'Conflict or Consent?' Chapter 1: PT Agrowiratama and the Melayu and Dayak peoples of Sambas, West Kalimantan

This is the first chapter of 'Conflict or Consent? The oil palm sector at a crossroads'.

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Introduction

PT Agrowiratama is a company of the Musim Mas group and member of the RSPO. It is also one of the first companies in Indonesia to go through the RSPO’s New Planting Procedure (NPP). In line with the NPP requirements, the company posted information about its planned expansion in Sambas in early 2011. The company then excised around 1,000 ha of land from their concession for local communities inhabiting the area, a measure celebrated on NGOs’ websites as an example of the effectiveness of the procedure and the responsiveness of the company. The case was thus chosen as a study, as it apparently showed the positive impact of RSPO procedures from which useful lessons might be learned. However, the investigation showed that both the story and the lessons to be learned from it are far more complex, but nonetheless valuable.