Ten years ago, the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) made a commitment to end deforestation in member companies’ supply chains by 2020. As this date approaches, it is apparent that CGF companies will fail to achieve their goal of Zero Net Deforestation.
Urgent action is needed to halt the takeover of indigenous peoples’ lands for megaprojects in forested provinces like Kalimantan and Papua in Indonesia. The destruction of forests and rivers is undermining local indigenous livelihoods, and destroying ancestral lands. Between 40 and 70 million people in rural Indonesia depend on access to lands and resources, including water for drinking and sanitation, protected by customary laws.
Indonesian NGOs have protested strongly to the Indonesian government authorities and RSPO about an incident they recorded on 18th December 2017, when police security forces shot and wounded two farmers. The shootings allegedly took place in one of Wilmar International’s oil palm plantations in Central Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo.
Indonesian NGOs just issued a press release alleging that RSPO member ANJ has been using the mobile police brigade to violently repress indigenous Iwaro people of West Papua
7th Regional Conference on Human Rights and Agribusiness in South East Asia issues resolution calling for change in land tenure recognition and security.
Indonesia: Following a detailed joint submission by FPP, Pusaka, Greenpeace and EIA last month, the Complaints Panel of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has issued a Stop Work Order to Goodhope Asia Holdings Ltd.
Indonesia: Forest Peoples Programme’s local partner Pusaka, Greenpeace, EIA and FPP have jointly protested to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
INDONESIA: The Yerisiam Gua, an indigenous people in Nabire district in Indonesian Papua have filed a complaint with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil against the palm oil developer, PT Nabire Baru.
The Maninjau Resolution
28th January 2016
Wilmar’s broken promises: we want action not just pledges
The world’s largest palm oil trading company, Wilmar International Ltd. (F34.SI / WLIL.SI), promised ‘Zero Exploitation’ throughout its supply chain alongside its commitment to ‘Zero Deforestation’. As human rights workers and NGOs that support the rights of the indigenous peoples and local communities in Indonesia and internationally, we NGOs who assembled here near Lake Maninjau in West Sumatra on 26-28 January 2016, declare the following.
A comprehensive investigation into the oil palm industry in West Papua, published by awasMIFEE and Pusaka, together with local Papuan organisations Belantara Papua, Bin Madag Hom, Jasoil, SKP KAME and Jerat Papua, and Sawit Watch.
Available for download: https://awasmifee.potager.org/?p=1205
In an article published in the Jakarta Post, senior officials of the Indonesian REDD+ Agency (the government body charged with reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) argue that recognising the collective land rights of forest peoples is key to curbing climate change and promoting sustainable use of natural resources.
The global forest crisis is worsening as infringements of the rights of indigenous peoples and forest-dependent communities are rising, according to a detailed assessment of nine country cases. Climate change mitigation and conservation policies must place community land rights and human rights centre-stage if they are to achieve the goal of sustainably reducing deforestation says the report.
Wilmar's commitment to 'no deforestation' is questioned in new report on land clearing by oil palm concession PT Hendrison Inti Persada (HIP) in Sorong, West Papua.
By FPP partner PUSAKA, with recommendations made to the government of Indonesia, Wilmar, the Norwegian government and the Norway Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG).
(Bahasa only)
After a major inter-continental gathering on Deforestation and the Rights of Forest Peoples held between 9 and 14 March 2014 in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, indigenous and forest peoples called on the international community, governments and international organizations to secure and respect their customary rights to their forests, lands, territories and natural resources in conformity with international law.
The Forest Peoples Programme and Indonesian partner organisations co-hosted an international workshop on deforestation and forest peoples' rights that resulted in the Palangka Raya Declaration on Deforestation and the Rights of Forest Peoples.
The week-long event and Declaration represent important steps in indigenous and forest peoples' assertion of their rights and their central place in global, national and local efforts to tackle the continuing crisis of deforestation.
Photographs, workshop delcarations and press releases
Dear friends,
The UN General Assembly during its 69th session, on 22-23 September this year, will convene a high-level plenary meeting - the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples – to review the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) since its adoption in 2007, and to identify outstanding issues and actions pertaining to indigenous peoples and development.
An international workshop organised by Forest Peoples Programme and Pusaka will bring together forest peoples, governments, NGOs, international agencies and forest scientists from Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America on 9 -14 March 2014 in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.
The aim of the workshop is to share lessons and generate recommendations on effective measures to stem deforestation, promote human rights and secure local livelihoods.
Click here to read related PRESS RELEASE.
Read this report in English or in Bahasa Indonesia.
Growing global demand for palm oil is fuelling the large-scale expansion of oil palm plantations across Southeast Asia and Africa. Concerns about the environmental and social impacts of the conversion of vast tracts of land to monocrop plantations led in 2004 to the establishment of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which encourages oil palm expansion in ways that do not destroy high conservation values or cause social conflict. Numerous international agencies have also called for reforms of national frameworks to secure communities’ rights and to develop sound land governance.
This publication is launched on the occasion of World Food Day, marked by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations with the theme of “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition”. In particular, this report seeks to inform one of the key objectives of World Food Day: to encourage the participation of rural people, particularly women and the least privileged categories, in decisions and activities influencing their living conditions.
