A Trip to European Union: Voicing Injustice and Exposing Environmental Destruction

We took a trip to three European countries – Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom – shortly after Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited Europe (17-22 April 2016). One of the hot issues in the President’s trip was black campaigns against Indonesian oil palm exportation in Europe. Previously, on 14 April 2016, the President had said he would issue a regulation imposing a moratorium on any new permits for oil palm plantations and mining, which drew attention of activists and some of the EU commission countries. 

Along with our partners - Forest Peoples Programme, Oxfam, FERN, Bothends, EIA, and representatives of indigenous peoples from Colombia, Peru and Liberia – we met the EU Commission Chair. We were given time to explain the impacts of agribusiness industry (oil palm and logging) in the four countries.

The main issue we conveyed was how flawed legal systems and policies on oil palm plantations and logging had led to widespread land grabbing, violation of human rights, injustice, environmental degradation, illegal logging, social conflicts, loss of livelihood, malnutrition and poverty. 

We also requested the EU commission and the European Parliament in Brussels, and the governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to develop policies and make commitments to strongly press countries exporting palm oil and forest-related products to respect, protect and fulfil human rights, and to ask EU financiers not to provide loans for and cooperate with companies violating peoples’ rights. 

EU countries are among the world’s largest consumers of palm oil. The governments and consumers still rely on the biofuel industry to fulfil their food, transportation and energy needs. 

Various responses were given by the European Commission, anticipating improved policies on biofuel consumption and renewable energy use. Attention was also given to the improvement of the RSPO voluntary standards and FLEGT’s Voluntary Partnership Agreements. These standards are believed to assure improved governance of the biofuel industry and trade, and trade in forest products. 

One of the EU officials thought that the issue was not the responsibility of the EU and its member countries, but of the producing countries. Some of the commission members requested us to also address the issue to Asian governments and the markets producing such products. 

In addition to the attention and responses, one interesting thing was expressed by the Director of EC’s Sustainable Growth and Development, Roberto Ridolfi, and the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development, Veronique Lorenzo. They put forward a solution that they would bring indigenous peoples into a meeting in Indonesia with the Indonesian government and representatives of embassies from the EU member states. Held in Indonesia, such a meeting would place greater pressure on the government of Indonesia, and the EU ambassadors. 

A meeting with decision-makers, programme managers and their supervisors, and public and private financial institutions and investors would be very interesting and might prompt quick responses. UK’s DFID could contact their programme managers for Indonesia to pay attention and respond to our issue. Financier organisation Aviva could plan an investigative trip to the sites concerned and has already asked us for names of the financiers involved. Unilever, which is committed to complying with RSPO’s standards, has responded to the issue on violation/crime committed by oil palm companies in Colombia, Peru, Liberia and more widely in Africa. 

We visited Maasvlakte, the Port of Rotterdam, which is the centre of transport of various products, including forest-related products of extractive industries. The Wilmar Group sends its products produced or sourced in Indonesia and other countries to this port. We also visited London’s business and finance centre, a place of splendour and grandeur built upon the misery and plight of people and irreversible environmental degradation.

We had only a little time to discuss with European CSOs. Despite this, we were quite impressed by the way they oversee and intervene with EU countries’ policies and consumer industries, and raise consumers’ awareness. We expect that we can establish cooperation and network with European CSOs to support the advocacy work of Indonesian communities and Indonesia-based CSOs. 

We have expressed our stance in the London Call to Action. We fully expect that the commitments of EU member countries can be followed up and fulfilled. 

By Angky and Tomo, delegates from Indonesia