Rural women dependent on naturalresources for their livelihoods and daily needssuffer most from the negative impacts ofdevelopment. Women living near largeindustrial projects like mines and oil or gasinstallations, suffer loss or damage to land andresources such as forests and water, while anycompensation available is usually paid to men.

Impacts of large-scale projects which requireimported labour and/or security guardsdrawn from the police or military, often alsoinclude increased levels of sexual violenceagainst women. Women in many ruralcommunities perform the majority of farmingactivities, but, where land is under pressurefrom state or corporate exploitation, they

often have even less control than men overthe decision-making that affects their land andresources.

Ka-Pal Perempuan's viewAccording to the alternative women'seducational NGO, KaPal Perempuan, innatural resources management, women areusually just involved as 'implementers' ofdecisions taken by men.They are not involvedin planning, benefiting from or controllingdevelopment, although they always end upbeing the victims of development. Instead,women should also be involved in naturalresource management at all stages. Womenwork harder than men too, says KaPal, citingstatistics for Asia and Africa which show that

Women, land and naturalresources

Women in Indonesia are disadvantaged by poverty and marginalised by the development process.Control over the natural resources that sustain their lives remains largely out of their hands. As anew president takes office, women's groups are reiterating their call for women to have a greater

voice at national and local level in the decision-making which affects them.

No. 63 November 2004

office: 59 Athenlay Rd, London SE15 3EN, England, email: dte@gn.apc.org tel/fax: +44 16977 46266 website:http://dte.gn.apc.org

Focus on womenThis edition of Down to Earth includesseveral articles related to women, land andnatural resources, drawn from bothIndonesian and international sources.Theyreveal positive attitudes to women'straditional roles in natural resourcesmanagement (see Ngata Toro, page3), butalso some ambivalence (Halimun case study,page 5).They include examples of womenchallenging aspects of adat (custom) withinindigenous society and organising toimprove their position (see page 8).Theyalso include a reaffirmation of women’srights and calls for governments,corporations and financial institutions torespect those rights (page 4).

In October this year, IndonesianNGOs organised an InternationalConference on Land and Resource Tenure.This included a panel of women speaking onthe theme of women and tenurial rights(see http://www.landtenure.net).Thepanelists covered the areas of indigenous

women and land rights; the impact of large-scale commercial plantation projects onwomen and land in Jambi, Sumatra; theeffect of state laws and international policyon women's inheritance rights among ethnicChinese Indonesians, and a study of women,land and commercial exploitation in theHalimun ecosystem of West Java (see alsopage 5).

Women and land tenure havebeen highlighted by Indonesian NGOs at astrategic time: March next year isBeijing+10, or the 49th session of theCommission on the Status of Women,where United Nations membergovernments will review progress towardstheir commitments made at the FourthWorld Conference of Women in Beijing in1995.The Beijing Declaration states that

Equal rights, opportunities and access toresources..are critical to the[..] well-being [ofwomen] and that of their families as well asthe consolidation of democracy…(para 15)

Inside...Women, land & natural resources:

Ngata Toro adat decision-makingMining conference demands justiceHalimun case studyYosepha Alomang & Papuan rightsInternet resources

Mining:Newmont: new pollution study

Aceh: Bestari Raden sentencedIndigenous peoples/plantations:

Melayu farmers’ struggle for landOil Palm: sustainable palm oil?

Fortune or Misfortune?In brief(continued on page 2)

Polluted by Newmont mine: Buyat Bay, NorthSulawesi - see page.10

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New phone number forcampaigns office

DTE’s new phone number (campaignsoffice) is +44 (0)1953 600 075the email address remains the same:dtecampaign@gn.apc.org

DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

women work around 13 hours per weeklonger than men. In Southeast Asia, womensupply more than 90% of labour for rice-farming.

Women's representation is neededat local level, says KaPal's Yanti Muchtar, toquestion and negotiate natural resourcemanagement. "For example, if a Bupati[district head] wants an investor to come intothe area, negotiations with the investor mustalso involve women's groups. If they don't,when the environment is destroyed, it will bethe women who are affected. For instance,women suffer miscarriages because of waterpollution; poverty too, where forests are cutdown and women, who have no land rights,end up living in poverty in the cities”.

There are three important reasonswhy natural resource management should beparticipative and take the perspective ofgender-justice, according to KaPal. First, toensure that all stakeholders, especiallymarginal and poor people (where women arein the majority), are involved in naturalresources management.Claims of 'communityparticipation' are invalid if women are notamong those participating. Second, to tacklethe problems associated with Indonesia'sdecentralisation programme which givesauthority to local governments to managenatural resources and investment in naturalresource exploitation. Decentralisation hasled to the 'feminisation of poverty' (includingthe trafficking of women), and a decline inwomen's health, especially reproductivehealth*. Third, to strengthen women'sorganisations as an element of civil society inthe struggle for social and gender justice.

KaPal provides alternativeeducation that encourages critical thinking, aswell as teaching low-income women to read."These are the women with the least access

to education.They are the ones that need itmost, and who have the potential to be agentsof change," (Source: Jurnal Perempuan 26/Oct/04 viaKalyanamitra websitewww.kalyanamitra.or.id/; Jakarta Post22/Apr/04. See also DTE 56:12 on theimpacts of mining on women - cases fromIndonesia).

* Maternal mortality in Indonesia remains thehighest in Asia - at 307 deaths per 100,000live births in the year 2000. The rates arehighest in Papua (1,025 deaths), followed byMaluku (796) and West Java (686). (Source:UNDP 2004 Human Development Report,2004 - see box)

Conflict areasIn conflict areas women suffer the dualimpacts of resource destruction and povertycompounded by violence, including sexualviolence.

Komnas Perempuan, the NationalCommission on Violence Against Women, hasconducted research on the condition ofwomen in conflict areas - where women aresubjected to sexual exploitation fromsecurity forces, both during and afterconflicts. This exploitation is reinforced by alack of legal protection for victims. Womenexperience long-term trauma as a result.According to Komnas Perempuan, thesituation is worse in conflict areas that arealso border areas, such as Papua and NusaTenggara Timur, where women must alsoconfront border guards. The climate ofviolence causes a decline in women's healthand also influences the level of domesticviolence.

Cases of the horrific impact ofconflict on women in Aceh have beendocumented in recent reports by AmnestyInternational, Human Rights Watch,Tapol andEye on Aceh.

NGO reports reveal that rape issystematically used by members of theIndonesian army and police against thefamilies of GAM (Free Aceh Movement)suspects.

According to the Indonesia humanrights campaign Tapol, the recent round oftrials and sentencing includes 52 women froma total of 1,777 of detainees arrested onsuspicion of being involved in GAM.The caseof an 18 year-old Javanese woman from atransmigrant family, labelled commander ofGAM's women's corps by the authorities andsentenced to 18 years, is an indication of howbad things in Aceh are for people who happento be in the wrong place at the wrong time(see Tapol Bulletin 177, page 2).

Acehnese detainees include womenmarried to GAM members, and women heldas hostages for their husbands who are GAMsuspects.

In West Papua numerous cases ofviolence committed by the security forces

and

Eradication of poverty … requires theinvolvement of women in economic and socialdevelopment, equal opportunities and the fulland equal participation of women and menas agents and beneficiaries of people-centredsustainable development (para 16).

As the situation for many women inIndonesia shows, there is a big gapbetween the goal of equal rights toresources and the reality.Women'sdisadvantaged position and the continuingdestruction of natural resources also meanthat Indonesia has a long way to go tomeet the UN Millennium Goals of genderequality and environmental sustainability.Pushing for an equal role for women indecision-making over natural resources isone way that civil society - both inIndonesia and internationally - can worktowards these interrelated goals.

(continued from page 1)Indonesia's UN GDI

In its 2004 National Human DevelopmentReport for Indonesia,The United NationsDevelopment Programme assesses theposition of women in Indonesia by using aGender-related Development Index (GDI).This measures differences between menand women in areas such as health,education and income.The report notesthat under Indonesia's constitution, womenand men have equal status, and thatIndonesia has ratified the UN Conventionto Eliminate All Forms of DiscriminationAgainst Women (CEDAW). It also statesthat Indonesian women face numeroussocial barriers, some more visible thanothers, in improving their position inrelation to men.

