Plantations

Guest article by GRAIN. This article was first published in January 2014 on GRAIN’s website, www.grain.org

DTE 98, March 2014

Sudarmin Paliba stands on a hillside, looking down through row upon row of oil palm trees. "This is where we had our fruit trees, and at the bottom we grew paddy rice," he says.

Down to Earth 87, December 2010

An update on the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency - BRWA - launched earlier this year.

"We have taken back the land…but it isn't recognised as ours.  We want to be free to work our own land." (Nenek Mahbun, from Kelumpang Lima)

Down to Earth No.80-81, June 2009

In April the Indonesian people elected their paliamentary representatives. Partai Demokrat, the party of incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), secured the strongest position with around 20% of the seats. On 8th July are the elections for president and vice-president, with three pairs of candidates in the running: SBY and Boediono, Megawati and Prabowo, and Jusuf Kalla and Wiranto. What are the prospects for ecological justice?

Down to Earth No 60  February 2004

By Novi Siti Julaeha*

"When people are deprived of their rights, then it is natural to resist. And when injustice is purported to become law, then resistance is justified and it becomes their duty"(1)

Indonesia has a population of 201,241,999 people according to the 2000 census. The fourth largest country in the world after China, India, and the US, Indonesia is also a multi-ethnic society with 1,072 ethnic and sub ethnic groups(2).

Down to Earth No 60  February 2004


Indonesia's peasant farmers are being forced off their lands to make way for large-scale plantations, mining, forestry and industrial projects.

Down to Earth No 59  November 2003


Further blow to draft NRM bill

A coalition of civil society groups protested over Nabiel Makarim's controversial remarks in September, which were dismissive about the existing draft for a new natural resources management (NRM) bill.

Down to Earth No 58  August 2003


Two dead in Lonsum plantation dispute

On July 21, one 30-year old man was killed and another was reported to be in a critical condition after police shot at villagers in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi. Four of the injured were suffering from gun-shot wounds, according to media reports. Another man died on July 25th, during surgery to remove a bullet from his leg.