Indonesia

More than 2,000 mining, plantation and forest-use permits have been revoked by Indonesian government due to non-compliance or because they had been unused, tightening oversight of the nation's natural resources.

Koalisi masyarakat adat yang terancam menjadi korban perusahaan perkebunan kelapa sawit terus menyatakan dukungan terhadap Bupati Sorong Selatan yang mencabut ijin perkebunan kelapa sawit. Dan memandang tindakan perusahaan memperkarakan keputusan Bupati sebagai wujud sikap perusahaan yang tidak menghormati hak-hak Orang Asli Papua.

When the Indonesian government announced ambitious plans to ramp up domestic food production as the pandemic set in last June, officials claimed that it would not lead to “environmental destruction”. An investigation by The Gecko Project and Tempo reveals how the ministry has exploited regulations that were drafted hastily during the pandemic, stripping away environmental safeguards and opening up vast new areas of land for agriculture.

An administrative court in West Papua Province ruled in favour of a district head who had revoked permits allowing more than a dozen palm oil companies to operate in Indigenous forest areas and turn them into plantations.

An analysis of land conflicts involving palm oil companies in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of the commodity, shows the country lacks effective mechanisms for addressing these problems.

A fifth of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, are operating illegally inside forest areas that are off-limits to commercial agricultural activity, a new report from Greenpeace shows.

The rapid spread of oil palm plantations across Indonesia has spawned over 4,000 land conflicts, and the size of these plantations is doubling every decade. A new study, details the main causes of these conflicts and exposes the limited resources rural Indonesians have to seek resolution and redress for land loss.

Big financial institutions rake in profits bankrolling the destruction of the land, homes and livelihoods of communities who have safeguarded their forests for generations

The Indonesian government has stripped back rules protecting the environment to expedite a plan to ramp up food production through a “food estate” programme. A firm run by allies of the Minister of Defence has positioned itself to profit from the programme and is seeking $2 billion in investment.

There is a common and well-known philosophy throughout Papua, which represents the strong bond between women and nature; “Land is Mama”. We might suspect that it sounds like a romantic attachment of the stereotype of domestic work to one gender. However, it is reflected in what these Indigenous women, who fight for their land are doing.

Despite the fact that Indonesia’s deforestation rate reached a historic low in 2020, the social, cultural, and ecological wellbeing of people whose livelihoods depend on forests has continued to suffer greatly. The indigenous Marind people in Papua, for example, have seen 1.2 million hectares of their lands and forests targeted for oil palm and timber plantations as part of the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate. This has led not only to food and water insecurity but also fundamental shifts in the food and eating habits of the Marind people. Why is this happening?

An Auckland property developer is involved in a company linked to carrying out deforestation in Indonesia, where virgin rainforest is being bulldozed to grow palm oil plantations.