Food estate plans back with a vengeance for Southern Papua.

By admin | Published: March 11, 2021

The awasMIFEE website was set up in 2012 to provide news on the implementation of the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate, a 1.28 million hectare megaproject which had been launched by the Indonesian government in 2010. A decade later, the expansion of rice and other food crops has not been realised on the scale imagined, even though the MIFEE project has had one main impact on the ground, through the impulse it has given to the expansion of palm oil plantations in the north-east of Merauke Regency. Nevertheless, the fantasies of the Jakarta elite to flatten the forests and savannahs and drain the wetlands of swathes of southern Papua have not gone away. The spectre of the megaproject was raised once again in 2015, when President Joko Widodo visited an experimental rice project run by the Medco group. Now, since July 2020, the government has been seriously trying to revive the plans once more

Claiming that agricultural expansion is needed to counter a threat to food security posed by the coronavirus pandemic, in 2020 Indonesia relaunched a nationwide program of food estates, modern and industrialised agricultural projects on a vast scale. The first project was to be in Central Kalimantan, on peatlands which were the site of another failed megaproject, the Mega Rice Project. Appointed to a key role in the project, the military has already started clearing forest for a cassava plantation in another part of Central Kalimantan.

Further food estate areas are being proposed around Indonesia, in North Sumatra, South Sumatra and East Nusa Tenggara Provinces. Potentially the largest food estate however, is reserved for southern Papua – not just Merauke Regency but also including parts of Mappi and Boven Digoel Regencies. The area currently being considered is over 3.2 million hectares, virtually all of which are natural forests, savannahs and wetlands, within the territory of several indigenous groups who have not yet been consulted.

The plans have been roundly criticised by enviromnentalists, indigenous and peasant movements. A new report, published recently by a coalition of NGOs which details the current state of the food estates around Indonesia  appeals specifically to banks, development agencies and other institutions not to support these reckless plans. The report is available in English and Indonesian, with one page summaries also available in the following languages: English, Indonesian, Chinese, German, Korean and Japanese.

Indonesian NGOs have also produced other useful resources on the new food estate programme:

  • Pantau Gambut has produced an excellent website, focussing specifically on the Central Kalimantan food estate, and debunking many of the myths around food security put out to justify the programme. (in English and Indonesian)
  • Madani has a in-depth briefing of the current state of the food estate in all parts of Indonesia. (in Bahasa Indonesia)
  • The Indonesian Center for Environmental Law has a briefing on legal aspects of the food estate programme, and the new legislation which has been created to facilitate it. (in Bahasa Indonesia)

 

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Korindo is not the only FSC-certified timber company that has cleared forest for palm oil

By admin | Published: November 15, 2019

New plantation and partially cleared area in Korindo’s PT Pusaka Agro Lestari concession (Photo: Greenpeace 2018)

On 5th November 2019, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) released a summary of their findings into a complaint against Korindo, two and a half years after it was made. It is not the full report, since that is still withheld from publication “due to a disagreement with Korindo”. Mighty Earth, the NGO which launched a campaign against Korindo in 2016, had alleged that deforestation and violations of indigenous rights in Korindo’s palm oil concessions should mean that the FSC should not certify Korindo’s timber and plywood operations.

Mighty Earth’s argument was that the FSC’s policy on association does not allow companies to be FSC members if they or their sister companies have destroyed areas of high conservation value, converted large areas of forest to plantations, or violated any of the ILO Conventions (including ILO convention 169 which includes the right of indigenous peoples to give or withhold their free prior and informed consent).

The FSC’s findings, and the additional social and environmental research it commissioned while investigating the case, confirmed that Korindo group companies had indeed contravened its policy in all the above ways. However, it chose not to rescind Korindo’s membership or annul the sustainability certificates held by Korindo Group companies. Considering that “continued dialogue with interested stakeholders and Korindo is the best way forward towards achieving meaningful positive impacts in the company’s forestry and forestry-related operations”, the FSC proposed instead that Korindo maintains a moratorium on land-clearing in its plantation concessions and phases out the use of timber from forest conversion in its factories. Korindo will also need to undertake as-yet-unspecified remediation measures with local communities to address the lack of FPIC. If it complies, this is likely to be painful for Korindo, as the bill reportedly runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Notwithstanding this process, the FSC is admitting that it will continue to certify a company which has been found to have violated its standards on sustainability. Consumers who bought Korindo’s products believing that the FSC seal of approval meant it was sustainably sourced may not be entirely happy to realise that they were actually buying from one of the companies that has cleared the largest amounts of primary forest in Indonesia over the last decade, whilst also causing severe hardship for the indigenous communities who depended on that forest. By choosing to maintain a relationship with Korindo, the FSC’s credibility as a body capable of verifying sustainable timber is severely compromised.

Astonishingly, the FSC has continued to engage with Korindo, despite the company having sent a cease-and-desist letter in September threatening legal action if it releases the full findings of its investigation. By acquiescing to Korindo’s aggressive attitude, the FSC is now unable to provide a transparent guarantee that Korindo’s products reach an acceptable sustainability standard.

