Sophie Chao

Nov 28, 2024 | sydney.edu.au | Sophie Chao |Danielle Celermajer

In the Shadow of the PalmsMore than human becomings in West PapuaBy Dr Sophie ChaoSophie Chao examines the multispecies entanglements of oil palm plantations in West Papua, Indonesia, showing how Indigenous Marind communities understand and navigate the social, political, and environmental demands of the oil palm plant. Sophie rethinks capitalist violence as a multispecies act.

Sep 12, 2024 | edgeeffects.net | Sophie Chao

It is a sultry afternoon in May 2019. Yosefina, an Indigenous Marind woman, returns home from a foraging expedition in the forests of lowland West Papua. She carries her three-year old child, Petrus, on her chest and bears handwoven fiber bags across her back and forehead. But today, as yesterday and the days before, the bags return empty and dangling. Since 2008, over one million hectares of Marind’s forests have been converted to industrial oil palm plantations.

Aug 19, 2024 | anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Sophie Chao

Large-scale agribusiness developments across the Global South are often framed in state and corporate discourse as necessary to meet the food and fuel needs of the world's growing population. In response to this rising demand, monocrop plantations—a hallmark of the Anthropocene—are spreading relentlessly across the tropics, wreaking havoc on native ecosystems and exacerbating climate change through soaring rates of greenhouse gas emissions.

Dec 27, 2023 | anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Sophie Chao

In late May 2018, I was invited to dine at the home of Barnabus Ndiken (a pseudonym), a clan head from Merauke in Indonesia's easternmost province of West Papua.1 The centerpiece of the meal was a dish of deer, caught by Barnabus and his kinsmen. With vast swaths of forest being felled to make way for oil palm plantations, game around their village had become increasingly rare. Meat, I was told, was a special treat, served only to the most honored guests.

Dec 19, 2023 | sydney.edu.au | Sophie Chao

A World in a Shell (2022)Snail Stories for a Time of ExtinctionsBy Assosciate Professor Thom van DoorenIn this time of extinctions, the humble snail rarely gets a mention. And yet snails are disappearing faster than any other species. In A World in a Shell, Thom van Dooren offers a collection of snail stories from Hawai'i—once home to more than 750 species of land snails, almost two-thirds of which are now gone.