Indonesia

A palm oil conglomerate has begun clearing the ancestral forests of Indigenous tribes in Indonesia’s Papua region without the locals’ consent. Subsidiaries of Digoel Agri group have cleared 64 hectares (158 acres) of forest in the first two months of 2021.

Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of palm oil and Papua is the new frontier. Kinggo indigenous group that owns the customary forest in Boven Digul Regency, Papua is fighting to protect their land against subsidiary of Korean palm oil giant, the Korindo Group.

Program Food Estate baru di Indonesia akan mengakibatkan lebih banyak kelaparan dan mengancam masyarakat lokal, hutan setempat dan iklim global.

A briefing paper from an international network documents that Indonesia’s new “Food Estate Program” on the islands of Borneo, Sumatra and Papua threaten Indigenous sovereignty, forests and biodiversity, will cause hunger and contribute to the climate crisis.

Land conflicts in Indonesia escalated in 2020, with palm oil and pulpwood companies taking advantage of movement restrictions to expand aggressively, according to a new report.

About 66 per cent of conflicts related to palm oil in West Kalimantan in the last two decades have yet to be resolved, according to a report recently issued by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV).

Members of the Auyu tribe of Papua, Indonesia, are demanding a halt to the operations of palm oil company PT Indo Asiana Lestari (IAL), which appears to be gearing up to clear their ancestral forests. IAL’s concession is part of the Tanah Merah megaproject that is already dogged by allegations that key operating permits have been falsified.

Germany’s Rainforest Rescue (Rettet den Regenwald) and Washington, D.C.-based Center for International Policy (CIP) blasted a baseless defamation lawsuit brought to the Hamburg Regional Court by a supplier to the Korindo conglomerate, a notorious Korean-Indonesian palm oil, logging and wind tower manufacturing giant.

A report by Global Witness has found that more than 100 Indonesian palm oil mills supplying agribusiness giants ADM and Bunge have been accused of land and human rights violations and environmental destruction.

Two major US commodity traders – ADM and Bunge – are failing to ensure that the hundreds of Indonesian palm oil mills they source from in Indonesia are free from abuse against land and environmental defenders.

Entre 2000 y 2020, el área de las plantaciones de palma aceitera en Kalimantan aumentó más del doble, de 2 millones 400 mil hectáreas a 5 millones 800 mil hectáreas. Kalimantan Occidental es la tercera área más grande de producción de palma aceitera de Indonesia, con plantaciones que cubren cerca de un millón y medio de hectáreas a lo largo de sus once distritos.

An area of natural forest the size of 1,500 football fields has been cleared since January in an oil palm concession in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua by a company that ultimately supplies major traders and global brands.