So why should the FSC be willing to forgive Korindo’s deforestation and continue to certify its operations (assuming it addresses its debts to indigenous communities)? The probable answer is that Korindo not a lone bad apple: it is actually only one of many FSC-certified companies that have cleared forest and violated indigenous rights for palm oil plantations in Indonesia and elsewhere. Six other similar cases are detailed below.

Applying the principle of group-level responsibility, where companies cannot be treated as isolated entities but must be evaluated alongside other entities with common ownership, management or financial links, is a vital part of any efforts to create a real transition to sustainability. Otherwise, corporations will present their more acceptable subsidiaries for certification by the likes of the FSC or RSPO, while continuing to expand their more destructive operations under the radar. In places like Indonesia it is not always easy to establish the links between companies, as the beneficial owners are concealed behind shadow companies which track back holding companies in offshore secrecy juristictions or people who hold shares in name only. Nevertheless, part of the FSC’s job should be to conduct due diligence checks on ownership to make sure companies meet their own criteria, before accepting them as members.

Other FSC-certified forest destroyers.

Moorim Group.

Moorim’s forest clearance in Merauke (Photo: Greenpeace 2018)

Companies with FSC Certification: Moorim P&P Co Ltd, Moorim Paper Co Ltd, Moorim SP Co. Ltd (South Korea), Moorim UK Ltd (UK), Moorim USA Inc (USA)

Companies which have cleared forest: PT Plasma Nutfah Marind Papua (Merauke, Papua, Indonesia)

PT Plasma Nutfah Marind Papua has operated an industrial forestry concession in Merauke Regency since 2015. By 2019, around 4400 hectares of natural forest had been cleared, of a 64,050 ha concession. The area where the concession is located is part of the Trans-Fly Eco-region, an area of eucalyptus forests interspersed with savannah which is unique in Indonesia.

PT Plasma Nutfah Marind Papua is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korean FSC-certified companies Moorim P&P Co. Ltd. and Moorim Paper Co. Ltd. Moorim’s UK and USA sales divisions are also certified.

Salim Group.

destruction of a sago grove by PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa, 2018

Companies with FSC Certification: PT Rimba Mutiara Kusuma (East Kalimantan, Indonesia)

Companies which have cleared forest: PT Permata Nusa Mandiri (Papua, Indonesia), PT Rimbun Sawit Papua, PT Subur Karunia Raya, PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa (Papua Barat, Indonesia), PT Duta Rendra Mulya, PT Sawit Khatulistiwa Lestari (West Kalimantan, Indonesia).

PT Rimba Mutiara Kusuma is a timber processing company based outside Samarinda which has obtained FSC certification for sawn timber and garden furniture. It is owned by Anthoni Salim, one of Indonesia’s richest men, who also controls a labyrinthine business empire across Asia.

Anthoni Salim is also the largest shareholder in PT Duta Rendra Mulya, a palm oil plantation company which has cleared at least 1720 ha of forest in Sintang Regency since 2015, mostly on peatland. Several other plantation companies which are known to be part of the Salim Group include PT Sawit Khatulistiwa Lestari, located next to PT Duta Rendra Mulia, which has cleared 5315 hectares of forest since 2015. In Papua, the Salim Group is clearing natural forest in three palm oil concessions (PT Rimbun Sawit Papua, PT Subur Karunia Raya, PT Permata Nusa Mandiri) and one corn plantation (PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa). In all four cases conflicts have occurred with indigenous people who feel they have not given their free prior informed consent to the companies.

Shares in these plantation companies are formally owned by individuals other than Anthoni Salim, but operate together under the banner of the “Indogunta Group” and share management and office facilities with other Salim Group companies, including PT Rimba Mutiara Kusuma and PT Duta Rendra Mulya. It is considered highly likely that Anthoni Salim is the beneficial owner of all these companies through nominee shareholder agreements – a practice which is widespread in the Indonesian natural resource industries.

Rimbunan Hijau Group.

Companies with FSC certification: PT Wapoga Mutiara Industries (Biak, Papua, Indonesia), PT Wapoga Mutiara Timber Unit II
Companies which have cleared forest: Eastern Eden Estate (Sarawak, Malaysia), Gilford Ltd (East New Britain, Papua New Guinea).

The Rimbunan Hijau Group is one of the most notorious timber groups in the world. Owned by Tiong Hiew King and his family, it was one of the six timber companies which made their fortune snapping up timber and palm licences under the corrupt regime of Sarawak’s First Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, which have largely destroyed all forest in Sarawak. Rimbunan Hijau then expanded to other logging operations around the world, notably in Papua New Guinea.

On Biak Island in Papua province, a Rimbunan Hijau Group company, PT Wapoga Mutiara Industries, operates an FSC-certified timber and plywood mill. PT Wapoga Mutiara Industries is owned by an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands, Kinley Trading Limited, so it is impossible to know its ultimate owner. However there are several members of the Tiong Family on its board of directors, and that of the intermediate holding company in Hong Kong, Baines Limited.

Disclosures made to the forestry industry reveal that PT Wapoga Mutiara Industries sources from two logging concessions in West Papua, PT Wapoga Mutiara Timber and PT Salaki Mandiri Sejahtera. PT WMT is FSC-certified, PT SMS isn’t. Majority shares in both companies are owned by Susan Lilianti Sunarti, an Indonesian citizen who is also on the board of PT Wapoga Mutiara Industries. Since it is illegal for foreign-owned companies in Indonesia to operate logging concessions, it is possible that Susan Lilianti Sunarti is acting as a nominee shareholder, while the Tiong family are the actual beneficial owners.