Indonesia's GDI is measured at59.2 and shows that women have a lowerliteracy rate, fewer years of schooling anda smaller share of the earned income -38% is earned by women and 62% by men.Indonesia ranks 91 out of 144 countriesfor which a GDI has been calculated.

Women's lower status isreflected in education and work, wherewomen train for and fulfil lower statusjobs than men.This is also true of politicallife, where, during the Megawati period,there were only 45 women among 462MPs.

(Source: National Human DevelopmentReport 2004,The Economics of DemocracyFinancing Human Development in Indonesia,BPS-Statistics Indonesia, BAPPENAS,UNDP.)

Publication by Eye on Aceh, Sydney,Australia,see www.acheh-eye.org

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against indigenous women have beendocumented. A Yale University report onhuman rights violations in West Papuapublished in 2004 found that "the military'suse of rape was targeted specifically andexclusively against indigenous Papuan women,was committed in public (sometimes by morethan one soldier), against girls as well aswomen, and was sometimes accompanied bymurder or mutilation or both."

Under these appalling conditions, itis not hard to imagine how poverty arisingfrom the destruction of and lack of access toproperty, crops, forests and other naturalresources in conflict areas weakens women'sphysical and mental health and their capacityto sustain themselves and their families.

(Source: Tapol Bulletin 177, Nov/04. JurnalPerempuan 5/Oct/04 via Kalyanamitrawebsite www.kalyanamitra.or.id.Tapol'sreport on Acehnese women prisonersincludes information from the Indonesianlanguage monthly, Acehkita, see alsowww.acehkita.com;http://hrw.org/reports/2004/indonesia0904/;www.amnesty.org; www.acheh-eye.org.Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in WestPapua:Application of the Law of Genocide tothe History of Indonesian Control, Yale LawSchool,April 2004,http://www.law.yale.edu/outside/html/Public_Affairs/426/westpapuahrights.pdf)

Political representationunder SBYHow will the new presidency of SusiloBambang Yudhoyono (known as SBY) changethe situation for women in Indonesia? Thenew president has included four women in his36-member cabinet - meaning that womennow occupy 11% of ministerial or ministerial-equivalent positions.They are: Marie Pangestu(trade minister), Sri Mulyani Indrawati(national development planning minister), SitiFadilah Supari (health minister) and MeuthiaHatta (women's empowerment minister).

Meuthia Hatta has said she willfocus on tackling poverty by involving womenin business, on women's labour rights and onthe trafficking of women. She saiddiscrimination against women was pervasive,including in the national parliament itself.

According to the IndonesianWomen's Coalition (KPI), four women in thecabinet is not enough and shows that womensuffer discrimination in their access to thepolitical arena. A KPI statement said thisdiscrimination was cause for concern, giventhat Indonesia ratified the UN Convention onthe Elimination of All Forms of DiscriminationAgainst Women (CEDAW) in 1984 and hadpreviously signed up to other anti-discriminatory international covenants. KPIalso called on the government to wipe out all

forms of discrimination against women inpolitical life, to introduce gender-just policiesand to allocate 20% of the budget foreducation as part of the new government'scommitment to increase girls' participation ineducation. KPI also wants 15% of the statebudget to go to health, to be channelledtowards pregnant women and childbirth inremote areas, in order to tackle Indonesia'shigh maternal mortality rate. Five percent ofall budgetary amounts should be allocated forempowering women and past cases of humanrights violations against women should beaddressed. Finally, says KPI, the governmentshould end its cooperation with the IMF,World Bank, ADB and other InternationalFinancial Institutions which have a neoliberalagenda.

(Source: Jurnal Perempuan 22&23/Oct/04, viaKalyanamitra websitewww.kalyanamitra.or.id)

Ngata Toro: womenin customarydecision-makingsystemThe following is an abridged translation from anarticle in Jurnal Perempuan 25/Oct/04: 'Di NgataToro Perempuan Terlibat Dalam PengambilanKeputusan'. It offers a positive view of women'sroles in one indigenous society.

Women play an important role in thedecision-making process of the Ngata Toropeople of Central Sulawesi. This isn't justsymbolic, but is institutionalised in the NgataToro adat [customary] system.

For instance, if an outside person orgroup wants to study the Ngata Toro, thedecision on whether their study plan isacceptable involves the Lembaga PemerintahNgata Toro (Ngata Toro governing body),Dewan Adat (customary council), PerempuanAdat (customary women) and TokohMasyarakat Ngata Toro (communityleaders/elders. If one of these partieswithholds permission, then the study cannotgo ahead.

In the past, Ngata Toro womenplayed a strategic role in the community.Theyheld three key positions in the community's

social life: as Tina Ngata (Mother of theKampung), Pobolia Ada (Holder of Adat), andPangalai Baha (Policy Decision-maker). InNgata Toro adat, women also have animportant role as Tua Tambi (Keeper of Adat).In everyday life, this role can be seen in thetrading system. A person can't sell any familyproperty - cattle, crops and so on - if thewomen of the household are not involved. Ifa member of the community does notrespect the place of women in the socialstructure, they must pay an adat fine.

The Ngata Toro women's role isbound up with their importance in naturalresource management. Women are reliedupon to decide whether or not a crop willsucceed, for example.Women are the ones tosow seeds because they can better decide themost auspicious time for sowing and plantingthe seedlings, thereby ensuring that the plantswill grow without being damaged by pests.

When opening up new land forcultivation or paddy fields, women'sinvolvement is very much needed.Women, aswell as men, must be included when askingpermission from the land guardian spirit (jin).According to Ngata Toro beliefs, if womenaren't involved, some kind of disaster willresult, like a flood or crop damage by wildanimals.

On the introduction of 1970slegislation imposing a uniform structure onvillages throughout Indonesia, includingwomen's organisations, women's strategicdecision-making role disappeared. At villagelevel, the only approved women's organisationwas the government sponsored PKK - FamilyWelfare Guidance. The Ngata Toro felt thatthe PKK, which focused on domestic matters,limited women's room for manoeuvre,especially in decision-making.

In recent years, women have begunto regain their previous position and revitalisetheir important roles. In 2000, a grandconsultation (musyawarah besar) of NgataToro women produced a number ofimportant recommendations, including thesetting up of a women's organisation.

The Ngata Toro Adat Women'sOrganisation (OPANT) has the goal ofupholding the rights and sovereignty ofwomen. It pushes for Ngata Toro women'srole in decision-making, both within thecommunity and outside and also aims todevelop solidarity among women.

Note from DTE: Earlier this year the NgataToro won recognition from the UNDPEquator Initiative when they were selected asfinalists for this year's Equator Initiative awardfor their extraordinary commitment inreforming Ngata Toro customary law.The lawrecognises the important role of women inmaking strategic decisions on biologicaldiversity management - see GEF press release19/May/04.

DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

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DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

The conference issued a comprehensive setof six resolutions, asserting rights anddemanding action by governments, companiesand financial institutions. The resolutionscovered:

Indigenous peoples and women;Local communities and women;Women mine workers;Abandoned mines and mine closure;Mining, health, the environment andwomen andConflict, human rights and women.

The resolution on indigenous peoples andwomen recognises and respects indigenouspeoples' call for a moratorium or ban on newmining projects and the expansion of existingprojects that may affect indigenous peoplesuntil all human rights are secure and respectfor these rights is assured. It calls for therecognition of indigenous peoples' collectiverights to self-determination, and their rightsover their lands and natural resources andasserts that there should be no forcibleremoval from their lands. The rights ofindigenous peoples, including indigenouswomen, to free prior and informed consentmust be upheld and respected and notmanipulated. Specifically on women, theresolution calls for households headed bywomen to be recognised and treated in thesame way as households headed by men, indecision-making and compensation. It calls forcompanies to recognise that HIV/AIDS is notan indigenous disease and that they mustprovide prevention and awarenessprogrammes for employees as well asindigenous women and their communities.

The resolution on localcommunities and women calls forgovernment and mining companies to respectcommunities' demands for a moratorium onnew mines and expansion of existing mines. Italso demands recognition that 'localcommunities' means not just those living inthe mining concession or leasehold area, butall people affected by mining operations,including those living downstream andoutside the mine site boundaries.

