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).
Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of palm oil, and Papua is its newest frontier. A visual investigation suggests fires have been deliberately set on the land by Korean palm oil giant that has been buying up swathes of Asia's largest remaining rainforests for their plantations.
Observers and activists have raised concerns about the leading role the Indonesian government plans to give to the military and to big corporations in a program to establish vast crop plantations across the country.
The Indonesian government says it will expand a national “food estate” program by establishing millions of hectares of new crop plantations in Sumatra and Papua. To expand the project into North Sumatra and Papua, the government is seeking out private investors; but activists say this risks a repeat of the current corporate takeover of Indigenous and community lands.
A new report released today by environmental campaign group Mighty Earth alleges that Michelin, the world’s largest tire company, was complicit in and covered up industrial-scale deforestation of over 2,500 hectares of rainforest in the run-up to the launch of its flagship ‘eco-friendly’ sustainable natural rubber joint venture project in Sumatra, Indonesia.
The Indonesian government has major plans to develop strategic infrastructures and agricultural projects, but for farmers, fishermen and indigenous communities, this represents a threat to their livelihoods, food, water, and even homes.
The Minister of Environment and Forestry said she would prepare the land needed for investment by the United Arab Emirates agricultural giant, Elite Agro LLC.
Ten civil society organizations (CSOs) members of Civil Society Coalition Against Food Estate in Papua strongly reject President Jokowi’s plan to develop a food estate with an area of 2,052,551 ha.
