Foreign investment

DTE 91-92, May 2012

A group of eight institutional investors who are signatories to the UN Principals for Responsible Investment, representing US$1.3tn in assets have teamed up and developed a new 5-point charter, the Principles for Responsible Investment for Farmland. The move is aimed at addressing the increasing problem of 'land-grabbing' in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 

DTE 91-92, May 2012

By Siti Maimunah and Umbu Wulang

Siti Maimunah is Coordinator of Indonesia’s Civil Society Forum on Climate Justice. Umbu Wulang is an activist from JATAM, the Indonesian Mining Advocacy Network, in Sumba. This article was drafted in June 2011, following Siti Maimunah’s visit to Sumba, for JATAM. During the visit, consultations were held in two districts, attended by more than 500 people in which local communities rejected plans to mine gold by Fathi Resources, an Indonesian company 80% owned by Australia’s Hillgrove Resources.

DTE 91-92, May 2012

In our special edition newsletter on Papua published in November 2011, DTE drew attention to the long and sorry history of top-down resource exploitation in Papua. Now, a whole raft of new development plans are being pushed through, under the government’s nation-wide effort to speed up development (MP3EI), launched last year. An additional layer of plans specifically for Papua is being promoted by UP4B, a special unit to speed up development in Papua.

 
An Agribusiness Attack in West Papua: Unravelling the Merauke
Integrated Food and Energy Estate is now online at:
(direct pdf download:

April 19, 2012

Sound recording from Rio Tinto AGM, London: DTE presses company board, informs shareholders of ongoing problems at Grasberg mine and at closed Kelian mine in East Kalimantan.

The letter follows DtE and fellow NGOs' participation in the Indonesia and East Timor Civil Society Human Rights Roundtable (7th February 2012), with the British Ambassador to Indonesia, Mark Canning HMA.

DTE 89-90, November 2011, Special Papua Edition

Recent events in Papua - the violence at the Freeport-Rio Tinto mine, the brutal clamp-down against freedom of expression in Abepura - show that Papuans continue to face extreme forms of exploitation and human rights violations.