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Indigenous Peoples

Mining companies wait and see

Down to Earth No. 44, February 2000

Companies are hinting they may withhold further investment if conditions don't improve.

Mining companies with mines or exploration programmes in Indonesia are claiming that illegal mining and the collapse of law and order is threatening the mining industry there.

Loggers rush to strip Siberut

Down to Earth No. 44, February 2000

Siberut provides a vivid example of the way the powerful combination of Indonesia's economic problems and changes to local autonomy and forestry legislation threaten the future of the country's forests and indigenous people. A UNESCO workshop on conservation and sustainable development for the Siberut biosphere zone brought various conflicting parties together to look for local solutions.

Spotlight on Indonesia's forests

Down to Earth No. 44 February 2000

With the release of new maps and data on forest cover (or the lack of it) in Indonesia, the Jakarta government is having to face up to the country's rapid deforestation rate. International donors are pressing Wahid's government to take action now to stop illegal logging and to draw up a coherent medium-term national forestry programme.

WALHI sues government over mega-project

Down to Earth No 43, November 1999

Indonesia's prominent environmental organisation is taking court action against the President, ministers and other officials involved in the disastrous plan to convert over a million hectares of peat swamp forests in Central Kalimantan into rice-fields. Meanwhile, new, more ambitious plans for plantation development in the area could lead to much more devastation.

New act thwarts reformers

Down to Earth No 43, November 1999

Important new forestry legislation was forced through parliament in the final weeks of Habibie's interim regime. According to forest campaigners and indigenous rights activists, the Forestry Act (No. 41 1999) is no advance in terms of protecting Indonesia's forests or forest peoples over the 1967 Basic Forestry Law it replaces.

Call for agrarian reform

Down to Earth No 43, November 1999

On Agrarian Day, September 24th, the prominent peasants organisation, SPSU, issued a statement urging Indonesia's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to put the interests of rural communities at the heart of the government's programme.

Coal blight in South Kalimantan

Down to Earth No. 43, November 1999

In South Kalimantan province, coal mining - involving Australian companies - is continuing to disrupt the lives of local communities. In Hulu Sungai Utara district, the district head, Suhailin Muchtar said that both legal and illegal coal mining activities had damaged the environment. PT Adaro Indonesia's coal mine (part-owned by Australia's New Hope) operates in this district.