The Salim Group’s Secret Plantations in West Papua.

By admin | Published: May 2, 2016

salim location map

There is strong evidence that the Salim Group has been acquiring and starting to develop oil palm concessions in West Papua province, which could result in the conversion of 117,000 hectares of forest and grassland to oil palm.

The Salim Group is one of Indonesia’s biggest business conglomerates and it’s main agribusiness division, Indofood Agri Resources, is the third largest private producer of crude palm oil. (( https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/rainforestactionnetwork/pages/14786/attachments/original/1442856231/Full_Report_Palm_Oil_Sustainability_Assessment_of_Indofood_Agri_Resources.pdf?1442856231 )) Although many other major producers such as Musim Mas, Wilmar and Sinar Mas have all cancelled expansion plans in Papua after signing up to commitments to avoid deforestation and peatland development, the Salim Group has made no such pledge.

Four plantations in West Papua province are thought to be linked to the Salim Group, some of which are already operational. Work started on PT Rimbun Sawit Papua towards the end of 2015 and environmental groups also believe that another company PT Subur Karunia Raya has established an oil palm nursery. A third concession, PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa, has reportedly planted an area of food crops to win the support of local indigenous people. The last company, PT Menara Wasior, is still engaged in the permit process.

Examining the deeds for these four companies shows they are all registered to addresses associated with the Salim Group, and many of their directors have experience working for other Salim Group companies. However, none of them have been incorporated as subsidiaries of Indofood Agri Resources (Indo Agri) which is listed on the Singapore stock exchange, nor any other publicly-traded Salim Group company (Jakarta-listed IndoAgri subsidiaries Salim Ivomas Pratama or London Sumatra, or Hong Kong-listed parent company First Resources).

A strong possibility is that these plantation companies are held by shell companies under the ultimate control of Salim Group boss, Antoni Salim. The group is known to hold plantation assets outside the publicly-listed companies, which have previously been incorporated into the main company.

Indo Agri is less exposed to international market pressure to cut deforestation out of supply chains than many other companies as it has a strong domestic market in Indonesia through its link to Salim Group food and supermarket businesses. Nevertheless, Indo Agri makes an attempt to maintain an image of being a responsible company: it has joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and publishes detailed sustainability reports. However, if the same corporate group uses an non-transparent ownership structure to shield a set of plantations which would not meet the RSPO’s environmental and social criteria, then these initiatives are clearly just greenwashing.

Here’s a short description of each of the plantations and a summary of the evidence linking their ownership to the Salim Group: Read More »

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Marap Indigenous Group claim back three oil palm plantation divisions in Arso.

By admin | Published: April 29, 2016

tiga-lokasi-perkebunan-sawit-di-arso-di-tarik-kembali-oleh-masyarakat-adat-suku-marapIndigenous land owners from the Marap people in Arso have used customary law to take back oil palm land owned by PT PN II as part of its Arso plantation, specifically the Core III, Core IV and Core V divisions. The action took place at Yamara village PIR 3, Manem sub-district, Keerom Regency, on Wednesday 27th April.

Maickel Fatagur, the head of the Fatagur clan which holds customary land rights, alongside other clans such as the Wabiager and Gumis clans, said that they will no longer hold any kind of meetings with the company. That is because they have used customary law to take back the land PTPN was using.

“We’e used customary law to take the land back. That means now there will be no more meetings with the company. The land now belongs to us. We invite PTPN II Arso to take back its oil palm and we will take back our land. That’s all”, Fatagur made clear to the Manager of PTPN II’s Arso plantation on Wednesday at Tami in Manem District, in Keerom.

According to Maickel, PTPN II has operated the Arso plantation on the Fatagur clan’s land, and that of its sub-clans, for around 30 years, but the local community, who hold the customary land rights, have never felt economically secure

“All these years attention has never been paid to the wellbeing of the community who hold the customary land rights on the land used by PTPN II Arso at the three locations in question, Core III, Core IV and Core V, which amount to 1300 hectares”, said Fatagur.

Dominika Tafor, the secretary of the Boda Student Association (Himpunan Mahasiswa Boda) in Keerom who is also an indigenous member of the Marap ethnic group, said that she was supporting the action taken by local indigenous people.

