Between 2001 to 2017, Indonesia lost 24 million hectares of forest cover, an area almost the size of the United Kingdom. Successive governments in Indonesia have turned a blind eye to widespread forest clearance, facilitating the proliferation of oil palm plantations. Loss of forest is occurring on a massive scale and not only harms local Indigenous peoples but is also associated with global climate change.
Given palm oil is used in such a wide variety of consumer products, it is probable every person in the world has consumed palm oil in some form. Palm oil is found in everything from frozen pizza, biscuits, creams, makeup, detergent to biodiesel, and notoriously in hazelnut spreads.
The Indonesian government is failing to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples who have lost their traditional forests and livelihoods to oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan and Jambi provinces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released yesterday. The report, based on interviews with over 100 people and extensive field research, highlights the distinct challenges Indigenous people, particularly women, face as a result.
Palm oil is used in a wide variety of products used globally. Source: SBS
It examines how a patchwork of weak laws, exacerbated by poor government oversight, and the failure of oil palm plantation companies to fulfill their human rights responsibilities have adversely affected Indigenous peoples’ rights to their forests, livelihood, food, water, and culture in Bengkayang regency, West Kalimantan, and Sarolangun regency, Jambi.
Various Indonesian laws require companies seeking to develop oil palm plantations to consult local communities at every stage of the process to obtain government permits. Companies also have responsibilities under international law to have ongoing consultations with communities.
Human Rights Watch focused on the plantation operations of two palm oil companies: PT Ledo Lestari in West Kalimantan and PT Sari Aditya Loka 1, in Jambi. Both oil palm plantations have had a devastating impact on the rights of two Indigenous peoples: the Ibans, a subgroup of the Dayak peoples indigenous to Borneo (Kalimantan), and the Orang Rimba, a semi-nomadic, forest-dependent Indigenous people in central Sumatra.
Human Rights Watch found no evidence that these oil palm plantation companies adequately consulted with affected households until after forests were significantly destroyed.
In West Kalimantan, Iban villagers said they learned that the company had initiated operations in their forest only when bulldozers and other equipment rolled in to raze their land. A decade later, PT Ledo Lestari signed agreements with some families to relocate their homes a few kilometres into the plantation but did not provide any compensation for the loss of their indigenous forest and livelihoods derived from it.
Their community is now enclaved within the company’s oil palm plantation, leaving them no land for gardens.
The forest has been largely destroyed, clearing plants they use for food and materials used to make mats and baskets they sell to supplement household revenue.
Community members said company representatives burned down their traditional homes at the old village, including the belongings of residents who refused to relocate.
Francesca, a 28-year-old Iban Dayak mother of two, said she and her husband refused to relocate. Soon after, she was visiting her mother’s house while her husband was away, and saw smoke in the distance. When she got home, her house was already burned. “Everything was in there, my son’s bicycle, clothes, and all the wood we planned to build a house: all was gone.”
The forest itself has been irrevocably changed. In the past, the forest provided community members with most of their needs – from food to rattan. Many Orang Rimba in Jambi province are now homeless, living in plastic tents, without livelihood support. Some Orang Rimba said they had been self-sufficient but are now reduced to begging on the highway or “stealing” oil palm fruits from the plantation area to sell and make money. Many now live in abject poverty.
In 2018, President Joko Widodo announced a moratorium on new permits to oil palm plantations. The moratorium is a good start, but additional reforms are long overdue, Human Rights Watch said.
A bill to protect Indigenous peoples’ rights and ensure that simple recognition procedures are put in place is being debated in Indonesia’s parliament. If passed, it would go a long way in protecting Indigenous peoples’ rights to their customary forests.
