailed and killed. There is no way to mitigate the impacts of this economic model and the power structures that promote it. Our lands are not for sale or lease.

But we are not defeated. Through organisation, mobilisation and community cohesiveness, we have been able to stop land-grabbing in many places. Furthermore, our societies are recognising that small-scale, family based agriculture and food production is the most socially, economically and environmentally sustainable model of using resources and ensuring the right to food for all.

Recalling the Dakar Appeal, we reiterate our commitment to resist land-grabbing by all means possible, to support all those who fight land-grabs, and to put pressure on national governments and international institutions to fulfill their obligations to ensure and uphold the rights of peoples. Specifically, we commit to:

Organise rural and urban communities against land-grabs in every form.

Strengthen the capacities of our communities and movements to reclaim and defend our rights, lands and resources.

Win and secure the rights of women in our communities to land and natural resources.

Create public awareness about how land grabbing is creating crises for all society.

Build alliances across different sectors, constituencies, regions, and mobilise our societies to stop land-grabbing

Strengthen our movements to achieve and promote food sovereignty and genuine agrarian reform

In order to meet the above commitments, we will develop the following actions:

On capacity building for organising local resistance

• Report back to our communities the deliberations and commitments of this Conference.
• Build our own databases about land-grabbing by documenting cases, and gathering the needed information and evidence about processes, actors, impacts, etc.
• Ensure that our communities have the information they need about laws, rights, companies, contracts, etc., so that they can resist more effectively the business investors and governments who try to take their lands and natural resources.
• Set up early warning systems to alert communities to risks and threats.
• Strengthen our communities through political and technical training, and restore our pride in being food producers and providers particularly among the youth.
• Secure land and resource rights for women by conscientising our communities and movements about the importance of respecting and protecting women's land rights particularly in customary systems.
• Develop and use local media to organise members of our and other communities, and share with them information about land-grabbing.
• Make our leaders abide by the rules set by our communities and compel them to be accountable to us, and our communities and organisations.

On using legal aid for our defense

• Develop our own systems of legal aid and liaise with legal and human rights experts.
• Condemn all forms of violence and criminalisation of our struggles and our mobilizations in defense of our rights.
• Work for the immediate release of all those jailed as a result of their struggles for their lands and territories, and urgently develop campaigns of solidarity with all those facing conflicts.

On advocacy and mobilization

• Institutionalise April 17 as the day of global mobilisation against land-grabbing; also identify additional appropriate dates that can be used for such mobilisations to defend land and the commons.
• Develop our political arguments to expose and discredit the economic model that spurs land-grabbing, and the various actors and initiatives that promote and legitimise it.
• Establish a Peoples' Observatory on land-grabbing to facilitate and centralise data gathering, communications, planning actions, advocacy, research and analysis, etc.
• Promote women's land rights through targeted re-distribution of land for women, and other actions; make laws and policies responsive to the particular needs of women.
• Take our messages and demands to parliaments, governments and international institutions. Continue engaging with the Committee on World Food Security and demanding that processes such as the FAO Guidelines on Governance of Land, Fisheries and Forest truly contribute to protect and promote the rights to land and natural resources of small scale food providers.
• Identify and target local, national and international spaces for actions, mobilizations and building broad-based societal resistance to land-grabbing.
• Plan actions that target corporations, (including financial corporations), the World Bank and other multilateral development banks that benefit from, drive and promote land and natural resource grabs. Maintain opposition to schemes of corporate self-regulation such as RAI.
• Expand and strengthen our actions to achieve food sovereignty and agrarian reform, to promote the recognition of customary systems while ensuring the rights of women and to ensure the rights to land and natural resources of the youth.
• Support peoples' enclosures of their resources through land occupations, occupations of the offices of corporate investors, protests and other actions to reclaim their commons.
• Demand that our governments fulfill their human rights obligations, immediately stop land and natural resource transfers to business investors, cancel contracts already made, restitute the grabbed lands and protect rural and urban communities from ongoing and future land-grabs.

On alliance building

• Build strong organisational networks and alliances at various levels--local, regional and international--building on the Dakar Appeal and with small-scale food producers/providers at the centre of these alliances.
• Build alliances with members of pension schemes in order to prevent pension fund managers from investing in projects that result in land grabbing.
• Build strategic alliances with press and media, so that they report accurately our messages and realities; counter the prejudices spread by the mainstream media about the land struggles and land reform in Zimbabwe.

We call all organizations committed to these principles and actions to join our Global Alliance against Land-Grabbing, which we solemnly launch today here in Nyeleni.

Globalize the strugle! Globalize hope!

Nyeleni, November 19, 2011”

To join the call go to: http://www.dakarappeal.org

To challenge this vision and policy, a study has been carried out with the indigenous Karen community of HuayHin Lad in Wieng Pa Pao district in the Chiang Rai province, a community threatened itself to be expelled because of being located in a national park. Their traditional ways of using and relating with the forest was studied, including the potential and capacity of community forests to absorb greenhouse gases, in comparison to the emissions of greenhouse gases by the community´s activities.

The conclusion of this study was that the way of life and doing agriculture of highland peoples in Thailand not only does not contribute adversely to climate change, but “the traditional livelihood practices of these peoples are helping to balance the ecological system, effectively mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change and maintain a sustainable food security”.

It showed that the shifting agriculture practice of the community causes few carbon emissions, because it is a self-sufficient system, it does not use any chemical input so it has minimal expenses, and it is able to guarantee food security of the community throughout the year because of different harvesting periods. The community prefers the locally produced food instead of buying industrially processed food. This all contributes to a very low ecological footprint and the result that annual carbon emissions in the community are only 0.08% of the carbon stored in the community area.

Another important factor that influences the way the community deals with their forest is the fact that the utilization of the natural resources and food consumption of the community are all guided by their traditional ways of dealing with their environment, based on beliefs, wisdom and regulations collectively established. For example, cutting a tree is a collectively decided process, guided by several rules.

The findings of the study reinforce the need to respect the rights of highlands peoples to sustainable natural resource management, in accordance with the Thai constitution. And also, the study shows how necessary it is that indigenous peoples are consulted and can fully participate in the formulation of policies relating to climate change.

This interesting study also shows how much people, including governments, can learn from this and other communities in tropical forest areas worldwide about the responsible use of natural resources, about how to live well and in harmony with these resources without causing negative impacts for the climate and environment in general. The results of this case study are also a clear message to policy makers in Thailand and in many tropical forest countries not to take people out of the forests because they are not responsible for forest destruction. On the contrary, they are key actors in the struggle for forest conservation.

Based on: 'Climate Change, Trees and Livelihood: A case study on the carbon footprint of a Karen Community in Northern Thailand,' written by Northern Development Foundation and the HuayHin Lad community. (http://ccmin.aippnet.org/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=350&Itemid=159)