“We strongly support the action which the Marap community of Workwama village are taking today. We support it, because for so many years the company has not paid attention to the fate of the community. They only come to destroy”, she said.

When the indigenous people arrived at the plantation office in Tami, PTPN II’s Arso plantation manager, Hilarius Manurung, recieved them and said that he would take their wishes on board and pass them on to the Keerom local government.

“Since we’re a state owned company, we can only listen to all aspirations and complaints and pass them on to the local government for further action. There’s not much we can do. What we can do is to follow up all these complaints from the community,” said Manurung. Read More »

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Government approach in Papua criticised in Human Rights Commission Indigenous People’s Inquiry findings.

By admin | Published: March 27, 2016

inkuiri nasional

“The government needs to review its concept of development in Papua, based on principles of respecting and protecting human rights…. …The government, churches and indigenous peoples must formulate development concepts specific to Papua, resolve conflicts over rights and natural resource management and eliminate the stigma of separatism from communities which are struggling to defend their basic rights.”

That’s one of the recommendations of a new report, in four volumes, published by the Indonesian Human Rights Commission, into the rights of indigenous people living in forest areas. It presents the findings of a national Inquiry, which heard evidence from indigenous people in struggle across the Indonesian archipelago in 2014. There’s a long list of other recommendations to different ministries and government bodies, notably including urging the police and military to withdraw their personnel from corporate premises in indigenous areas. The report’s authors for the Commission also state a clear opposition to the MIFEE project, advising the government to “revise regulations and policy concerning plantations and large-scale agriculture projects, including MIFEE, which result in violations of indigenous rights”.

In the findings and analysis section in the first volume, some specific issues affecting different regions were considered. In Papua, as well as singling out MIFEE for criticism, the report’s authors sharply criticised the Indonesian government’s security approach in Papua, where amidst a history of structural marginalisation and human rights violations, the Papuan people are routinely stigmatised as separatist troublemakers for defending their basic rights. The relevant paragraphs are translated below.

The Stigma of Separatism in Papua.

124. Papua is rich in abundant natural resources. Gold, silver, fish, forests, rattan and oil can all be found there. Papua makes an extremely large contribution to Indonesia every year. However, the irony is when this richness is compared to the condition of the population. For decades the people of Papua have been hounded, arrested, tortured, imprisoned, killed and continuously labelled with the stigma of being separatists, treasonous or members of the OPM. They have also been structurally and systematically made powerless and impoverished.

125. The Inquiry Team has found that in the Papuan context, security and political issues receive more prominence than development and community empowerment. Demands for community participation to ensure and protect indigenous rights to land and natural resources more often than not considered as a threat to political and economic stability.

126. Additionally, Papua’s special autonomy status has proved unable to provide a solution to agrarian and natural resource conflicts. Again and again, the response to indigenous people’s efforts to defend their rights is to stigmatise them as belonging to armed groups or the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM).

MIFEE (Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate)

127. The problems around MIFEE were raised in the public hearings, where the Inquiry Team heard evidence from indigenous Marind people. The MIFEE programme is part of the Masterplan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI), as part of Corridor 6 – Papua and Maluku. Plans to go ahead with MIFEE were reaffirmed in Presidental Regulation 32/2011 which set out the MP3EI plan for the period 2011-2015.

128. Starting from 2010, and encompassing 2.5 million hectares of land from the total 4 million hectares which make up Merauke Regency, the project is part of the central government’s attempt to make Merauke a centre for food production. When it was launched, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the project was targeted at “feeding Indonesia and the world.” But in the end, the arrival of MIFEE just brought injustice for the Marind Anim people had always used the forest to find food. Because of MIFEE, the forest was felled, sago trees which are their main food source were cut down and animals could no longer be found when hunting. All this has made it hard for local people to find food.

129. MIFEE was devised without the wider participation of or consultation with the local community, despite the fact that the MIFEE project area included their customary lands, Almost all activities connected to MIFEE concern the exploitation of natural resources, However, human rights and environmental carrying capacity are not important considerations. Currently tensions have begun to emerge as work starts on MIFEE projects.

