Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink use logging practices in Malaysia as a platform to spark conversation around deforestation and environmental advocacy networks. Keck and Sikkink argue that the Malaysian state of Sarawak and their logging campaign was different than most for three reasons. First, the conversation surrounding tropical forest logging took on a new form in the 1980s with the establishment of the International Tropical Timber Organization. Second, the Sarawak conflict connected environmental with indigenous land rights zealots. The intersection of these passionate activists gave their policies enough support to transform a local issue into a national as well as international one. Third, a Malaysian organization, Sahabat Alam Malaysia, vigorously backed the campaign in order to force the issue onto a national dialogue. As the Sarawak campaign gained ground, it saw increased support from Europe and westernized nations. Once relevant on an international stage, Sarawak inspired other activists to speak up about environmental issues. Transnational environmental advocacy networks popped up around the world to stand up for their issues in an unforgiving international arena.streaming Bridget Jones’s Baby 2016
Keck and Sikkink assert that the Sarawak campaign was both a win and a loss. On the one hand, environmental issues as well as land rights issues became an integral part of international discourse and a battle worth fighting for. On the other, despite concerted efforts to make logging a more sustainable practice, Sarawak’s forests/land continued to be immorally and wrongfully taken advantage of. To me, this seems like more of a lose lose situation.
What are the impacts of environmental advocacy networks today on an international scale? Has history repeated itself in light of the Sarawak conflict or have times changed? I would certainly have to do my homework to answer this question. However, I now have much to ponder and then untangle. Is it really enough to just lay the issue on the table… to have environmental problems a part of our exchanges, debates, and negotiations? Or, should we settle for the fact that “Malaysia, as well as other tropical forest states, has begun at least to use the discourse of sustainable forestry, whether or not much has changed in practice?”
