Indonesia’s oil palm industry is moving east. With
large tracts of land increasingly difficult to find in Sumatra and
Borneo, plantation companies are now focussing their attention on
Indonesia’s eastern frontier: the small islands of the Maluku
archipelago and especially the conflict-ridden land of West Papua.
In 2005 there were only five oil palm plantations operating in West Papua1.
By the end of 2014 there were 21 operational plantations. This rapid
expansion is set to continue with another 20 concessions at an advanced
stage of the permit process, and many more companies that have been
issued with an initial location permit. If all these plantations were
developed, more than 2.6 million hectares of land would be used up, the
vast majority of which is currently tropical forest.
Almost without exception, these plantations have
caused conflict with the local indigenous communities who depend on the
forest – lowland Papuans are mostly hunters and gatherers to some
degree. The conflicts have centred around community’s refusal to hand
over their land, demand for justice in the cases where they feel the
land has been taken from them by deceit or intimidation, horizontal
conflicts between neighbouring villages or clans, action by indigenous
workers who feel they are exploited, or aggression by police or military
working as security guards for the plantation companies.
The West Papua Oil Palm Atlas, published by
awasMIFEE, Pusaka and six other organisations, is an attempt to provide a
picture of this developing industry. Who are the companies involved?
Where are they operating? Which areas will be the next hotspots? The aim
is to be part of a process to push for more open and accessible
information about resource exploitation industries in West Papua –
currently local administrations and companies are often reluctant to
share information about permits, meaning that communities often know
nothing of plantation plans until a company shows up, trying to acquire
their land.
Indonesian law does recognise communal land rights
for indigenous customary communities, but in reality those communities
often face considerable pressure to give up that land, and are rarely
given more than US$30 per hectare in compensation. It is hoped that this
publication can become a tool for indigenous peoples and social
movements who wish to understand the oil palm industry and defend their
forest against these land grabbers, as they themselves should be the
ones to determine what kinds of development will benefit their
communities.
For environmentalists and supporters of indigenous
struggles around the world, we hope that this will also be a useful
insight into the dynamics of the plantation industry and the threats it
is causing in the third largest tropical forest in the world. Using the
excuse of the conflict around the independence movement, the Indonesian
government makes it very difficult for international observers to access
West Papua, and this has probably also resulted in a lack of awareness
internationally about the ecological threats. Yesterday (29th April)
human rights groups throughout West Papua, Indonesia and in over 22
cities around the world held demonstrations for open access to Papua,
which has long been a demand of many Papuan movements. Publishing this
Oil Palm Atlas is also an attempt to break the isolation of Papua, by
focussing attention on the issue of indigenous land rights, in a context
where local communities which choose to oppose plantation companies
often feel intimidated by state security forces which back up the
companies.
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