Governments and the miningindustry must ensure that all projects aregender sensitive and ensure that there isactive participation of local women affectedby a mining project in decision-making. Theymust obtain the consent of femalelandowners and local community women toany exploration and mining activity, and musttake direction from local women about theappropriate ways for ensuring that theirviews are heard and their rights are notviolated during mining activities.

The resolution on womenmineworkers states that the formal large-scale mining sector has low participation ofwomen workers due to family-unfriendlyworking hours and locations, discriminatoryattitudes, unequal work and pay conditions.However, the informal sector has a highproportion of women workers who dependon this sector for their livelihoods. Theresolution calls for protective labour laws andproper occupational health and safety laws,full participation in committees to investigateand monitor safe working conditions andmaximum employment opportunities, not justin jobs traditionally allocated to women.

The resolution on mining, healthand the environment demands aprecautionary principle for all miningoperations, given the disproportionateenvironmental and health impacts on women.This includes banning destructive practicessuch as riverine tailings disposal, submarinetailings disposal and the mining of sulphidebodies leading to acid mine drainage.

The resolution on conflict, humanrights and women observes that miningpolicies, regulations and laws have no genderperspective and are insensitive to the rightsof women. It includes the demand that miningcompanies refrain from operating in areaswhere they require the use of military forces,private armies, paramilitary, police orexcessive security to maintain their operation

because such situations results in humanrights abuses, especially for women andchildren.

(Source: Resolutions of III InternationalWomen and Mining Conference. For theconference declaration, statement andpapers see http://www.mmpindia.org/womenmining.htm)

Indigenous women - toolsfor international advocacy

The UK-based NGO, Forest PeoplesProgramme, has published a guide forindigenous women seeking to make use ofthe International Convention on theElimination of All Forms of DiscriminationAgainst Women (CEDAW) to protestagainst violations of their rights. CEDAWis one of the six core international humanrights instruments and the only onefocused exclusively on eliminatingdiscrimination against women. It placesbinding obligations on the states that haveratified it (this includes Indonesia).ACommittee was created to oversee itsimplementation and to monitor statecompliance with CEDAW.A complaintsprocedure has recently been establishedwhich allows indigenous women, in certaincountries, to submit complaints aboutviolations of their rights.

The FPP Guide provides anoverview of CEDAW and the Committeeand gives guidance on how to use theprocedures offered. It aims to provideindigenous women with a betterunderstanding of the Convention and tosupport their use of these internationalprocedures to gain redress. It also aims tospur states throughout the world toreform their domestic laws and judicialprocedures so that they provide effectiveand meaningful protection for the rights ofindigenous women.

A Guide to Indigenous Women's Rights underthe International Convention on theElimination of All Forms of DiscriminationAgainst Women, Ellen-Rose Kambel, FPP2004. 73 pages, GBP 5.00. Contact FPP, 1cFosseway Business Centre, Stratford Road,Moreton in Marsh, GL56 9NQ, UK,info@forestpeoples.org;http://www.forestpeoples.org

Women and Mining Conference demands justice for women

Mining has a disproportionate and destructive impact on women, including indigenous women and women miners,bringing serious social and environmental problems, creating poverty and continuing to show disrespect for

indigenous cultures, customary laws and rights.This was the conclusion of the third conference of the InternationalWomen and Mining Network, held in Visakhapatnam, India, in October 2004.

Detail from cover of Women and Mining NetworkConference Report, 2000

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DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

Non-existence within existence:a case study of the excessive burden placed on women

peasants in two villages in the Halimun Ecosystem

By Ulfa Hidayati, RMI (The Indonesian Institute for Forest and Environment).(Abridged translation by DTE)

The capitalist economy has dominatedecological, social and cultural aspects of localpeoples' lives in the Halimun ecosystem whichcovers part of Bogor, Sukabumi and Lebakdistricts, West Java. In the name ofdevelopment, particularly in the upstreamareas, local people have been confronted withstate and private plantation companies, thestate-owned forestry company, PerumPerhutani Unit III, and the state-owned miningcompany, PT Aneka Tambang. Thesecompanies' business activities are the legacyof exploitation during Dutch colonial times.

As a result, local people, includingthe Kasepuhan people, have lost access toland and resources needed for food, clothingand medicine as well for their spiritual life.

Interviews conducted by RMI staffand volunteers with people in several villagesin the Halimun ecosystem provide indicationsof how people feel about development:

"Before Perum Perhutani came, this area used tobe sawah (wet rice fields), worked for the mostpart by our parents. The takeover of land forPerhutani's production area was done by force.Rice plants were destroyed, totally cleared."

(Ibu El from Kampung Nyungcung (Nyungcung Hamlet), Malasari Village)

"Before, we could still get Ki Beling in this area, butnow we have to go to Cibareno River." [Ki Beling:medicinal plant used by women afterchildbirth].

(Ibu Sr, a midwife, from Kampung Cikaret,Sirnaresmi Village)

Now the Halimun people - who previouslywere owners, managers and guardians of theecosystem and the natural wealth it contains -have become alienated in their own land.Theyare forbidden from collecting forest productsin areas once managed by their ancestors, butnow claimed by others.

The marginalisation of the majorityof people in Halimun, especially women, hasnot been taken account in planning andimplementing forestry, conservation andagrarian policies - a fact which shows that theparadigm of state control (Hak Menguasai olehNegara) is still strong.

A change in control over land andforest resources from the local population tooutsiders - plantation companies, Perhutani

Unit III and PT Aneka Tambang - in theHalimun forest ecosystem, followed bymassive scale exploitation, has causedecosystem destruction in the upstream areas,drought, infertile land, landslides andoutbreaks of existing and new pests. Forwomen farmers, who provide food to sustaintheir households, this has meant additionalwork. Aware of this, women have started toempower themselves by learning together,facilitated by RMI and ICRAF, to initiate effortsto restore the damaged ecosystem.

BackgroundThe Halimun ecosystem covers around211,464 hectares. During the Padjajaran era,this was part of the kingdom's hinterland.During Dutch colonial times, it wasconsidered part of the Western 'jungle'. It isthe only part of West Java which still containsa tropical forest ecosystem that acts as animportant buffer or support for the denselypopulated areas around Halimun, includingJakarta and Tangerang. It is a vital watercatchment area - 50 rivers rise in theHalimun mountain range.The rich ecosystemis complemented by the rich socio-culturaland economic values still evident in theeveryday life of the Kanekes and Kasepuhanpeoples. According to the beliefs of theKasepuhan Sirnaresmi and Citorek peoples,this area must always be safeguarded from alldamaging activities, such as felling trees. Theonly permitted activities are collection ofnon-timber forest products such as rattan,honey, fungi and medicinal plants.

In the 17th century, along withseveral other areas in Indonesia, Halimun wasused by the Dutch East Indonesia Company

(VOC) and then the Dutch colonialadministration to grow coffee, tea and otherplantation commodities. This changed thetenurial system and reduced the living spaceof the local peoples.Villagers were introducedto intensive farming systems (sawah), and aculture of commoditisation and monetisation.These changes were the start of a longhistorical process of expropriation or theft ofthe Halimun peoples' access to and controlover land and forest resources. The majorityof Halimun people, men and women, wereforced to become labourers on theplantations.

By Indonesia's independence, livingspace for the peoples of Halimun - Kanekesand Kasepuhan peoples and plantationlabourers - had become increasingly confined.The exploitative economic activities inheritedfrom the VOC and Dutch colonialgovernment were continued and furtherdeveloped. Local and indigenous peoples' landnow overlaps with conservation areas(Gunung Halimun National Park), large scalecommercial monocultures (state and privatesector) production 'forest' (Perum PerhutaniUnit III) and gold mining (PT Aneka Tambangin Cikotok and Pongkor).

This exploitation by outside partieshas led to genetic erosion - of local ricevarieties - as well as drought, infertile land,landslides and outbreaks of pests, as describedby local people:

"As the forests above have been felled and turnedinto pine plantations, the water in our wet-ricefields isn't cold anymore. This water is obviouslynot suitable for pare ageng [a local rice variety]So, like it or not, in order to still eat, we are forcedto plant pare bubuk [IR rice - a high-yieldingcommercial variety introduced during the'green revolution'].

