Indonesia

The Digoel Agri Group has begun operating in an Indonesia mega project being fought over by investors from around the world earmarked to become the world’s largest oil palm plantation, in a vast project that has been mired in allegations of lawbreaking.

Ditengah ancaman krisis pangan akibat wabah Covid19 yang semakin meluas, petani digusur perusahaan perkebunan sawit. PT. Artha Prigel menggusur secara paksa petani di Desa Pagar Batu, Kabupaten Lahat, Sumatra Selatan. Berakibat tewasnya dua petani yang menolak penggusuran.

PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun, an affiliate to one of palm oil trader Wilmar International suppliers, has been operating illegally on community lands in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Now the company accused three indigenous farmers of stealing palm fruit from the land, an emblematic case of how corporations can weaponize law enforcement against communities over land disputes.

Posco International’s new zero deforestation policy comes after years of pressure from NGOs and the divestment of its shares by Dutch and Norwegian pension funds.

The Indonesian minister in charge of investments, Luhut Pandjaitan, has declared there will be no new permits for oil palm plantations in the country’s Papua region. Activists are skeptical about the minister’s U-turn, given that Luhut has been the government’s most vocal defender of palm oil industry.

The Dutch National Contact Point for the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) today declared a complaint from three Friends of the Earth groups (Milieudefensie (Netherlands), SDI (Liberia) and WALHI (Indonesia)) against Dutch bank ING admissible.ING has been ignoring abuses in the palm oil sector for years.

Pejabat pemerintah daerah mengungkapkan dugaan pemalsuan izin-izin yang melandasi proyek perkebunan sawit bernilai miliaran dolar di Papua. Tindakan ini mengindikasikan sebagai bentuk pidana yang merusak hutan dalam skala raksasa.

NGOs from Korea and Indonesia file OECD complaint against POSCO International for causing palm oil abuses

Indonesian government have alleged that permits underpinning a multi-billion dollar plantation project in Papua were falsified. The land is being opened up by investors whose identity is hidden behind anonymously owned companies, as part of a plan to develop an oil palm plantation almost twice the size of London in the remote region.

En Indonésie, la police vient de désigner le dirigeant d'une compagnie d'huile de palme comme le commanditaire du meurtre de deux défenseurs des petits planteurs, dans une concession de l'île de Sumatra.

Indonesia North Sumatra police have arrested an oil palm plantation owner believed to be the mastermind behind the murder of two journalists-cum-activists, Maraden Sianipar and Maratua P. Siregar. The police said it was believed the murders were triggered by a land dispute between the company and local farmers.

In recent weeks, Indonesia has seen its largest mass protests since the “people power” movement that forced President Suharto to step down in 1998. Among a variety of pro-democracy demands, the protesters want lawmakers to scrap a controversial bill governing land use in the country.Critics say the bill could be used to imprison indigenous and other rural citizens for defending their lands against incursions by private companies.