Retelling Environmental Narratives in Indonesia: A Prologue

Indonesians have been familiarized to environmental narratives such as “ibu bumi” (mother Earth), “tanah surga” (heaven soils), “hutan untuk kesejahteraan” (forests for prosperity), “lahan tidur” (idle lands), “bencana alam'' (natural disaster), “net sink,” among many others. While the propagation of such jargons, histories, or myths might not necessarily be ill-intended, the impacts of some of these shared narratives have been lethal to Indonesian lifescapes. Accordingly, the selected articles in this special issue do not take narratives for granted. Rather, they discuss various mechanisms through which state institutions, conservation NGOs, local populations, corporations, experts, and intermediaries proliferate particular environmental explanations to validate actions, instill thoughts, manipulate feelings, or obscure realities. Collectively, the articles here offer a textured analysis of the magnitude of narratives to people and the environment in Indonesia.