(Ibu An, Kampung Malasari, Malasari Village)

Non-existence withinexistence: how have Halimunpeople adapted?As a result of the loss of land and localproduction sources, the majority of men fromHalimun have been forced to seek work in bigcities like Jakarta, Bogor,Tangerang and Bekasi,running the risks involved in becoming cheap

Women fighting to secure access rights toPerhutani land, Malasari Village (RMI)

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DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

labourers and/or working in destructivemining as gurandil [a local expression for goldminers, called unlicensed miners by thegovernment] and in illegal logging (as loggingand log transport labourers).

"To fulfil our needs, my husband goes to themountain (as a gurandil miner) for a week, thencomes back for a week to rest and process rocksfrom the mountain.The next week, he goes backto the mountain again. I carry on the sawahactivities in the Kahutanan [Perum Perhutani]land and work as paid labourer in several sawahbelonging to my brother and sisters or otherpeople.This is our everyday life."

(Ibu Ln, Nyungcung, Malasari)

In the villages, women face dual pressures.Firstly, they experience confrontation withoutsiders in their role as food providers,collectors of fuelwood and water:

"One day, when I was in the huma (shiftingcultivation field), a Perhutani man came and,staring angrily at me, said to my mother ‘You can'topen huma here because it's Perhutani land!’ ButI didn't take any notice, because this landprovides us with a living. If the land is stolen byPerhutani, it's the same as wanting to kill me andmy family…"

(Ibu Kn, Kampung Lebak Larang, MekarsariVillage)

Secondly, in the patriarchal cultural life of thecommunity, women must also fulfil the role ofcook, household manager, child-carer, nurse,cultural guardian and teacher for the children.In the Kasepuhan Sirnaresmi and Ciptagelarpeoples, fathers remind their daughters oftheir subservient position when thedaughters get married: "From the ends ofyour hair to your toes, from each drop ofblood to every single hair, a wife belongs toher husband."

Women try to overcome theseinjustices by working Perhutani land (with allthe risks that entails) and working as cheappaid labour or sharecroppers on land ownedby others.Whether they have money or not,women must provide the family food supply.There is no rest in a working day of at leastsixteen hours.This situation means that mostwomen in the Halimun ecosystem (as alsoexperienced by women elsewhere) do nothave time to consider their own health -everything is done for their family.

The younger generation of women,as with the men, go to work in factories or asmaids in the big cities, some even becomingmigrant workers in Saudi Arabia.

Malasari village: a volatilesituation Malasari is classified as an underdevelopedvillage under the state's Inpres Desa

Tertinggal programme. It has an administrativearea of 4,756 hectares, in Nanggungsubdistrict, Bogor district, West Java. Teaplantations were developed on village land,and were expanded in 1973 to around 971hectares.The plantation is now owned by PTNirmala Agung, a subsidiary of PT Sari Wangi.In 1978, an area classified as protection forestby the Dutch colonial government washanded over to Perum Perhutani Unit IIIalong with part of the land used by villagersfor sawah and kebun talun [the traditionalagroforestry system in West Java] since the1940s. The remaining forest was included inthe Gunung Halimun Nature Reserve in 1979,which became a National Park in 1992. Underforestry ministry decree 175/2003 (not yetimplemented), the whole of Malasari now liesin the Gunung Halimun - Salak National Park.In 1992, part of the northern area of Malasarivillage, Ciguha, was included in a 30-yearmining concession, covering around 4,058hectares, awarded to Aneka Tambang.

Differences between thegenerations have arisen and many youngerpeople have opted to work in non-farmingjobs, leaving their parents to the maintain thefood production. Fewer people are left tosustain the village population, above all inproducing the staple food - rice. Moreover,very limited land is available: villagers onlyhave access to and control over 283 hectaresor 5.95% of total area of village land. Tosustain the village's population of 1,782families, this means only 0.16 hectares perfamily, so it isn't surprising that conflicts overland have arisen between people and thenational park and companies operating in thearea. It has also had the effect of altering onelink in the cycle of community-based forestresource management activities - humaactivities - so that all efforts to fulfil the riceneeds are now focussed on sawah.

Mekarsari: Between Adat(custom) and RealityIn the southwestern part of the Halimunecosystem, 900m above sea-level, Mekarsarivillage is regulated by two institutionalsystems - the village administration systemand the Kasepuhan system. Mekarsari can besaid to be a plural community consisting of asmall group of local people living in KampungCibeber and three groups of Kasepuhanpeople, Ciptagelar, Sirnaresmi and Sinerresmi,totalling 4,231 people, living in eight otherkampungs.

Of the total village administrativearea of 3,697.9 hectares, around 686 hectaresof land (0.53 ha per family) can be accessedand controlled by the people - for housing,infrastructure, wet rice, dry rice, woodplantations and agroforestry. The remaining3,011 hectares, covering 7 kampungs, is aPerhutani area, while one kampung is part of

the Gunung Halimun - Salak National Park.As with Malasari village, the limited

land available has directly influenced theKasepuhan villagers' supply of food, obligingthem to shorten the dry-rice farming cycle.This means that the fallow stage of the cycle- reuma - has started to disappear. In the past,fallow periods were up to 20 years once ricehad been harvested.Various fruit and timbertrees were planted on these plots, anddifferent species of plants would grownaturally, providing materials for makingmedicines for women after childbirth. Nowthat there is much less reuma land, women'sknowledge of medicinal plants and how toprepare mixtures for medicines isdisappearing with it. This is especially so fortraditional midwives (mak beurang).The ritualvalues in traditional medicinal practices of theKasepuhan Sirnaresmi and Ciptagelar arebeing eroded too.

An excessive burden forwomen: securing andmaintaining the right to eatIn all societies, rights relating to land, water,crops, livestock and other natural resourcesare gender-specific. In other words,distribution, access, control and division oflabour in managing land and natural resourcesis different for men and women.There is alsoa difference in the meaning of 'naturalresources' for men and women. Differencesin class status in the community emphasisethese differences in meaning.

For women peasants in Malasariand Mekarsari, land for sawah, huma andgardens is not just a very important factor inproduction, but also provides social security.

Group discussions with womenpeasants about the division of work betweenmen and women showed that:

In Mekarsari, women are responsible forland preparation, planting, maintenance,harvest and processing the harvestedcrop. For huma, there are 7 stages ofactivity done by women, 5 by men and 7

6

Elder peasant woman collecting firewood fromtimber garden, Mekarsari Village (RMI)

DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

done together. For sawah activities, 6stages are carried out by women, 6 bymen and 4 together.In Malasari village, 5 stages in sawahactivities are carried out by women, 4 bymen and 4 more are done together.

With men working away from the farmsaccessed and/or controlled by the family,women are taking over the tasks usuallyperformed by men.

A collective initiative,restoring a damagedecosystemWomen's adaptations to restricted access toland have not been accommodated by statepolicies. This is shown by Forestry Ministrydecree 175/Kpts-II/2003 which expanded thearea of Gunung Halimun National Park.Without any process of prior communicationwith the people who live in or around thepark, the government increased the area ofthe park from 40,000 ha to 113,357 ha,covering the Halimun and Salak mountainranges. Based on studies done by Hanavi et al(2004), 108 villages, each with hundreds ofinhabitants, are today 'officially' inside the'new' areas of the park.

Faced with increasing difficulties inmeeting food supplies, especially for fruit andwater, and concerned about the risk oflandslides, several women peasants' groupshave started to explore opportunities forimproving their situation. Women peasantsstarted by learning together in groups andthen worked collectively to restore erodedland currently within the boundaries of thenational park and production forest areas ofPerum Perhutani. Women's groups inKampung Nyungcung, Malasari village, arecarrying out a series of activities such asdiscussions involving village people and localofficials, collecting fruit tree seeds andseedlings, cultivation of seedlings, mapping toascertain suitable areas, terracing the erodedland and steep slopes, and planting fruit treeseedlings between secondary crops (knownas palawija crops) on land which has alreadybeen terraced. Women peasants groups inKampung Ciladu, Mekarsari, have heldconsultations and reached agreement withthe whole kampung, with the members of theKasepuhan Sirnaresmi 'adat government' andvillage officials; and have mapped six springs inthe Pasir Jirak area.