Amongst the areas where palm oil subsidiaries of the Rimbunan Hijau Group are known to have converted natural forest in recent years are the Eastern Eden Estate in Sarawak, which is owned by Jaya Tiasa Sdn Bhd, and Gilford Ltd, which has cleared over 11,000 hectares of forest in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

Gama Group.

Forest clearance in PT Agrinusa Persada Mulia (Photo: Greenpeace 2018)

Companies with FSC Certification: PT Katingan Timber Celebes (Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia), PT Gema Hutani Lestari (Gorontalo, Sulawesi, Indonesia), PT Forestry Ganda Utama (currently suspended) (Gorontalo, Sulawesi, Indonesia)

Companies which have cleared forest: PT Agrinusa Persada Mulia, PT Agriprima Cipta Persada (Merauke, Papua, Indonesia), PT Graha Agro Mulia (Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan, Indonesia).

The Gama Group, which is now rebranding itself as KPN Corp, is the business empire of Ganda and Martua Sitorus and their families, and includes a plantation division which claims to have planted almost 200,000 hectares of oil palm. Several of these concessions were clearing forests in southern Papua and West Kalimantan until June 2018 when a Greenpeace investigation uncovered a web of entanglements between Gama and agribusiness giant Wilmar, which was also founded by Martua Sitorus. Embarrassed, Wilmar announced that it would stop buying from Gama, and Gama committed to stopping deforestation.

Although it is not acknowledged on the KPN Corp website, Gama also owns a forestry business, known as the Katingan Timber Group. A logging concession (PT Gema Hutani Lestari) is FSC certified, and two plantation forests (PT Gorontalo Citra Lestari and PT Gema Nusantara Jaya) also obtained certification through their parent company PT Forestry Ganda Utama, although it is currently suspended. A processing facility, PT Katingan Timber Celebes, is also certified.

Although Gama does appear to have made a clear commitment to embrace better practices in its palm oil operations, and has not deforested in the last year, the FSC’s policy specifically prohibits the association of companies which have cleared over 10,000 hectares of forest within the last five years. Gama’s two subsidiaries in Merauke alone have cleared 12,890 ha, according to data in CIFOR’s Papua Atlas.

Central Cipta Murdaya Group.

Companies with FSC Certification: PT Intracawood Manufacturing (North Kalimantan, Indonesia)

Companies which have cleared forest: PT Hardaya Inti Plantations (Buol, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia)

PT Hardaya Inti Plantations has a concession in Gorontalo, Indonesia. Even though a case brought by Indonesia’ Corruption Eradication Commission found the owner of the company, Siti Hartati Murdaya, guilty of bribery to obtain permits and sentenced her to prison, the concession was not revoked and has cleared 434 ha of forest. Then in November 2019, the Forestry and Environment Minister controversially released another 9964 ha of state forest for the plantation to expand further.

Siti Hartati Murdaya’s Central Cipta Murdaya Group also owns PT Intracawood Manufacturing, which has obtained FSC certification for its forestry business in North Kalimantan.

Sungai Budi Group

Companies with FSC Certification: PT Paramitra Mulia Langgeng (Ogan Komering Ulu Selatan, South Sumatera, Indonesia)

Companies which have cleared forest: PT Samora Usaha Jaya (Ogan Komering Ilir, South Sumatra, Indonesia), PT Solusi Jaya Perkasa, PT Bumi Perkasa Gemilang (Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan, Indonesia)

PT Paramitra Mulia Langgeng has FSC certification for its 70,000 hectare industrial forestry plantation in South Sumatra province. However, it is part of the same Sungai Budi Group as PT Tunas Baru Lampung, a company which operates oil palm and sugar plantations and has cleared forest and peatland in several concessions in Sumatra and Borneo in recent years.

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PT MSL starts an oil palm nursery in South Manokwari, claiming pressure from local people.

By admin | Published: August 13, 2019

PT Mitra Silva Lestari (MSL) has reportedly put local people to work in Yarmatum village, Tahota Sub-district, South Manokwari Regency, planting oil palm seedlings.

However PT MSL is believed to not yet be in possession of a valid environment permit, and has not completed an Environmental Impact Assessment process with the Papua Barat Provincial Environment Agency.

A.J. Siregar, who is a manager with PT MSL, confirmed that if his company had started to plant oil palm seedlings it was because they had been requested and urged to do so by local people. Meanwhile the EIA document was still being processed, he claimed.

“Local people have been urging us to give them work, so we have cleared an area of around 2 hectares which used to be a forest garden for a palm oil nursery, so that local people can start filling polybags”, Siregar explained yesterday when the Tahura Pos called him on his mobile phone.

Siregar claimed that PT MSL had been put in a dilemma, as local people had said that if they had to wait too long to get jobs from the company, then they would no longer want to accept the company’s plans.

For that reason, he continued, the company would accede to the people’s request to plant seedlings. “So we started the nursery, but we did it in an area which had been used by the people as a forest garden,” he said.

