Indonesia

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.

Central Kalimantan provincial government in Indonesia agrees to cooperate with Elite Agro LLC of UAE to develop agriculture and plantation sector. As initial step, government will prepare 5,000 hectares of land for the agriculture project.

About 19% of Indonesia’s palm oil plantations are unlicensed. The government now plans to take back unplanted palm oil concessions.

Déforestation et accaparement des terres au Cameroun par les agro-industriels du secteur de l’huile de palme, l’ONG Milieudefensie, pointe le doigt accusateur sur certaines banques néerlandaises et européennes.

For decades, the island of Aru escaped the attention of companies clearing Indonesia’s rainforests. But then it came into the sights of the Menara Group, which wanted to plant sugarcane across nearly two-thirds of Aru.