Project description
Protecting Indigenous forests through heritage and rights
‘Seraaq’ means forest in the Indigenous Semai language, highlighting the sacredness of forests and the duty to protect them. The Semai people’s agricultural traditions are key to forest conservation. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SERAAQ project will link cultural heritage protection with securing Indigenous rights to forests and resources, aiming to sustain Indigenous livelihoods despite restrictive state policies. It will consider that Indigenous heritage is a vital part of social-ecological systems, not just isolated cultural elements. The project will evaluate the WHCL mechanism and document contemporary Semai forest dependence and living heritage through political economy analysis, field surveys, PhotoVoice, and scenarios planning.
Objective
Seraaq, the project acronym, means ‘forest’ in the Indigenous Semai language, connoting the sentience and sacredness of forests, and the moral calling to forest stewardship. The project highlights the importance of Semai (agri)cultural heritage in forest conservation, and the need for a blueprint to achieve, at minimum, alternative sovereignty: could the UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape serve as a tool of empowerment for the minority Semai people of Peninsular Malaysia? SERAAQ’s originality lies in linking cultural heritage protection to securing Indigenous rights to forests and resources, and by identifying ways to support Indigenous forest livelihoods as a purposeful community development option within and in spite of prohibitory state structures. SERAAQ also demonstrates that Indigenous heritage resources are real, functioning parts of Indigenous social-ecological systems rather than free-standing, unidimensional cultural heritage elements. I will assess the potentialities of the WHCL mechanism, and gather documentation of contemporary Semai forest reliance and ‘living’ heritage, by using political economy analyses and field-based survey, PhotoVoice and scenarios planning approaches. This will produce quantifiable, evidence-based data, to persuade and effect change at the decision-making/governance levels. This evidence will take into account Semai articulations of their own self-determined ‘life projects’ or forest-based futures, ideas of forest protection and community empowerment outcomes, e.g inclusion in forest governance processes; public recognition of the Semai homeland; and legal rights to their customary forestland. An MSCA fellowship will help me innovate my oral tradition research background, to work expertly on political/socioeconomic topics in the heritage and forest conservation fields, especially in regard to the exigencies of Indigenous poverty and disadvantage.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
00014 Helsinki
Finland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.