After getting this request, Siregar continued, his company co-ordinated with the South Manokwari Regency Administration, in this case the head of the one-stop permit service.

“We asked him what should we do, since the local people are insisting. He advised us that we should offer some work to local people, but that we shouldn’t clear any forest. That is the reason why we’re getting the seedlings ready. Aside from that, the local people also wanted to offer us the land they had previously used as a forest garden, so we wouldn’t need to clear forest,” he said.

On the other hand, the head of Environmental Planning and Enforcement and the Papua Barat Provincial Environment and Land Agency, Daniel L Haumahu, claims that PT MSL still does not have an approved EIA document.

“We have still not processed an EIA for PT MSL. They have previously asked us to explain the plans to local people as part of a EIA process, but we judged it to not be in accordance with the proper mechanism, and so we recommended that the project initiator should co-ordinate with us first, involving the relevant government bodies at the provincial level. However they have never come back again to try to process the document”, Haumahu said when contacted by the Tabura Pos yesterday.

For that reason, he stressed, PT MSL should not use local people as a shield in order to impose its will. It should instead process the permits and follow valid procedures. If it doesn’t, that’s a criminal offence.” he said

He added that although South Manokwari Regency does already have a Environment Agency in place, it does not yet have a technical team that is capable of processing an EIA document, so the company is obliged to process the document through the Provincial Environment Agency.

Read More »

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Habitat of Endemic Papuan Birds in Nimbokrang threatened by Oil Palm Expansion.

By admin | Published: July 16, 2019

  • Jalan Korea, a birdwatching site in Jayapura Regency where endemic Papuan birds can be seen, is under threat. The area is part of a palm oil concession, which means the tree cover will be lost and wildlife, including birds, will disappear.
  • Jalan Korea has been a tourist destination for birdwatchers from around the world for the last 27 years.
  • Alex Waisimon, who runs a birdwatching ecotourism business, believes that if palm oil moves into the area, it will mean a repeat of the negative experiences seen elsewhere in Papua, where Papuans who depended on the forest are pushed out from their own lands.
  • Emmy Mandosir, head of the Papua province Environment Agency, will co-ordinate with the Jayapura Regency Environment Service to discuss the issue. If the area is indeed a site for watching endemic birds, it may still be possible to reevaluate the permits and exclude the area.

We went to the site that PT Permata Nusa Mandiri had been clearing land on Wednesday 5th June 2019. A few hundred metres before the company’s camp, our vehicle pulled over. On our left hand side, behind a thin strip of remaining forest, we could see a broad expanse of empty ground. The forest had recently been felled to plant oil palm.

Following a footpath, we waked onto the site. The trees which had been felled had already been removed, so only a few branches remained on the ground alongside the tracks of heavy machinery.

Alex Waisimon tried to see to the far side of the cleared area with his binoculars, which he normally uses for watching birds. He has been actively trying to protect the forest, conserve birds of paradise and other wild animals and trying to improve local people’s economic situation through bird watching ecotourism activities. He has received multiple awards including being named an ASEAN Biodiversity Hero by the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity (ACB), and previously in 2017 he received the Kalpataru and Kick Andy Heroes awards.

That day, although he did not speak much, Alex seemed upset. If this land is cleared for oil palm it will threaten endemic bird species in the area. One birdwatching site which has been a destination for bird-lovers from around the world for the past 27 years, lies within the company’s concession. This spot is known as Jalan Korea, or Korea Road.

The reason behind the name is that it was an old logging road built by a Korean company. Jamil, a tourist guide from Nimbokrang, was the first to introduce this site to others.

Trees can still be seen standing upright around Jalan Korea, but these are actually only the trees the the illegal loggers who have targetted the area have not felled. Evidence of ongoing illegal logging can even still be seen along the roadside.

Several endemic Papuan bird species can be found in this area. The birdwatching website burung-nusantara.org notes that amongst the species can be seen are the northern cassowary, victoria crowned pigeon, twelve-wired bird of paradise and the pale-billed sicklebill. It’s a favorite spot for bird-lovers which has been reviewed on many travel and birdwatching websites.

On maps showing PT PNM’s permits, Jalan Korea can be seen to be within the concession. It is not far from the area recently cleared.

Alex is frustrated at the government for letting this area become an oil palm plantation, because developing the potential of areas which are already well-known is much easier and more cost-effective than pioneering new tourist destinations as the Jayapura Regency administration keeps choosing to do.

What’s more, the reality is that oil palm plantations have never brought improvements to the welfare of the indigenous peoples who own customary land rights in the areas they operate. As far as Alex is concerned, the arrival of palm oil in the area will only lead to a repeat of the negative experiences from many other areas of Papua, where Papuans who used to depend on the forest are pushed out of their own forest.

There’s not much that Alex can do. The Jalan Korea area is not part of his own ancestral land. The word has gone around that the indigenous people who hold land rights in this area have accepted compensation money from the company. Read More »

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PT Subur Karunia Raya only pays 4 Rupiah per square metre for the Yerkohok clan’s land.

