Ranu Welum is a Dayak youth initiative that combines indigenous knowledge and modern technology to empower indigenous youth to preserve the culture, protect the forest and fight for the indigenous rights.

KALIMANTAN STORY

Kalimantan is the home to the world's most biodiversity and oldest rainforest which exist for 140 millions years old. It’s the real habitat of orang utans and rich for its natural resources. For centuries, the Dayak people, the first people of the land, have lived in harmony with the environment. There are more than 400 different Dayak tribes that speak different languages. The culture is beautiful and amazing.

However, in the last 20 years, more than 50% of Kalimantan rainforest is gone. Orang utans lost 90% of their habitats. 78% from 15,3 millions hectares of Central Kalimantan, middle part of the island, has been given to extractive industries like logging, coal and gold mining, and palm oil plantation. Based on data in 2015 there are 525 palm oil private companies that operate in Kalimantan. This all environmental destruction caused peat fire in 1997. That year, Kalimantan released 2,5 billion tons of carbon. It happened again in 2015 in which carbon emission released by Kalimantan peat fire exceeded the entire US economy at the same period. The air pollution was equal to smoking 672 cigarettes in a day. Thousands of orang utan died of starvation and thousands of people in Kalimantan were hospitalized for smoke inhalation. It has been happening for over two decades until today.

The land has been taken. The rivers have been polluted. The forest have been cut down and burned. Babies and children have been dying due to water and air pollution. Elders and indigenous activists have been imprisoned by big companies. Men have been displaced from jobs. Women have been suffering from skin disease and cancer resulted by the use of pesticide.

Hurt, sorrow, and pain are so real.

But… we have not given up.

Who We Are

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

Ranu Welum is designed to empower indigenous Dayak youth in various areas: social, cultural, economic, educational, political, civil, and environmental. Founded with a small group of ten young people who were eager to use audiovisual media to express their Dayak identities, today Ranu Welum is known globally for its involvement at the frontline of the annual peat fires and resulting toxic haze in Kalimantan that has been happening for twenty-two years during the dry season. During this time, its members have built haze shelters, providing clean air facilities for the most vulnerable; provided medical help; distributed masks and oxygen tanks to thousands of villagers; and mobilized youth firefighting teams to cover over 30,000 fire spots in Kalimantan. 

MEDIA ADVOCACY

In this time where indigenous communities are being displaced by urban development, Ranu Welum has improved the ability of the Dayak community to adapt to the modern world while still strongly being rooted in their indigenous identity. Through our international media activism, young people are encouraged to speak on behalf of their communities at higher levels and use their skills to create change. There are over 1,000 palm oil and mining companies operating in Kalimantan, threatening the existence of Kalimantan’s rainforests as well as human lives and the sustainability of Dayak communities. The access to digital information and media training that Ranu Welum provides gives Dayak youth a platform to advocate for indigenous rights, especially land rights; we give voice to forest protection while also building a better future in communities in terms of education, economies, and culture preservation.

WOMEN LEADERSHIP

Ranu Welum strongly encourages female leadership and provides the platform for this leadership, with four of five core members being women in their 20’s. In the Climate Strike and subsequent meetings, women activists stood in front, gave speeches, and led the protests.

Knowing that storytelling is a significant way to empower communities, they have elected to promote gender parity through their documentary trilogy When Women Fight, directed by Emmanuela Shinta, founder of Ranu Welum. The trilogy tells of Dayak women fighting to protect their environments--both physical and communal--in the midst of vast corporate expansion and environmental destruction in Kalimantan.

Our Vision is TRANSFORMATION.