Welcome back! This week, I surveyed 55* Singaporeans from outside the BES community. The age group of the respondents range from 13-60 years old. I created 2 separate surveys; the first titled “The environmental crisis” and the second titled “Indigenous people and the environment”. The link for the second survey would have been presented to them only at the end of the first survey. The rationale? Well, if a respondent had mentioned indigenous communities in the first survey, I would know that it had been purely from their own knowledge and perspective and not because they had seen the term in the survey.

*However, unfortunately, only 44 of the 55 respondents went on to do the second survey

Survey 1 findings

 

For the 45 people who feel that certain groups are disproportionately affected by the environmental crisis, the follow up question was for them to list down the groups. A summary of their responses can be seen in the image below. To be honest, I was surprised that indigenous communities were mentioned! For some reason, perhaps due to the fact that we do not really have indigenous communities in Singapore,  and that we are not really exposed to news/information about indigenous communities (in my opinion), I was not expecting more than 2 responses that mentioned indigenous people. However, to my amazement, there were 5 such responses. Perhaps, Singaporeans do keep up with global issues…

Image made using Canva

Survey 2 findings

Majority (41 out of the 44 respondents who took part in survey 2) felt that indigenous people are not only disproportionately affected by the environmental crisis but also that they play a role in protecting the environment. These set of results heartened me, as it seems as though the respondents understood the plight of  indigenous people and and the vital roles they can play in protecting the environment.

Many people felt that indigenous communities do not at all engage in unsustainable practices. Although indigenous lifestyle and believes are generally more sustainable when compared to that of communities in urban areas (in my opinion and also that of most respondents), there are certain indigenous communities that do in fact degrade the environment via their practices. You can find out more by reading one of my earlier blog post.

Most people felt that indigenous communities are threatened most by the environmental crisis (although this could have been influenced by the title of the survey) and least by conservation groups. You can read more about how conservation efforts can affect indigenous groups in this post!

It was interesting to find out about people’s view on this issue and it was reassuring to know that the respondents are generally aware about the environmental crisis and the difficulties that indigenous communities face. (Although generalising these findings to the entire of Singapore is hard due to the small sample size).

 

Let me end off with one of my favourite quotes (a Cree Indian proverb):

“Only when the last tree has died

and the last river been poisoned

and the last fish been caught

will we realise we cannot eat money”

Let us all do our part in protecting mother Earth and as we do so, let us stand in solidarity with indigenous communities, and against any act of injustice that affects their rights.

Cheers,

Divina