By admin | Published: July 16, 2019

There are indications that PT Subur Karunia Raya (PT SKR) decieved customary landowners of the Yerkohok clan, through an agreement it signed with Donatus Yerkohok, an elder of the Yerkohok clan, in Jagiro Village, Moscona Selatan sub-district, in Bintuni Bay Regency.

According to Donatus, he was paid ‘knock-on-the-door’ money amounting to 195 million Rupiah for 1649 hectares of lannd. The company gave this money to two individuals as representatives of the family who hold customary rights in the area, Donatus and Yeremias Yerkohok. Donatus received 175 million for 1227 hectares of land while Yeremius was given 20 million for around 422 ha. If this is calculated per square metre, PT SKR only gave 14 Rupiah per square metre to Donatus, and 4 Rupiah per square metre to Yeremias.

The customary land owners don’t know what was written in the agreement between them and the company. After signing it, they were not given an original copy of the document signed by the company, which is not in accordance with a proper implementation of the principle of Free Prior Informed Consent. “First of all, at that time, the company came with a letter about this may-I-come-in money, we didn’t really know what was in the document. I want to report this so they review the palm oil plantation plan. Secondly, it was only us indigenous folk that signed, no responsible party present like the sub-district government was present, so that’s why we say we were deceived by them. They didn’t give us a copy of the agreement, not even a photo. The company didn’t read out the contents of the agreement to us and I didn’t read it. They said that our signature was just to show they had ‘knocked on the door’, but the way I see it is that it was impossible that we would ever be able to read such a thick document,” Donatus said.

As well as feeling he had been deceived into signing the agreement, Donatus has made a commitment that he will return the money he received, if the company refused to revisit the contents of the agreement. “We are asking the company to review this agreement, if they don’t then I’m out of it, I’ll return the money”

When he was asked about the name of the company which made this agreement with the customary landowners, Donatus said that he didn’t know the name of the company. “I don’t know the name of this company, we only know it’s the same company that started work in Meyado and then in Barma,” Donatus said.

PT SKR is believed to have initiated communication with the elders of the Yerkohok clan in Jagiro village within the last year, but has never presented its plans publicly to the wider community which lives in Jagiro village. The head of South Moskona sub-district Siprianus Yerkohok also confirmed that the company had not tried to engage with the sub-district administration “they arrived and just met straight away with the customary rights holders, they never met with us, the government representatives at the sub-district level”. When asked about the agreement that had been drawn up between the company and the customary rights holders, Siprianus siad that he had no idea what was in the agreement and that he hadn’t been involved in producing the agreement. Read More »

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Indigenous people’s forest marketplace threatened by companies in Mappi

By admin | Published: July 16, 2019

Oil palm plantations in Papua continue to expand. This time the targetted area is Assue, in Mappi Regency. Potential investors first started arriving in this area around 2015.

Perluasan perkebunan kelapa sawit di Tanah Papua terus berkembang. Kali ini sasarannya adalah wilayah Assue, Mappi. Investor mulai datang ke wilayah ini tahun 2015.

The first meeting with local people took place on Tuesday 12 May 2015, attended by the company which planned to invest and the village heads of seven villages as well as indigenous leaders and other community figures. In that meeting the companies gave information about a planned oil palm plantation and the upcoming visit of the environmental impact assessment team.

A second meeting took place on the 31st May 2015. The topics for discussion in this meeting were the plans to build a palm oil mill how the use of the 33.775 hectares of concession land would be used. The land and mill would be managed by PT Putra Palma Cemerlang. Apart from that palm oil plantation, there were also plans for industrial food agriculture and processing facilities on 21,300 ha of land by PT Ekolindo Palm Lestari and and another 20,725 ha palm oil plantation to be managed by PT Sawit Murni Sejahtera.

According to these three companies’ plans, they would have taken over land within the administrative territory of Busiri, Girimo, Aboge, Kopi, Isage, Kiki, Eci, and Hafo villages. The companies have made many promises – saying in a nutshell that once the company started work, local people’s welfare and their economy would improve.

But since 2015 the investors didn’t come back.

That was until recently, in April 2019 when they returned and held a meeting in Aboge village. They had changed their plans, saying that the palm oil plans were off, and would be replaced with food crops. They passed around questionnaires for people to fill in their personal details. After this was completed, they met with representatives of the Environment Ministry. Nearly all the local people filled in the questionnaire. Read More »

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The Government is urged to swiftly implement the Palm Oil Moratorium in Papua.

By admin | Published: January 29, 2019

Last November, the head of the Awyu ethnic group in Boven Digoel Regency, Egidius Pius Suam, sent a letter to Indonesian President Joko Widodo, with copies also sent to several ministries, the Governor of Papua Province, Boven Digoel’s Bupati and leaders of civil society organisations in Papua and Jakarta. The letter detailed the Awyu indigenous people’s oppostion and grievances against seven large-scale plantation companies that have been trying to set up on the Awyu’s traditional lands.

The letter was also signed by five clan chiefs, the heads of Metto, Hobinanggo, Ujung Kia, Kapogu villages and of Ki sub-district and the head of the LMA Boven Digoel, along with the support of three other heads of ethnic groups in Boven Digoel: Wambon, Kombai and Korowai.

