The following is an excerpt from an article by Joanne Liu for Deutsche Bank. Global Peace Foundation (GPF) Malaysia’s partnership with Deutsche Bank and the Orang Asli community has shown success in combating the loss of livelihood caused by deforestation. Through the use of syntropic agroforestry, the Orang Asli (original peoples) have been able to improve soil quality, increase biodiversity, retain cultural values, and achieve a greater quality of life. As part of the long-term, everyday work of peacebuilding, GPF aims to empower people to lead in exploring innovative approaches to meet local economic and environmental challenges.
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But deforestation and land development have meant that people like Jamida are losing their livelihoods. With the surrounding forest gone, Jamida and many others in the Orang Asli community have been forced to give up their traditional livelihood methods of hunting and gathering and try their hand at conventional farming in an attempt to make enough money to feed their families. Limited to growing only a few hardy crops such as cassava, bananas and rubber trees on account of the poor soil conditions, villagers struggled to sustain their livelihoods. Jamida’s daily earnings dropped to around 15 ringgits. And with minimal produce to harvest and sell, it left his family and others in the village impoverished.
The COVID pandemic only exacerbated the situation, further limiting food sources for Jamida’s community and forcing some people in the village to start scavenging at a nearby landfill for recyclables to sell – a sign of just how dire the situation had become. To support the Orang Asli through the pandemic, local non-profit organisation, Global Peace Foundation Malaysia (GPFM), in collaboration with Deutsche Bank, fundraised to provide 900 families with food.
Global Peace Foundation Malaysia has been working with underserved indigenous communities like Jamida’s since 2016. They have worked with over 100 villages in West and East Malaysia on energy, education, sustainable farming and livelihood projects. In 2018, recognising the challenges the villagers in Bukit Biru were facing, Global Peace Foundation Malaysia (GPFM) began working with them to develop a holistic solution that would address the root causes of their situation and one that improves the diversity of their environment.
