Duty of care toward the Kinabatangan River: Environmental monitoring, social learning and Care of Place in Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract

This case study contributes to the conceptualisation of, and methodology for, studying caringscapes/carescapes that concern the relations among humans and between human and non-human subjects. It analyses how some local villagers along the Lower Kinabatangan River express their ‘duty of care’ toward the river through their sustained local participation in restorative work by means of such projects as assessing changing water quality in their wetlands. Making sense of their emergent sense of responsibility to foster care for the river entails examining not only how the local sense of place centres upon the river, but also how the river itself affects local communal and personal identity in a two-way flow. This case study highlights the agency of those experiencing the process of socioecological change involving a social learning process covering two decades via learning networks, community participation in citizen science, trust, and leadership by example.