Fighting for our destiny

Here are some stories and facts from an FPP trip to support our partners in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan in May 2015. A message was sent to us by our local partner, Link-AR Borneo, saying that four villages in Kapuas Hulu were rejecting an oil palm company’s expansion plans.  All four villages - Beluis Harum, Belikai, Seneban and Bati – are the home of Suaid Dayak indigenous people.

They heard about an oil palm company (PT. Sumber Inti Sentosa) seeking a survey permit in their area. Concerned that this would threaten forests vital to them as reservoir for water, wood and non-timber forest products for local use, the communities found themselves in a race against time to prevent the oil palm expansion. In March 2015, letters were sent to the District Head (Bupati) of Kapuas Hulu rejecting the proposed expansion plan. The communities rightly feared giving up lands to plantations as this would deny them access and benefits from resources over which they have held collective rights since ancestral times.“There is no more empty land; we have cultivated this land for years. We depend on forest products, spring water, waterfalls, and tembawang [an ancient village which now has fruit trees].” Said Yoseph Nardi, village head of Beluis Harum. Yuliana, a woman from the same village as Yoseph, told us: “If the oil palm plantation expands there will be future environmental destruction. Though they may give us reassurances in a written agreement, it will be hard to ensure the company acts responsibly” At a meeting in Bati village, community members aired serious concerns. Agus Santo, head of village customary law, said: “In government surveys, Bati has been mapped as 25% cultivated lands and 75% forest which we know has rare species. If this land is used for oil palm then we have no land to cultivate.” Herman, a young man from Bati village added: “The map has just been produced for the government’s consumption; we have never been consulted by them. We have seen the impacts of oil palm in neighboring areas that are devastating. We are concerned that our culture will disappear with the arrival of oil palm plantations.”In Belikai the situation is no different from what we saw in Bati:“Oil palm plantations will affect our water because of fertilizers, and we will lose our original forest where we gather vegetables, woods, fruits and medicinal herbs and plants for our needs” said Petronella the village secretary of Belikai village. A villager named Marcus commented, “It will affect us socially, because the wages will be lower and the company will bring in outside workers that in time will damage our culture.” In Seneban village we heard similar sentiments. Daniel Duma, governance section chief of Seneban, queried the logic behind the application: “There is no empty or un-cultivated land here, so it is not rational to accept oil palm here and the forest that we have is a protected area. But why does the government still issue the survey permit?” Tomas, neighbourhood coordinator in Laung, a hamlet of Seneban, told us about the threats posed to community resources and biodiversity: “We have our water source, a waterfall and a rare island in the middle of the Tenembus River (Kesak Island) where red-ants live.” It is clear that these villages are already aware of the negative environmental and socio-cultural impact that arise when oil palm companies transform diverse and mixed local land use systems into large-scale industrial monocultures. They do not want to lose their life-giving resources such as forest areas vital as water-catchment sources during the dry season. They have witnessed the impacts of oil palm plantations on the environment, their social structures and even their culture. For them, oil palm expansion that desecrates their cultural heritage and extinguishes their basic freedoms, will lead to their own extinction.The communities are appealing to the outside world to respect the vitality of their environment and culture. They ask for support and that others stand with them to defend their communal lands and customary rights.