Kim Carlson (New York University) - Oil palm plantations, labor migration, and land change along the Indonesian-Malaysian Border

Abstract: Industrial oil palm plantations have expanded rapidly across Indonesia since the 1990s. While many Indonesians migrate from agrarian communities for work in cities and foreign countries, how such plantations interact with labor migration from surrounding communities remains poorly understood. I present ongoing research that aims to assess how dynamics related to plantations (e.g., new commodity markets, terms of employment) have interacted with migration-related fluxes of people, goods, and money to influence household decision-making and land cover and control. Results draw on ethnographic interviews, household surveys, and land use/land cover change mapping in West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, adjacent to Malaysian border.

Speaker: Kim Carlson, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, New York University