Sachiko Haryson

• Indonesia’s Palm Oil Plantations: How Poverty Fuels Pollution in Low- to Middle-Income Countries
• BEng Hons Civil and Structural Engineering

Indonesia’s societal and environmental well-being faces turmoil in the absence of stringent monitoring of industrial practices, resulting in severe pollution and a corresponding decline in quality of life. Stigmatising the root cause of pollution as a direct externality of negligent environmental choices is a privileged misconception that often overlooks the reality faced by low- to middle-income countries like
Indonesia. Housing a third of the ASEAN population, where a significant portion lives below the poverty line (O’Neill, 2023), pollution is often an unintended consequence of economic survival.

This research examines the complex relationship between poverty and pollution, focusing on palm oil plantations. In this context, poverty not only suffers from pollution but also drives it, as communities reliant on agriculture resort to environmentally harmful practices to sustain their livelihoods.

Funded by: Newcastle University Research Scholarship

Project Supervisor: Professor Claire Walsh