130. By 2014 tensions connected to MIFEE had started. If the programme is continued, MIFEE could cause natural resource-based conflict and ecological damage, bringing no benefits to indigenous people or other local communities. MIFEE could also violate the rights of future generations to enjoy their environment or lose their roots or identity.

Download links (Indonesian)

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PT Selaras Inti Semesta continues logging, but isn’t giving work to Zanegi villagers

By admin | Published: March 25, 2016

[awasMIFEE note: PT Selaras Inti Semesta is a subsidiary of the Medco Group, which is also developing industrialised rice production on the Merauke area]

Merauke, Jubi – the community in Zanegi village, Malind District has expressed their disappointment in a company which has been felling the trees in their forest and processing the wood, PT Selaras Inti Semesta. The problem is, after around three years of operation, PT Selaras Inti Semesta is not providing work for a single member of the community.

“Actually in 2010 when the company started work, around 30 villagers from Zanegi were recruited by the company and given work. However, in 2012, their employment was terminated, with the company giving the reason that no more logging work would take place. But actually logging has continued until the present day”, village head Ernes Kaize told Tabloid Jubi on Wednesday (23/03/2016).

Kaize said that over the last three years, local people who hold customary rights in the area have not been given work. This is despite an agreement with the company that villagers would be given work for as long as the company remained in operation.

He said that he had visited the company leadership repeatedly and asked about this agreement to provide a livelihood for local people. However unfortunately, the response has been less than satisfactory. “Honestly, I’m getting bored of going to the company, but never getting a clear response”, he said.

When asked about the amount of land used, Kaize admitted that he didn’t have a clear idea. “I’ve already tried to ask how many hectares of the community’s forest has been felled and how much will be felled, but the company did not give me the data”, he said.

He said that where the land had been cleared, it had been replanted. But this was not the case everywhere. “We hope that the company is truly committed to replanting trees in the areas it has felled”, he said. Read More »

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The Mahuzes

By admin | Published: February 20, 2016

‘The Mahuzes’, a film about conflicts between indigenous people and agribusiness companies in Merauke, was released in Indonesian last year, and now it is available with English subtitles. It’s one of a series of documentaries produced as part of the ‘Ekspedisi Indonesia Biru’, a one-year road-trip on motorbikes by filmmakers Dandhy Laksono and Ucok Suparta, visiting diverse communities around the archipelago, often communities in struggle.

The Mahuzes follows one clan of Marind people in Muting village, where oil palm companies have started clearing land in the last few years on five massive plantations. The effects of these plantations are having a major impact – even the water from the Bian River has become undrinkable. The Mahuze clan is resisting – refusing to sell their land, erecting customary barriers to forbid the company from entering – but the company (PT Agriprima Persada Mulia) just pulls up their boundary markers. As well as these direct conflicts with the plantation companies, we see how they attempt to deal with the conflicts that inevitably arise when irresponsible companies show up with compensation money – there is an emotional peacemaking ceremony between the Marind and the neighbouring Mandodo people, but also anger in meetings that some elders in their own clan may have struck a secret deal with the company.

The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate was originally launched as a massive industrial agriculture project in 2010, but it failed to reach the stated ambition in its original plan, and the cluster of oil palm plantations around Muting were some of the only developments that have actually started work in the last years. However, in May 2015 President Joko Widodo travelled to Merauke to relaunch the plan to convert over a million hectares of forest and savannah to mechanised rice production. The filmmakers also visit the site of the new rice development, revealing that once again the central government is ordering a mega project without due consideration of the local social and environmental conditions. One issue is the water – Irawan, who works for the water provider, explains that most of the water in the flat Kurik sub-district comes from rainfall. How could these conditions possibly support huge areas of irrigated rice-fields?

The Marind people’s staple food is sago, and sago palms grow abundantly in groves in the forest. As Darius Nerob explains in the film “If we plant rice, it’s 6 months before we can eat. But with sago, any day we need, we can just go and fell a tree… This tree can feed a family for half a year…. Even though the transmigrant program has existed for 33 years, Marind people have stuck with sago, they haven’t shifted to rice.” Read More »

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Nabire: Akudiomi village government forbids forest and marine resource exploitation.