"We want our kampung to be green again, as itwas before Perum Perhutani came"

(Ibu Um, Kampung Nyungcung, Malasari)

"We want to harvest fruit, collect firewood andfresh spring water like before; We don't want alandslide in our village."

(Anon woman Kampung Nyungcung,Malasari).

This collective work represents the beginningof an awareness, social acceptance of andsupport from the household and thecommunity at kampung-level for thesewomen's initiatives to secure and maintainthe right to food security and to live in a safeenvironment. It points to the development ofa negotiation process, between women'sgroups and kampung community on the onehand and the government and others, toassert elements of their basic rights and tosecure genuine benefits from the presence ofothers (the National Park, Perhutani) on theirland.

ConclusionThe investigation of how women haveadapted to the changing land and naturalresources situation in these two villagesshows that access to land, water, trees andfood crops/plants is a vitally importantcondition for fulfilling basic needs in thehousehold and in spiritual and cultural life.

This study shows that marginalgroups are becoming increasingly distancedfrom their rights to land, water and naturalresources, both in quality and quantity. Asfound in field studies by Argawal (1994),returning them brings benefits in three ways -security, efficiency and equality/beingempowered.

If there is an accommodation ofwomen's rights over land, water, plants etc,this provides security because it substantiallyreduces poverty, the threat of poverty andrisk that poverty will appear if there is afamily break up or separation due to divorceor death of the husband. Efficiency is shownwhere women, if given the same land andother resources in the same quantity andquality, plus the same technology, training andinformation as men, can increase productivity.Increased agricultural productivity and othernatural resource management activitiesguarantee the supply of food and economicresources for the family throughout the year.Equality/being empowered shows that whenthere is equality between women and men inobtaining and safeguarding rights to land,water and other natural resources, thisempowers women economically and, at thesame time, opens the door to social andpolitical empowerment.This leads to womenbeing more valued and securing a strongerbargaining position, not just in the family, butalso in their relations with landowners,employers and in the local political arena.

In the legal context, as a frameworkfor negotiation, there are severalopportunities for us to push the governmentharder to fulfil its commitments according tothe international covenants it has ratified.From the perspective of legal pluralism, theview of law as a framework for negotiationhas a lot of potential. In addition tointernational law and state law, 'people's law' -consisting of customary law, religion,

traditions, norms, agreements and jointinitiatives - can also be viewed as law, allelements influencing and interacting witheach other.

It is extremely urgent to mobilisesupport for initiatives by marginal groups,especially women, in securing and maintainingthese rights. Strategies include:

Increasing legal understanding amongwomen, local government bodies and otherinstitutions involved in the Indonesiantenurial system.

One difficulty faced by marginalisedwomen is their lack of understanding ofthe structure of the laws they are facedwith. For example, some of the women inMekarsari think 'law' means 'jail', while forsome of the women in Malasari, 'law'means a difficult thing to use forupholding justice. Efforts are needed toincrease understanding of the law throughcritical educational activities. Along withgrassroots education, it is also importantto increase understanding of local, stateand international law, among governmentofficials and in other related institutions.

implementing communal rights for women,by working together with women.

In a context of rapid land and naturalresource privatisation, implementingcommunal rights will strengthen thebargaining position of women in thehousehold, community and state.Provided with an understanding of lawand critical consciousness of theimportance of their rights, women canformulate management and rules forcommunal management of land andnatural resources they access.

Supporting women's groups and/ororganisations.

It is important for women to organisethemselves so they can collectivelyrepresent themselves to and work withother parties to negotiate their rights andto strengthen their legal status withintheir communities. Only in this way canwomen really secure and protect theirrights over land and water.

Real change towards genuine justice doesn'tcome without strong collective pressure fromus all, especially from women.

Note from DTE: This paper was presented atthe International Conference on Land andResource Tenure, Jakarta, 11-13 October2004. The writer was part of a panel ofwomen speaking on the theme of women andtenurial rights. For further information seehttp:// www.landtenure.net.

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DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

Yosepha Alomang - a Papuan womanfighting for human and environmental rightsThe indigenous Amungin human rights defender,Yosepha Alomang, grew up in the shadow of the huge Freeport/Rio

Tinto gold and copper mine and under Indonesian military oppression in West Papua. She survived numeroushardships as an indigenous woman in a world dominated by men and by the Indonesian security forces, going on to

form her own human rights organisation and to gain international recognition as winner of the Goldman SachsEnvironmental Prize in 2001.

The 2003 book, Yosepha Alomang, the struggleof a Papuan woman challenging oppression(Pergulatan seorang Perempuan Papua MelawanPenindasan), is based on a series of interviewswith Mama Yosepha, as she is widely known.These took place at the offices of Papuanhuman rights group, Elsham in conditions thatwere far from ideal - the process was beingwatched by the security forces, and a tribalwar which broke out between Amungme andDani meant that Yosepha had to cut this workshort to return home.

For Papuan human rights defenderJohn Rumbiak, Mama Yosepha is a symbol ofthe suffering of the Amungme people, and herstory bears this out. Yosepha Alomang wasborn in the 1940s, in Tsinga, or Nusulanop inAmungkal (Amungme language). She wasorphaned as a baby and lived with her step-father. She moved around a lot during herchildhood, along with the other villagers,under orders of the Dutch, then Indonesiangovernments. She was nine years old whenshe first saw an Indonesian during one ofthese forced relocations.

Yosepha married in the early 1970safter a few years at school, by which time shehad become skilled at midwifery and, throughthe Catholic church, had worked to helpothers.

When her husband failed to pay abride price for Yosepha as required bycustomary law,Yosepha saved up for it herself,to allay her family's anger. This was a sign ofthe determination and self-reliance she haddeveloped from a very young age - indeed thishad been forced upon her by her position asan orphan in a large step-family where shewas not popular with her step-brothers andsisters.

Yosepha's husband began to drinkheavily - for which she blames the Indonesianmilitary, the government and Freeport, as itwas they who introduced alcoholic drink intothe community, intentionally, she believes, todestroy Papuan families.Yosepha campaignedto get alcohol made illegal in Timika. Once,when Yosepha was away from home, herhusband sold her land to spend the money ondrink. When her youngest child was 8months,Yosepha left her husband, because hisdrinking was destroying the family. Shewanted to carry on her work as and with

whom she liked.Yosepha had 6 children - the first,

Johanna, was born in 1974 but died in 1977from starvation while the family was hiding inthe forest from army operations.The militaryaction against the local population waslaunched after hundreds of Amungme peoplecut a Freeport pipeline.The protest had itselfresulted from the killing of thirty people aftera peaceful protest against Freeport's theft ofAmungme land in Agimuga. Bombs and bulletsthen totally wiped out Waa and Kwakmivillages - and villagers fled to hide in theforests.

Freeport/Rio TintoThe relationship with Freeport/Rio Tinto hasdominated Yosepha's life and work.The bookcontains an account of Freeport's presence inPapua, from the company's negotiations with

Suharto regime in 1966, through the violenthistory of the mine's development and theIndonesian military's brutal response towhoever challenged the takeover ofindigenous land or wholesale destruction ofthe environment.This included mass protestsin 1994 and a large-scale military crack-downin 1994-1995 which saw the massacre ofeleven adults and children in Hoea village.

Among Yosepha's many protestsagainst the company and the military securityguards in its pay, was an attempt to bringsome benefits to local people.Assisted by thechurch,Yosepha and several other women setup a cooperative, called Kulalok, to markettheir fruit and vegetables. Yosepha felt thatFreeport should support the local people bybuying from them, but the company importedthese goods from outside Papua, flying theminto Timika airport. So the women planned away of drawing Freeport's attention to theirgroup by destroying the imported fruit andvegetables.With the money earned from theco-op, the women paid for homes built withbatako (concrete bricks) and supplied withelectricity.

In 1991, Yosepha held a three-daydemonstration at Timika airport, by lightingfires on the airfield, to protest against therefusal by Freeport and the Indonesiangovernment to listen to local people'sconcerns and against the continuing ill-treatment of Papuans.

In 1994, Mama Yosepha wasarrested on suspicion of helping OPMindependence fighter Kelly Kwalik.Along withanother Papuan woman, Mama Yuliana, shewas locked in a container for human faecesand urine, flushed from a toilet.Mama Yosephaspent one month there, up to her knees infaeces.

