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.
Lonjakan permintaan minyak sawit datang dengan konsekuensi yang mahal, mulai dari perusakan hutan hujan, eksploitasi tenaga kerja, dan perampasan tanah serta perampasan air yang brutal. Tekanan dari perkebunan kelapa sawit telah memaksa komunitas di Kalimantan Barat berjuang demi akses air bersih dan memproduksi makanan.
The industry boom in the demand for palm oil has come at the high price of rainforest destruction, labour exploitation, and brutal land and water grabbing. The pressure from oil palm plantations has pushed communities in West Borneo on a common struggle to access clean water and continue producing food.
Eva Bande was jailed for her role as a community organizer against land grab by extractive industries on the Indonesian island, Sulawesi. Ten years on, her fight continues.
The latest regulation issued by the Environment and Forestry Ministry that allows forests to be converted into farmland to support the government’s food estate program has sparked concerns of potential massive deforestation, according to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