The seven companies referred to in the letter are: (1) PT Perkebunan Boven Digoel Sejahtera (with a concession of 39,440 hectares); (2) PT Perkebunan Boven Digoel Abadi (37,010 hectares; (3) PT Boven Digoel Budidaya Sentosa (39,190 hectares); (4) PT Perkebunan Sawit Kifofi 19,940 hectares); (5) PT Perkebunan Dugu Fofi (38,160 hectares); (6) PT Perkebunan Papua Sentosa (38,725 hectares); and (7) PT Indo Asiana Lestari (38,525 hectares).

The companies’ concessions cover part of several administrative sub-districts: Subur, Ki, Jair, Mandobo and Fofi, all in Boven Digoel, Papua Province. The total amount of forest under threat of being handed to these oil palm plantation companies is 250,990 hectares.

The reason these community leaders are opposing the company is because of the threat it poses to their land and culture; they risk losing sites where they carry out cultural rituals and obtain customary artefacts as well as their food sources and sources of livelihood, as well as the loss of biodiversity, damage to the environment and social conflict.

“We are asking the Indonesian President to cancel and revoke the companies’ permits, and put a stop to the process of allowing oil palm plantation companies to operate in forested areas on the land of the Awyu indigenous people, based on a consideration of Law 29/2009 concerning the environment, Constitutional Court Decision No 35/PUU-X/2012, Presidential Instruction 8/2018 concerning a moratorium and re-evaluation of permits for palm oil plantations, and the rights of the Awyu indigenous people.”, asked Egedius Pius Suam in his letter.

However, the community has still not received any meaningful replies to the letters they sent. In the meantime, the company has kept up its attempts to influence members of the community to accede to its plans.

“According to our research the majority of these concessions are located in the area where plantation companies owned by the Menara Group obtained plantation business licences in 2011 and then got permits to release state forest land from the Forestry Minister in 2012. However, those companies did not make optimal use of the land and were then sold to new owners based in Malaysia: Tadmax Resources Bhd and the Pacific Inter-link Group”, explained Franky Samperante from the Pusaka Foundation. Read More »

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Maranatha Resolution for Human Rights Day 2018

By admin | Published: December 12, 2018

Today, (8th December 2018), as we approach Human Rights Day, we, as indigenous people’s representatives and leaders and members of religious and civil society organisations, have discussed the current situation of indigenous peoples and victims of human rights violations, including violations of both civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights, as well as problems concerning land and forest.

At the present time, indigenous men and women and our ancestral domain is threatened – under pressure from government policies and large-scale development projects that are planned or underway on our customary lands, such as logging, plantations and mining, which take place for commercial gain.

We feel the impact, loss and the poverty caused by the exploitations of forests, deforestation and mineral extraction, such as the loss of livelihoods, the loss of forests and sago groves which provide our food, the loss of rivers and the difficulties in obtaining clear water and quality food, as well as the loss of cultural knowledge around indigenous management of natural resources.

We experience intimidation, physical violence and human rights violations, we are brought into conflicts with companies and breakdowns in harmony within our communities, including conflict with people who have recently moved to the area.

The government issues policies, initiates programmes and issues business licences to companies and the wealthy without consultation, without prior consent, without transparency, without sufficient information, without an honest evaluation of environmental impacts and without affected communities making free decisions. Our lands, and the natural wealth they contain, pass out of our control to others who are given ownership and use rights, but who do not hand on the benefit to the local communities who are the real owners.

We wish to highlight the weakness in oversight and neglect we observe in the law enforcement apparatus’s approach to incidents of violence and human rights violations, and environmental crimes. The government is still unable to meet its obligations to find a resolution to past cases of human rights violations, crimes against humanity and environmental crimes. Indeed, the physical and verbal violence experienced by human rights defenders and defenders of the environment still keeps happening again and again.

We want to make clear that land, forest in our ancestral domain, and the natural riches they contain, are the source of our livelihoods, have always supported us, and will support not just the present generation, but generations to come. This is why, since the time of our ancestors we have have taught ourselves to protect nature, use land in a just and wise manner, peacefully and without making people feel they are our enemies, using indigenous knowledge and customary law.

We as indigenous Papuan women and men, have a fundamental right to live freely, to freedom of expression and opinion, without discrimination. We have a right to justice and to equal treatment before the law, a right to not be tortured or enslaved, a right to determine and participate in development, a right to customary land, a right to a good and healthy environment. All this is legislated for for in the constitution, national laws and the Papuan Special Autonomy Law, as well as international instruments concerning civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights. Read More »

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Mpur people return 100 million Rupiah to PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa, attempt to take their land back.

By admin | Published: August 12, 2018

On 5th June 2018, the Mpur people of the Kebar valley, in Tambrauw Regency, Papua Barat Province, went to the worksite plantation company PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa as bulldozers were working and confronted the company it continued to clear their forest for an corn plantation.