By admin | Published: February 19, 2016

Akudiomi village in Yaur subdistrict of Nabire Regency (also known as Kwatisore village) looks out over the Cenderawasih Bay Marine National Park, and is home to whale sharks which are frequently visited by local and foreign tourists.

Several days ago (10/02/2016) in the Akudiomi village hall, the village administration held a meeting with the community, tribal leaders and religious and church leaders to discuss prohibiting the exploitation of forest and marine products by companies. Many companies have been operating in the village’s administrative area recently, damaging the environment.

The village took this step because its natural environment is being plundered and destroyed by people acting irresponsibly. Fishermen from outside Akudiomi are destroying the sea which provides local peoples livelihood by dynamite, potassium and poison. Villagers say that large numbers of dead fish can be seen floating around the area due to people using these destructive techniques.

Another reason is that the sea around their village faces the protected Cenderawasih Bay National Park, which should compel the community and village administration to take a firm stand in looking after the area for the future.

This prohibition also applies to their forest, where they will stop all businesses that try to operate. This represents the shared commitment of the Akudiomi village community.

Following on from this decision, all businesses will be cleared out of the Akudiomi customary and administrative territory on the 22nd February 2016, when the village government and the whole village community will join in a ‘cleaning’ operation. Copies of the decision were also sent to the Consultative Leadership Board (Muspida) and other relevant parties. Read More »

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Open Letter to President Joko Widodo – Stop the ‘Investment Creates Jobs’ Programme

By admin | Published: January 28, 2016

To Indonesian President Joko Widodo, State Palace

Respectfully,

Once upon a time, President Joko Widodo said he would put an end to uncertainty and commit to a sustained transition to create a way forward for an outstanding Indonesia, reaffirming the ideology of the Pancasila and Trisakti principles of Indonesia’s independence movement.

Once upon a time Joko Widodo spoke of his vision for a sovereign, independent and singular Indonesia, based on the practice of community mutual aid known as ‘gotong royong’. To shape this vision as a path to change, he came up with nine priorities, which he called Nawacita.

Today (22 January 2016) we have read or listened to the President as he launched stage 3 of the ‘Investment Creates Jobs’ programme in Wonogiri, Central Java. The government announces that 10 factories and private companies were involved in this programme,comprising eight foreign investors and the other two from Indonesia. Three of these companies have operations in the Land of Papua: PT Nabire Baru in Nabire and PT Bio Inti Agrindo in Merauke (in Papua Province), and PT ANJ Agri Papua in South Sorong, West Papua Province. All three are investing in the oil palm plantation business.

We, as Papuan Indigenous People and activists in civil society organisations, are both anxious and angry at the President’s programme, because it does not meet our dreams of security or development for the Land of Papua. It is certain that the decision to go ahead with this programme was taken without dialogue or a collective decision-making process with the Papuan people. This programme has turned away from the promised ideological path and the system which values participative decisions, steered away from the path towards an outstanding Indonesia and has fallen back into the shackles of a neoliberal economic system which benefits the wealthy few and impoverishes the vast majority. Read More »

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Fifteen cases of Brimob violence in four years in Nabire oil palm plantation.

By admin | Published: December 2, 2015

brimob nabire

Jubi 15/111/2015 The presence of a regional Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit in an oil palm plantation managed by PT Nabire Baru (NB) in Yaro sub-district, Nabire Regency, Papua, is proving to be a threat to the Yerisiam Gua indigenous community’s rights.

That was the message conveyed by the secretary of the Yerisiam Gua indigenous group, Robertino Hanebora. Apart from indigenous customary landowners, employees and others are also feeling the threat.

“Acts of violence have been recorded from 2011 until 2015. There have been seven victims of physical violence, three of which were customary landowners and the other four plantation workers”, Robertino Hanebora told Jubi in an online interview on Saturday 14/11/2015.

Additionally, Hanebora mentioned, there were eight cases of intimidation of indigenous people or workers. “That brings it to a total of 15 incidents (in the period 2011-2015),” he said..

