Ecological change and class dynamics in Central Kalimantan peatland

This study aims to unpack the dynamics of human-nature relationships in rural peatlands. This research specifically addresses the ecological dynamics and labour process, especially on how both the process of agrarian differentiation co-constituted with the ecological change, thus both affecting and being affected by each other. The research uses frameworks of labour geography and agrarian political economy with an emphasis on the configurations of the conditions of production in an agrarian setting. The research is carried out in the peatland area, specifically Bapinang Hilir, Pulau Hanaut, and Central Kalimantan. While the area was ‘recently’ inhabited in the 1800s, the changes from canal dredging project, logging, peatland fire, and REDD+ have been existing along the agrarian dynamics of the peatland with its specific land tenure. In the process, agrarian dynamics intersected with the ecological change from fire, drought, and acidification, which unfolded chances for farmers to accumulate more land, either in the period of canal dredging project or REDD+. The petty commodity producers counteract the changing configurations from degradations and REDD+ restrictions by embedding themselves in the timber economy and later in palm oil. Both actions of farmers and petty commodity producers, as spatial agents, also contribute towards the changing configurations along with climate change in the forms of the intensification of El Nino events and external changes (REDD+ and timber and palm oil economy). Much of the literature often relegates the ecological change as the excess of capitalist commodity production or homogenizing the impact of degradations. This study contributes to the possibility of understanding that both processes of ecological change and agrarian differentiation are inseparable. The study uses primary empirical material from ethnographic-oriented fieldwork on two occasions separated temporally and integrates it with the satellite imagery data, documents, and literature.