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Paper short abstract:

We develop the idea of “collaborative survival” between humans, especially Dayak Benuaq smallholders and nonhuman species living in the massive monoculture projects. We argue that gardening in the plantation is collaborative way to keep every species alive in the disturbed monocultural environments.

Paper long abstract:

Oil palm plantation has increasingly expanded since 1968 in the island of Kalimantan under the New Order regime. Most of the lands used to be covered in forest, but now it mostly turned into oil palm monocultures. In 1997, Dayak Benuaq community took an act of resistance against transnational oil palm company called London Sumatera Corporation (LonSum) due to land grabbing. But until 1999, Dayak Benuaq people and office workers at LonSum decided to to resolve the land conflict by holding ritual called guguq as a symbol of peace among them (Haug, 2014). Meanwhile, Dayak Benuaq smallholders also usually build gardens locally known as "simpukng" surrounding their oil palm plantation. Some scholars may consider this model of land use practices as agroforestry. The smallholders also often found many kinds of endemic animals, especially endemic primates living in the smallholders’ garden. A lot of endemic species living in the garden also shows how narrow the forest is from time to time due to the massive monoculture projects which make it more difficult to find a decent place to live. From this case, we develop the idea of “collaborative survival” between humans, especially Dayak Benuaq smallholders and more-than-human species living in the massive monoculture projects. Humans have to collaborate with more-than-human plants and animals in order to survive (Tsing, 2015: 27). We argue that gardening in the plantation is one of the survival ways to keep human and more-than-human species alive in the disturbed monocultural environments.