Violence towards customary landowners and workers had occurred when they made demands about their rights or pay, he continued. They also often engage in wood trading using wood cleared from land in PT Nabire Baru’s oil palm plantation.

“Brimob security guards also often do not respect the duties and responsibilities of the local police in the area. They often monopolise all law and order cases that occur in the community using extreme methods which should be the responsibility of the local police and military,” he said. Read More »

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Merauke Burns – but were the plantations to blame?

By admin | Published: November 20, 2015

IMG_1136The rains have finally arrived, putting out the forest fires that raged across Indonesia through the last few months. Forest burning takes place every dry season, but this year an especially strong El Nino phenomenon meant that the dry season was longer and dryer, and the fires were especially bad.

The worst crises were, as in other years, on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, where human pressure on the forest is high, and deep peat soils mean that fires can burn for months. However this dry season there were also significantly more fires than usual in southern Papua, in Merauke and Mappi regencies. Timika, nearly 600 kilometres away, suffered from smoke haze as a result.

Merauke has become in recent years the main focus for the growth of industrial agriculture in Papua, due to various incarnations of  a central government project, the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate, and associated oil palm plantations. But is there a link between these development plans and the fires? awasMIFEE presents two articles to address this question. The first is an analysis of satellite photographs in two of Korindo’s plantations where clear evidence of fire on is found on newly-deforested land, by Sam Lawson of Earthsight. This article aims to complement that research by looking at the link between fire and deforestation in other plantations over the last four years, and the wider situation in Merauke. Read More »

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Oil palm plantation development & forest fires in southern Papua, September-October 2015

By admin | Published: November 19, 2015

by Sam Lawson, Earthsight

Summary:

Analysis of satellite data clearly demonstrates forest fires burning in areas undergoing conversion for oil palm in two locations in southern Papua. One of these areas is intact primary forest, while part of the other is on peat soil. The concessions concerned are both owned by the large Korean conglomerate Korindo.

It is illegal in Indonesia for companies to clear land using fire, and oil palm concession holders are also legally required to have in place appropriate fire prevention and fire-fighting measures. Though on its own the evidence below does not prove any wrongdoing by the company or its subsidiaries or contractors, it should justify further investigation by the Indonesian authorities.

location map

Figure 1: Southern Papua, showing boundaries of oil palm conversion concessions (yellow), forest clearance for oil palm during September-October 2015 (red) and location of case studies below.

Case Study 1: PT Papua Agro Lestari (Korindo group) (( The Linked-In page of the Assistant Manager of Plasma (Smallholder) plantation development at PT PAL identifies the company as being part of the Korindo group – https://www.linkedin.com/in/yovita-natalia-b5168882  [awasMIFEE note: previously on this site it had been thought that ownership of PT Papua Agro Lestari had been transferred to the Daewoo International Corporation. Although the situation is confusing, and there appears to be close cooperation between the two companies, several pieces of evidence indicate that the company is still part of  the Korindo Group] ))

Between 1st September and 9th November 2015, more than 230 fire hotspots were detected by the NASA MODIS satellite within an area of intact primary forest undergoing plantation development near the PNG border in PT Papua Agro Lestari, Merauke district (see Figure 2).

PT Papua Agro Lestari

Figure 2: Fire hotspots 1st Sept – 9th Nov 2015 in PT Papua Agro Lestari (yellow boundary). Red boundary shows area of forest cleared for plantation development up to 24th October 2015. Green background shows that the area was previously intact primary forest. ((Sources: Background – Degraded (light green) and intact (dark green) primary forest, from Margono, B. Primary forest cover loss in Indonesia over 2000–2012. Nature Climate Change,doi:10.1038/nclimate2277; spots – NASA MODIS fire hotspots, “NASA Active Fires.” NASA FIRMS. Accessed through Global Forest Watch on 15th November 2015; concession boundary – Ministry of Forestry GIS portal map of Forestland releases, accessed 9th November 2015; extent of new oil palm development (red/orange line) – based on analysis of Landsat satellite images from 25/1/15, 6/9/15, 24/10/15. )) Read More »

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