After an angry exchange of words they proceeded to the company’s field office, where the Ariks clan explained that they were going to return the money they had received from the company a few years before. Holding a package containing 100 million Rupiah, Semuel Ariks, representing the clan, informed company workers “We have already asked the company to stop working but the company continues to clear land. For this reason, we are taking back our customary land and we are returning the money.” (( Kami sudah minta perusahaan harus setop pekerjaan tetapi perusahaan tetap membongkar terus. Dengan demikian, tanah adat kami kami cabut kembali, dan uang kami kembalikan. ))

Nobody from the company was willing to accept the money, as doing so would weaken the company’s claim to use the land, so Semuel Ariks simply left it at the company office and departed with the rest of the indigenous people. The company passed the money to the local police, who have been encouraging the Ariks clan to take it back, but they have refused.

The Ariks clan were aware that in February this year the Arumi clan had also tried to return money to the company, 50 million Rupiah, but were obliged to bring the money back home after the company refused to accept it.

Neither of the clans, nor the four other landowning clans so far affected by PT BAPP’s 19368 hectare corn plantation, disputes having accepted money from the company. The problem, they claim, is that the company was not honest about its plans.

The first contact the clan leaders had with the company, was when they were summoned to a meeting in Arumi village. No-one is sure of the date, they think it was in 2015, although it may have been 2016. They waited until 3pm when the representatives finally showed up, and described their plan to plant corn in the Kebar valley.

Clan members allege they were told that the plans were for a two year trial study, and they believed it would only be on small grassland areas. At this stage the company had actually already planted an area of corn on grassland, after meeting with two administrative village heads. The representatives offered ‘tali asih’ money, a deliberately vague term often used by plantation companies in Papua which translates vaguely as ‘cords of friendship’, but which companies later claim represents a relinquishment of land rights by the indigenous recipients. The money offered was 50 or 100 million Rupiah per clan, all the clans accepted, and the representatives left the same afternoon.

None of the clans imagined that they had surrendered their rights to their ancestral land that day. They say that the information that they received was minimal and misleading. They weren’t even told the name of the company, the people who spoke at the meeting made it seem as if they were planning to implement a programme initiated by the Tambrauw Regency Agriculture Agency (Dinas Pertanian). At no point were they shown a map or asked to participate in an exercise to establish customary land boundaries. They were never given any copy of whatever documentation the company had taken away with them.

When the company moved beyond the grassland areas and started clearing forest and sago groves, people started to protest. They challenged the company out in the field, but had to abandon their protest after armed police and military showed up.

There are now around ten members of the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) tasked with protecting the company. The atmosphere of intimidation has meant that the local people are cautious in expressing their opposition to the plantation, but protests have continued.

People have appealed to the church to support them. After representatives of the Synod of the GKI (Evangelical Christian Church in Tanah Papua) managed to get documents from the company last year, they found out that it actually had a permit, issued by the local Bupati, for a 19368 hectare plantation which would stretch along the whole Kebar valley, over 40km from end to end.

It was also only after protesting that people realised that this project had nothing to do with the local government Agriculture Agency but was a private company named PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa. They then realised that this was the same company which had met them in 2014, in the sub-district office, to propose an oil palm plantation. They had emphatically rejected that proposal at the time.

From this story, it is very clear that this is a case of land-grabbing. The company has not engaged in a valid or sincere process of negotiation with the six clans, which Indonesian law recognises as the legitimate land rights holders on the land in question. Stories like these are commonplace in Papua, where companies routinely present any document they have persuaded indigenous leaders to sign as proof that the entire community has relinquished its collective rights to the land. Since the land law is full of ambiguities and lacking in specifics, it offers little formal protection for indigenous communities against these powerful and unscrupulous companies.

The people of Kebar are now calling for the company’s permits to be revoked. It turns out there are a series of serious irregularities in the permits which would mean this is entirely justified.

First of all, there is no environmental impact assessment. A preliminary framework was prepared in April 2016, but the process of discussing the final document has been suspended due to opposition. That means that there has been no evaluation of the environmental effects of a plantation on the ecological richness of the Kebar valley, a landscape like no other in Papua, being a mid-altitude mosaic of grasslands and marshes interspersed with forest, which could be expected to host unique ecological communities and possibly its own endemic species. Virtually the whole valley bottom is included in the permit area. There has been no evaluation of the impact to the two conservation areas of the Arfak and Tambrauw mountains which surround the valley, nor the effects of vast amounts of agricultural chemicals pouring into the headwaters of the Kamundan River, which flows for hundreds of kilometres through the forests and swamps of the Bird’s Head peninsula. There has been no study of the effects the introduction of industrial agriculture on the lives of the indigenous people of the Kebar valley, or a chance for them to have their say about the impacts.

The permit allowing the land to be released from the forest estate is also highly problematic. It was issued by former forestry minister Zulkifli Hasan on his last day in his job, 29th September 2014, when he seemed to be clearing his desk by signing all pending requests, in many cases without due care and attention. In this case, the decree he signed stated that of the 32390 hectares 13021 ha would not be released because it was primary forest, and therefore only 19368 ha would be released. However the accompanying map of the area showed the full 32390 hectares – somebody had made a mistake. This 13021 ha now has no state protection whatsoever.

Furthermore, the intended use in the 2014 forest release was explicitly stated as oil palm, yet the company has started planting corn. What appears to have happened, is that after it became apparent that there would be widespread opposition to an oil palm plantation, the company approached the Bupati of Tambrauw Regency, Gabriel Asem. On the 28th September 2015 he issued a location permit to the company (SK 521/296/2015), and then on the same day, issued a business licence for food crops (SK 521/297/2015).

