Environmental citizenship for inclusive sustainable development: the case of Kelab Alami in Mukim Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Using environmental citizenship as the basis of its activities and initiatives, a community organisation, Kelab Alami, successfully combined environmental action with a socio-ecological systems approach to counter environmental and social injustice. The organisation fused traditional ecological knowledge with science for use in community-initiated ecotourism; engaged with surrounding developers, local authorities and the state government to mitigate environmental damage and maximize job opportunities for the community; nurtured and supported local entrepreneurship efforts and continues to spread environmental awareness and protection. This paper traces the development of Kelab Alami, the training and empowerment of youthful citizen scientists, and its attempt to garner multi-level support and collaboration for its environmental actions. This is a grounded illustration of resource mobilization in action, and a local view of a community’s efforts to cope with poverty, environmental degradation and urbanization; a model that could be adapted and adopted by other communities facing similar circumstances and threats.

KEYWORDS:

• environmental citizenship & inclusive development
• citizen science
• inclusive development
• social justice

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the editors, Benito Cao and Adela Alfonsi, and the anonymous reviewers for the invaluable comments and suggestions that greatly strengthened this paper. I am also immensely grateful to Shalan Jum’at, Zurina Jaafar, the late Arwah Pak Mus and the youth and community of Mukim Tanjung Kupang for allowing me to live amongst them and observe this evolution of environmental citizenship over the last 12 years.

Disclosure statement

The author is the co-founder of Kelab Alami, driving the environmental education component in its initial phase. She subsequently remained in the background to facilitate and assist the community with external stakeholder engagement as they took ownership of the organization and moved it forward from 2012 onwards.

Notes on the contributor

Serina Rahman is a Visiting Fellow at the Malaysia Program, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore and the co-founder of Kelab Alami. A conservation scientist by training, her primary research is in human-habitat interactions, but she also studies socio-economic values of natural habitats, environmental education, citizen science, community empowerment and rural politics.