Two years later,Yosepha launched acivil lawsuit against the Freeport McMoRanCopper & Gold in the US, suing the companyfor personal injury and environmentaldamages.

Yosepha also worked to free otherPapuan prisoners held in containers by thesecurity forces around the Freeport mine.She has been a constant thorn in Freeport'sside, repeatedly demanding that the companyanswers for the damage inflicted on localpeople's lands and livelihoods and protesting

Yosepha Alomang on front cover of ‘PergulatanSeorang Perempuan Papua Melawan Penindasan’.

8

against human rights violations.When news of the Wanagon dam

collapse of May 2000 reached Mama Yosepha,she immediately returned to Timika fromJayapura, and phoned Freeport. She securedpermission to visit the inundated villagedownstream of the dam, Banti II. She saw howthe flood had swept away all gardens andhouses and livestock. Mama Yosepha returnedto Jayapura with several other Amungmepeople.They organised a large demonstrationoutside the provincial parliament.

In 2001, Mama Yosepha set upYahamak, the Foundation Against Violence andfor Human Rights, using money from the YapTham Hien human rights prize, awarded toher in 1999. Its purpose was to continue thestruggle for human rights in Timika.

In the end, her dogged campaignsagainst Freeport were successful in that thecompany decided unilaterally to awardYosepha funding for her work. Shortly beforeMama Yosepha went to the States to receiveher Goldman award, Freeport announcedthat it would give her USD248,000. In thebook, Mama Yosepha says she challengedFreeport to put its money where its mouthwas. An agreement was signed under whichFreeport funded the construction of theYosepha Alomang Complex - consisting of aclinic, meeting hall, orphanage, human rightsviolations monument - then used by Yahamakfor its programmes.

Questions were raised bycontributors to the book as to how far thisnew financial relationship with Freeportchanged or weakened Mama Yosepha'sattitude and whether it would curb hercriticism of the company. However, late in2003, after a major pit collapse at theFreeport's giant Grasberg mine killed 9

workers, Yosepha was once again calling onFreeport to get out of Papua.At a joint pressconference of Yahamak, Elsham and WalhiPapua, she said:

"I say Freeport must close this month(December) because many people have died,Freeport must be held responsible for thesecasualties, including the large scale, and wide

spread, destruction of the environment."(Elsham News Service, 5/Dec/2003)

(Source: Yosepha Alomang, Pergulatan SeorangPerempuan Papua Melawan Penindasan,European Commission and Elsham Papua,June 2003. See also Latitudes Magazine [Bali]August 2004: 'Mama of Papua' byMargiyono.)

DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

Challenging adatMama Yosepha's religious faith has been avery strong influence on her life, as haveAmungme adat (customary) beliefs andtraditions. However, by organising directactions such as the airport protest, by puttingherself at the forefront of action andcampaigns, and by adopting a challengingattitude towards Freeport, the military andIndonesian government as well as towardsPapuan men, Yosepha frequently found shewas going against Amungme adat. This isevident from what Mama Yosepha says aboutLemasa, the organisation set up, with herhelp, to present a united Amungme voiceagainst Freeport. The male-dominatedleadership would not listen to her, Yosephasays, so she did not play a big role in Lemasa,but eventually set up her own human rightsorganisation,Yahamak.

I often say openly that if you are hard [keras] Iwill also be hard. But I say that because I workhard to defend myself and fight against violencetowards women and other victims of men oroutsiders in military uniforms or from the civilgovernment or Freeport.Whoever they are.Youcould say I am not like other women. I speakup and fight. Never mind if my Indonesian isn'tvery good. I convey what I feel as a woman.And

I think that my attitude and my strugglerepresent the attitude and experience ofwomen in Papua every day. I can't turn backnow. (p.30)

I am aware that I belong to this culture, I myselfknow that although I am part of this culture, thisisn't good because it demeans women. EventuallyI became aware that opposing these traditions isright thing for me to do because I'm opposingtraditions that aren't right, which demean onegroup of people.

In her work, Yosepha was encouraged andsupported by human rights defender, JohnRumbiak, as well as Pater Nato Gobay andPater John Jonga. In his introduction to thebook, Nator Gobay says:

Mama Yosepha really opposed the attitude ofglorifying men, while women were held in a lowerposition. So her emancipation was very evident.She challenged cultural currents that demeanedthe dignity and position of women. Maybe thiswouldn't be a problem in another tribe, but herethis was not allowed at all. And Yosephachallenged all this openly - she is a very strongwoman. (p.xv)

Resources: women and environmentInternational

Amnesty International's violence against women campaignhttp://www.amnesty.org.uk/svaw/vaw/

International Women and Mining Networkhttp://iwam.net/

IWBN: Indigenous Women's Biodiversity Network. Containsbackground information, strategies and declarations.http://www.nciv.net/spaans/iwbn/IWBN.htm

Tebtebba: the Philippine based Indigenous Peoples InternationalCentre for Policy Research and Education. Contains links to variousstatements and declarations made by indigenous peoples aboutnatural resources as well as gender.http://www.tebtebba.org

IGNARM: Network on Indigenous peoples, Gender and NaturalResource Management, shares, explores and strengthens theparticipating organisations' experiences and knowledge within thefield emerging at the intersection between indigenous peoples, genderand natural resource management. The network is formed by fiveDanish organizations WWF-Denmark, IWGIA, KULU-Women andDevelopment, Nepenthes and DIIS. http://www.cdr.dk/IGNARM/

Women's Environment and Development Organizationhttp://www.wedo.org/

Women's International League for Peace and Freedomhttp://www.wilpf.org

Indonesian women's organisations on the web:

Kalyanamitra, founded1985 with goal to build a movement against allforms of abuse against women.www.kalyanamitra.or.id/

KaPal Perempuankapalperempuan@indo.net.id

KPI - Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia untuk Keadilan dan Demokrasi(Indonesian Women's Coalition for Justice and Democracy)http://go.to/koalisip

APIK - Asosiasi Perempuan Indonesia untuk Keadilan (the IndonesianWomen’s Association for Justice), fights for gender justice.http://www.lbh-apik.or.id

Solidaritas Perempuan - Women's Solidarity for Human Rightssoliper@centrin.net.id

Komnas Perempuan - National Coalition Against Violence to Womenwati@komnasperempuan.or.id

9

The latest pollution study, conducted by agovernment-convened Joint InvestigationTeam, found that levels of arsenic andmercury in fish in Buyat Bay, near PTNewmont Minahasa Raya's gold mine inNorth Sulawesi, posed health risks for thelocal community, especially for children. Itrecommended that villagers reduce their fishconsumption and that the possibility beconsidered of moving the community out ofBuyat Bay. Around 300 people live on theshores of the bay and depend on fishing fortheir main protein supply and theirlivelihoods.

The study, which was presented tothe government in early November, foundthat Newmont's disposal of mine tailingsunder the sea had affected the marine life inBuyat Bay and recommended that legal actionshould be taken over the company's breachesof environmental law.This is the most recentof a number of pollution tests which have hadcontradictory results - leading to conflictingclaims and denials by environmental NGOsand the mining company.

The newest investigation, whichinvolved government departments, universityscientists and NGO representatives, foundextremely high levels of mercury and arsenicin the seabed sediment. Levels of 666 mg/kgwere around 100 times higher than thosefound in control sites. Mercury pollution inthe seabed averaged at over 1000 µg/kg.Buyat Bay was found to be polluted with botharsenic and mercury according to ASEANMarine Water Quality Criteria1.

Seabed-dwelling marine creatures(benthos) such as crabs, mussels and worms,were also found to be accumulating mercury- samples contained 1889 µg/kg, ten timeshigher than in control samples. A poor

diversity index of benthos and phytoplankton- a crucial part of the human food chain - waslinked to the high level of arsenic found in thesediment at Buyat Bay2.

Based on their actual fishconsumption of 0.45 kg/day, the investigationteam calculated that the Buyat Baycommunity was exposed to an unacceptablydangerous level of inorganic arsenic.The teamalso calculated mercury in the fish intake,concluding that consuming fish from BuyatBay is risky for adults and exceeds thetolerable level for children.