Both permits were for 19,368 hectares, the area released from the forest estate by Zulkifli Hasan. However, the accompanying maps show that the company were aware of the former forestry minister’s mistake, since they do not include the primary forest areas.

Needless to say, this is not how the permit system is supposed to work. A location permit is issued first, valid for three years, so the company can go about trying to meet all the other requirements, including preparing an environmental impact assessment study for evaluation. After this has been completed, a business licence can be issued (the relevant legislation for Food Crops Business Licences is Agriculture Ministry Regulation 39/2010). According to the Forestry Ministry’s own regulations valid in September 2014 (Forestry Ministry Regulations 33/2010 and 28/2014), forest cannot be released unless the company possesses a business licence (and has therefore gone through the EIA process). However, Zulkifli Hasan routinely ignored his own regulations as he released over 900,000 hectares of Papua forest from the forest estate during his five year term of office.

It also appears that the company has used this flawed business licence and the permission to use indigenous land which it obtained through deception to successfully apply for cultivation rights (Hak Guna Usaha), a 35-year lease, on a portion of the land.

The company is also clearing land which has been established as the ecological zone of a Peatland Hydrological Unit, and so is therefore violating government regulation 57/2016 which prohibits the clearance of these zones, even for companies with existing permits.

This swampland is the main habitat for sago palms which are the traditional staple food of Papuans in the Kebar valley. The company has left a few individual sago trees standing as it clears the other forest, and they now stand surrounded by corn plants with no chance of surviving in the long term now the wetlands are drained.

PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa is one of six plantation companies in Papua linked to the Salim Group. Three are actively clearing forest: PT Rimbun Sawit Papua, PT Subur Karunia Raya and PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa, and there is known to be active community opposition in all three Three more are believed to have all the key permits required to operate: PT Menara Wasior, PT Tunas Agung Sejahtera and PT Permata Nusa Mandiri.

None of these companies are directly owned by Antoni Salim himself, but there is ample evidence that they are controlled by the group, possibly through nominee agreements which allow a beneficial owner to stay off the share register. The Salim Group has never publicly denied its links to these plantation companies, which are currently operated as the Indogunta Group.

As one of Indonesia’s largest processed foods producers, the Salim Group is a major consumer of corn. Much of this is used by its snack food business, which it’s Indofood business operates in a joint venture with Pepsico. This company, Indofood Fritolay Makmur has the franchise for Pepsico products in Indonesia, including corn snacks Cheetos and Doritos. Acting on a specific complaint about workers’ rights in the Salim Group’s IndoAgri oil palm plantations, and non-specified other complaints about the groups deforestation and social/land conflicts, Pepsico insisted that this joint venture ceased to source palm oil from IndoAgri mills in January 2017. This commitment was for palm oil only, however, it has not made a specific commitment regarding corn.

Kami sudah minta perusahaan harus setop pekerjaan tetapi perusahaan tetap membongkar terus. Dengan demikian, tanah adat kami kami cabut kembali, dan uang kami kembalikan.

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“It’s forest that we can live from, not oil palm”

By admin | Published: March 25, 2018

“A protest was made in 2015, but the government’s response was a permit to release state forest”

Jakarta – A civil society coalition took action outside the Environment and Forestry Ministry on Friday (23/03/2018), protesting a permit to release state forest land near the Wosimi River in Naikere and Kuriwamesa subdistricts of Wondama Bay Regency, Papua Barat which was issued to an oil palm company, PT Menara Wasior.

A statement of community opposition to the permits issued to this company had already been sent to the ministry in 2015, to which no response has ever been received. On the contrary, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar has now issued PT Menara Wasior a permit SK No. 16/1/PKH/PMDH/2017, dated 20 September 2017, for an oil palm plantation.

Stephanus Marani, a representative of civil society from Wasior who attended the action, explained how the company’s plans threatened to destroy the areas where the Wondamen, Torowar and Mairasi ethnic groups lived.

A similar point was made by Yohanes Akwan, the chair of the Federation of Indonesian Trade Unions (GSBI) for Papua Barat province, who said that the one-sided practice of permits being issued in Jakarta was highly detrimental to Papuan indigenous communities.

“It’s forest that supports our livelihoods, not oil palm; we can’t eat oil palm if our sago groves have been converted into palm plantations” Yohanes said in his speech.

According to him, the people in this area had been the victims of violence from the security forces in 2001. The violence, which became known as ‘Bloody Wasior’, was to be described by the National Human Rights Commission as a Gross Human Rights Violation in 2004. The aggression took place between April and October 2001.

In July 2004, the National Human Rights Commission’s Adhoc Team for Papua investigated the 2001 Bloody Wasior case and the 2003 Bloody Wamena case, uncovering data about how the violence escalated, and came to the conclusion that there had been structural violence from both the police and the military.

The director of Yayasan Pusaka, Franky Samperante drew attention to the inconsistencies in Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla’s government. He said that during 2017 the government had issued forest release permits to three companies in Papua, comprising an area of 60,000 hectares. Not only plantation companies received permits, an area of 85,000 hectares was also allocated to mining companies. Read More »

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