Page 124 - The Ethics of ASEAN

The Ethics of ASEAN

Furthermore, a host of critically endangered species
including the Sumatran Orangutan, the Sunda Pangolin, the
Sumatran Elephant, and the Javan Rhinoceros are severely
threatened by habitat loss and hunting and risk becoming only a
fading cultural memory for the next generation.

Anjulie Razak: the ethics of biodiversity are an
existential imperative

Anjulie Razak is also a student in the Sustainability Management
Master programme. She underlines the emergent nature of
sustainability ethics which were not issues during ASEAN’s
formation. Now they have become existential imperatives.
This notion of emergence means that today’s ethics are
constantly evolving through time and responsive to its current
conditions. Our emerging regional ethics today are focused
on the work that needs to be done immediately in ASEAN but
Figure 6: Anjulie Razak, also on the long-term benefits. ASEAN’s region-wide ethical
Master degree Student in principles are already embedded in traditional cultures of the
Sustainability Management
at Universitas Gadjah Mada region. Animals and plants make up the myths, stories, songs,
clothes and cuisine of Southeast Asian cultures. Indigenous
cultures represent 1500 ethnic groups and tribes. They also
have reverence for the region’s “density of life” and practice
sustainability by avoiding the overexploitation of nature.
There are many examples of neglect of indigenous culture and
rights in the region: deforestation by logging companies in
Sarawak eroded the Penan way of life, mining operations in the
Philippines ruined indigenous lands, dams in Cambodia have
flooded Bunung villages and monocrop palm oil plantations in
Indonesia have replaced ancient forests and peatlands. These
threats to biodiversity are also threats to human rights. Yet this
heritage is an “ethics of the marginalized” that are undermined
by policies that give priority to economic development.
It is now obvious that more and more peoples and cities
in the region are exposed to the threats of climate change and
impact of biodiversity loss. This explains why government and
business are adopting the ethics of biodiversity as a priority for
long-term sustainability and economic development.

Yulius Bulo: Business and Biodiversity must
share an ethic of fairness

As Chief Operating Officer at the Pertamina Foundation, Yulius
Bulo notes that a state-owned oil and gas company is usually
under the spotlight as doing harm to the environment. Part of

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