The Team drew attention to initialfield observations suggesting that the localpeople who have fallen ill display symptomswhich may match the literature for arsenicaccumulation in the body. It recommendedfollow-up research by the Health Ministry tolook into arsenic poisoning in villagerscomplaining of symptoms such as skindisease, lumps, breathing difficulties anddizziness.

Previously, NGO and mediaattention had focused on levels of mercurypollution - raising the possibility of Minimatadisease in the community of Buyat Bay. Itcould well be that the combination of aresnic,mercury and other chemicals, rather than anyone substance is a danger to people's health.

The investigation team also found that:There is no protective thermocline layer -a temperature gradient below which thecolder denser salt water cannot rise to thesurface - contrary to Newmont's claims inits environmental impact assessment.Newmont says a thermocline layer at 50-70metres depth3 would act as a barrier tokeep the tailings from spreading into thebiological productive layers nearer thesurface in Buyat Bay.Newmont's dumping of mine waste intothe sea breached Government RegulationNo 19/1994 on Dangerous and Toxic WasteManagement, plus two other regulationsissued in 1999 (No.19 and No. 85).Since Newmont's waste dumping has hadan impact on marine life in Buyat Bay,Newmont and the government shouldmonitor the situation over the next 30years or until Buyat Bay recovers naturally.Ocean dumping of waste should not beused in future.Some of the Joint Team results matchedprevious NGO, government and academicinvestigations.

Newmont denies pollutionThe Denver-based multinational and world'sbiggest gold producer, Newmont, insists itsmining operations have not caused pollutionin Buyat Bay. However, the company’s claimsare based on seawater tests which do notshow high levels of pollution.The Joint Team’slatest findings also find no evidence ofpollution in the seawater, but they do indicatethat hazardous chemicals are entering thefood chain nevertheless.

Newmont claims that high arseniclevels in the tailings were expected and wereplanned for all along. The arsenic was in achemically stable form locked into thesediment and not released into theenvironment. The company's vice presidentfor environmental management, Dave Baker,claimed the system had worked as designed -eight years of company monitoring showedarsenic concentrations in seawater to be wellbelow Indonesian and international standards.

Baker also told the New York Times

DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

New pollution study corners NewmontThe latest and most comprehensive government-sponsored study into pollution at Newmont's gold mine in North

Sulawesi, has linked the US-based company's mining activities to ill-health in the local community and declining fishstocks in Buyat Bay.

The question now is: will the new government make a break with the past, protect its citizens and take legal actionagainst Newmont, or will the pollution victims' needs be subordinated to the interests of the powerful international

mining fraternity and the push to improve Indonesia's investment climate?

mining

1. According to an additional note from WALHI,the Bay is also polluted with arsenic andmercury according to US, Canadian,Australianand New Zealand guidelines.

2. Information on neighbouring Ratatotok Baywas also gathered - see http://walhi.or.id formore details.

3. Earlier reports mentioned the depth of thethermocline as 80-100 metres - see forexample DTE 32:6.

10

that Newmont disagreed with the way thearsenic and mercury levels in the fish werecalculated and that the company believed thatthe benthos is not polluted. In a statement tothe media, Baker claimed that "all scientificstudies and PT NMR's monitoring data haveshown that fish tissue contain normal levels ofarsenic as compared to both applicablestandards and fish from any other areas in theworld. This adds further confirmation thatarsenic from the tailings is not being releasedfrom the sediment or assimilated into thefood chain." (Miningindo.com 9/Nov/04)

An independent American scientist,who advises the mining industry andenvironmental groups and was asked by theNew York Times to review the findings, disputedNewmont's position, stating that seabed-dwelling organisms were indeed capable ofconsuming contaminants like arsenic, even assolid particles.

High profile test caseThe Newmont case has attracted asubstantial amount of media coverage. Thiswas spurred by the death of a five-month oldbaby in July this year and findings that overthirty people may have died as a result ofpollution from the mine (see DTE 62:16). InAugust, villagers, including the bereavedmother, filed a US$ 543 million lawsuit againstthe company, on the grounds that their healthhad been seriously affected.The two sides arereported to be in mediation.

Media interest was further fuelledby the police questioning of PT NewmontMinahasa Raya's president director RichardNess and the month-long detention of fiveNewmont executives - three Indonesians, anAmerican and an Australian. Their detention,was publicly criticised by the US embassy inJakarta. Meanwhile, in anticipation of theinvestigation team's findings, the companylaunched its own media campaign to convincethe public it was not polluting Buyat Bay,taking out a series of full page adverts inIndonesian newspapers. The Team's reportrecommended that Newmont be instructedto remove all such "misleadingadvertisements." Other methods of spreadingthe word may also have been used: a New YorkTimes journalist who attended a Newmontbriefing found an envelope with five 50,000rupiah notes (around US$30) tucked into herpacket of briefing papers. Newmont said itwould refrain from providing such"transportation reimbursements" to nationalreporters in order to avoid futuremisunderstandings.

What now?The success in exposing Newmont's impactsshows that companies can no longer expectto get away with concealing bad practices. Ifthe government and the judiciary decide toact on the Joint Team's recommendations -specifically on legal action and a ban on future

submarine tailings disposal (STD) - they mayalso be obliged to look more closely atNewmont's operations on Sumbawa Island,West Nusa Tenggara province. Here a muchlarger and more valuable copper and gold

mining operation - Batu Hijau - is dumping asmuch as fifty times more waste onto theseabed and is expected to do so for a further15 years.

DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

Poor performanceThroughout its eight years of commercial production (1996-2004), when the company begandumping 2,000 tonnes of tailings per day into Buyat Bay, the Newmont Minahasa Raya minehas been beset by protests and pollution problems.The list compiled from past issues of DTEnewsletters alone is tellingly long:

1986: Newmont receives Contract of Work including the North Sulawesi and Sumbawaconcessions (DTE 34:7).

1994: Legal action by villagers over compensation for land and crops (DTE 32:6).

1997: NGOs report Newmont to environmental protection agency Bapedal, in an attempt tostop pollution starting March 1996 and getting worse from July 1996. Local legal aidoffice (LBH) says it has received many complaints from local people about thepollution.

WALHI reports that local fishermen had found more than 200 dead fish floating around200m from the end of the tailings disposal pipe (DTE 35:5).Newmont receives government approval to start construction at Batu Hijau copperand gold mine, Sumbawa (DTE 34:7).

1998: Newmont forced to suspend production for several weeks due to leaking tailings pipe.The problem was detected after fish kills were reported by local fisherfolk (DTE 39:6).

1999: JATAM calls for Newmont Minahasa Raya's licence to be withdrawn due to pollutionproblems. Environment Minister Sarwono promises 'objective' and 'accurate'investigation (DTE 44:14).

Batu Hijau starts production using submarine tailings disposal method (STD), dumping110,000 tonnes of waste per day into the sea (DTE 44:15 & JATAM - WALHI -KONTRAS -TAPAL - ELSAM press release, received 6/Aug/04)

1999: Official investigation carried out - high levels of heavy metals found; no thermoclinefound. WALHI and JATAM accuse the government of being concerned only aboutprotecting foreign investors' interests and ignoring people's health by keeping theresults of the investigation secret (DTE 45:7).

2000: Operations are forcibly suspended three times in three months when villagers blockadethe minesite, demanding compensation for land (DTE 47:8).

A WALHI study of the marine ecosystem finds that tailings have caused extensivedamage to the marine ecosystem including corals, seagrass and fish stocks plus healthimpacts among local villagers. Community representatives attend Newmont annualshareholders meeting in Denver. Newmont denies pollution claims. JATAM claimsBapedal never issued a permit for Newmont to dump tailings at sea. Problems withriver sedimentation are also reported.

At Batu Hijau mine, a local NGO reports that a waste mud containment dam hascollapsed, sending mud downriver, covering farmland. Newmont says the water wasdeliberately flushed from the dam and it met pollution standards. Samples from aroundthe tailings disposal site in Senunu Bay showed high levels of heavy metals (DTE 47:8).

2001: WALHI announces results of blood tests on local villagers showing high levels of arsenicand mercury - Newmont blames local illegal miners for pollution (DTE 48:7).

