New Bahasa Indonesia Community Guide to Forest Stewardship Council’s Remedy Framework

Read the report in Bahasa Indonesia here

Right across Indonesia, pulp-and-paper and oil palm plantations, most with permits from the government, have taken over millions of hectares of lands and forests previously owned, occupied or otherwise used by indigenous peoples and local communities. Livelihoods have been harmed, rights trampled and local cultures damaged. Numerous land disputes and open conflicts have resulted.

Now, under a new initiative of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a mechanism is being rolled out to remedy the social and environmental harms associated with this deforestation. Companies that were previously excluded from FSC’s scheme as they continued deforesting after 1994, may now be allowed back into FSC so long as they restore destroyed forests and remedy social harms associated with deforestation, and so long as they have ceased all deforestation since 2020.

Several companies have shown an interest including the Royal Golden Eagle group which includes both Toba Pulp Lestari and APRIL and the palm oil group Apical, and the Sinar Mas group, which includes Asia Pulp and Paper and the palm all group Golden Agri Resources.    

In close collaboration with Riau-based NGO, Bahtera Alam, Forest Peoples Programme has developed a community guide to the FSC Remedy Framework for use by indigenous communities in Indonesia and those who support them. It explains what the FSC is, what the Remedy Framework consists of, what to expect from the companies and the consultants that are contracted to implement the Framework, and how the communities should engage with the process so that their voices are heard, harms are identified, remedy plans are agreed and implementation of the remedy plans is then monitored and verified. Effective participation is a key to making this process work for communities.  FSC upholds the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent and the Remedy Framework requires such consent at multiple stages of implementation.

Report is only in Bahasa Indonesia.