Environment minister Sonny Keraf announces no more STD permits after Newmont'sand rejects the company's Environmental Risk Assessment (which should have beendone before operations started five years previously) as the company failed to useprocedures agreed with the government (DTE 50:13)

2003: Newmont agrees to verify WALHI study which finds that cyanide levels in mine tailingsare four times the legal safety limit, endangering local people's health (DTE 58:4).

2004: JATAM launches urgent action to support community demands for land compensation,environmental rehabilitation, economic compensation for loss of fishing livelihood andhealth services for the next 30 years (http://dte.gn.apc.org/jatam04.htm)Villagers report Newmont to police after death of five month-old baby in July (DTE62:16).

[Note: this is not a comprehensive chronology. For further background seehttp://dte.gn.apc.org/jatam04.htm, www.jatam.org and www.walhi.or.id].

(continued on page 14)

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DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

Bestari Raden sentencedBestari Raden, indigenous activist and environmental campaigner, has been sentenced to two years and six months

imprisonment.The verdict, handed down in October, found Bestari not guilty of part of the main charge of'rebellion', but guilty of threatening state security and incitement.

Aceh

Bestari Raden was arrested by militarypersonnel from Southeast Aceh districtcommand in March 2004. He was on agovernment assignment to review sections ofthe environmentally damaging Ladia Galaskaroad project, which cuts through the 2.6million hectare Leuser Ecosystem, one of theworld’s richest ecological areas. His arrestwas believed to be political, since Bestari is awell-known activist promoting indigenousrights and opposing destructive logging inAceh - campaigns that threatened thebusiness interests of military and policeofficers.The security forces use Aceh's forestsfor income-generation and it is an opensecret that military and police personnel areprotectors of illegal loggers and timberconcessionaires. Bestari is a former councilmember of the indigenous peoples alliance,AMAN.

Bestari's trial opened in Tapak Tuan,South Aceh in June, but was put on hold

during the second round of the presidentialelections in September.The case prompted aninternational campaign protesting against histreatment and calling for a fair trial. (see DTE62 and 61 for background).

The case is a telling illustration ofhow forests, corruption and conflict politicsare interlinked in Aceh. The final defencestatement by Bestari's legal team describeshow he was originally a sports teacher whobecame a coach at district and provinciallevels and accompanied teams to nationalevents. He also helped set up a cultural group,Rimeung Lam Keulut, which promotedtraditional ritual arts. When serious floodingaffected Kluet district, PT Medan RemajaTimber, a logging concessionaire, was believedto have been directly responsible for a schoolbeing washed away. Bestari Raden and hiscolleagues in Rimeung Lam Keulut lobbiedlocal and national level authorities to have thecompany's permit withdrawn. Lack ofprogress in negotiations led the communityto take matters into their own hands andburn down a building at the company's basecamp. The forestry minister withdrew thecompany's logging permit in 1999.

His defence lawyers say that aprevious detention, during which Bestari wastortured in police custody, and otherinstances of intimidation were probably linkedto the forest guards' loss of illegal incomeonce PT MRT's operations were stopped.Bestari was also sacked from the civil serviceand, shortly afterwards, put on the officialwanted list by the South Aceh police whoclaimed he was the local GAM (Free AcehMovement) commander for Tapak Tuan.

(Source: Defence Team press release2/Oct/04 and others).

Community action post-SuhartoRimeung Lam Keulut's campaign to shutdown destructive logging companies in SouthAceh, was part of the local response to newpossibilities opened up in the more fluidpolitical climate which followed theresignation of President Suharto in 1998.Deforestation had been rapid in the 1980sand 1990s (see box, p.13). As flooding hadclaimed lives and livelihoods throughout the1980s and 1990s, and many incidents werelinked to over-exploitation of forests, it is notsurprising that logging concessionairesbecame a major target for community action.

Another local figure in the struggleagainst destructive logging is Jailani Hasan, anindigenous leader from North Aceh, who isalso a member of AMAN's council. Jailani, asprofiled in the Indonesian newspaper, Kompas,is customary leader of around 40,000 peoplein seven villages, who follow traditionalsystems of natural resource management,resource rights and dispute resolution. Undercustomary law, for example, the use of poisonand explosives for catching fish is forbidden asit damages the environment and harmsothers people's interests: the traditionalmethod of river fishing is using fish traps andnets. People caught using the outlawedmethods are fined millions of Rupiah.Disputes are settled and fines set by theindigenous leader, religious elders and thecommunity.

Jailani and his group, together withlocal NGOs and community groups, havesucceeded in getting 21 loggingconcessionaires suspended by the centralgovernment, including a company owned bythe man who was once Indonesia's mostpowerful timber baron - Bob Hasan.This hasbeen achieved in the face of terror,intimidation and violence by employees of thetargeted companies. Jailani's goal is to achieverecognition for indigenous claims over theforest and to protect the ecosystem."Entrepreneurs, investors and rich people canstay in hotels with there's a flood, but theordinary people drown", says Jailani. However,the ongoing conflict and security situationmakes it difficult for this indigenous leader tomeet and consult the communities toconsolidate their work (Kompas 27/Sep/04).

Ladia Galaska raised atEuropean Social Forum

DTE and Tapol, the Indonesia HumanRights Campaign, co-hosted a seminarfocussing on the Ladia Galaska Roadnetwork and conflict in Aceh inSeptember. The seminar was part of theEuropean Social Forum (ESF) held this yearin London.

European money funds theconservation body that manages theLeuser Ecosystem - a huge forested areathat will be opened up to more logging byLadia Galaska.The EU has spent 31 millioneuros (USD39.4) on Leuser since 1996.

A petition addressed to HilaryBenn, the UK development secretary, wascirculated. It called on the UK governmentto use all available channels to bring aboutBestari Raden’s release and to halt theLadia Galaska Road project.The petition,with more than 50 signatories was sent toBenn. No reply has yet been received.

DTE’s powerpoint presentation on LadiaGalaska is available on CD, GBP 2 postageand packaging - contact dte@gn.apc.org.

(Source: EU Business 17/Feb/04)

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NGOs under pressureMany of Aceh's NGOs - especially thosedealing with human rights and humanitarianaid - have struggled to stay in existence duringthe years of conflict. Already severelyrestricted in their movements and scope ofactivities, and under pressure from thesecurity forces, the situation for NGOsworsened considerably following thedeclaration of martial law in 2003. Humanrights defenders were rounded up and held indetention. Political space for opposition toJakarta's policies was closed down. SeveralNGO and student activists have been triedand remain as political prisoners in Aceh'sjails. Since martial law was replaced by thecivilian emergency status in 2004, it hasbecome easier for some civil societyorganisations to operate in Aceh. However,there remain serious constraints on peoplewishing to move around inside Aceh, due inpart to the creation of pro-Indonesianmilitias*. One of the tasks of militia groups isto report unusual activities in the villages -when an outsider turns up, for example.

Human rights defenders whoadvocate a negotiated settlement to the warin Aceh, continue to be labelled as GAMsupporters by the Indonesian authorities.Thispropaganda has to some extent successfullyserved to cut off potential support andsolidarity from Indonesian NGO humanrights groups in Jakarta.

Civil society is constantly trying tofind ways to get around the heavy constraintson their activities. Recent initiatives includesolidarity-building visits by Acehnese activiststo Europe, plus training courses, organised bythe Aceh Civil Society Institute, to build the

capacity of civil society groups working inAceh.

Environmental NGOs:threats and violationsWALHI Aceh is an environmental NGO thathas maintained a voice throughout theconflict, speaking out against forestdestruction, illegal logging and corruption.WALHI Aceh is part of the NGO campaign tostop the Ladia Galaska Road project and hasalso been involved in advocacy to bring US-based oil multinational, Exxon Mobil, toaccount for human rights violations aroundits Aceh gas installations. DirectorMuhammad Ibrahim told the Jakarta Post thatit has been possible to continue working inAceh, where other organisations have beenforced to suspend operations, becauseWALHI deals with environmental issues. Still,the risks remain high: after joining thecampaign against Ladia Galaska, MuhammadIbrahim was targeted. "Some local figures senta letter to the governor, asking him to takestern measures against Walhi and if he (thegovernor) failed to do so, they would take thelaw into their own hands", said Ibrahim. Nowhe regularly receives threats through phonecalls and letters (Jakarta Post 23/Apr/04).

Unfortunately, this kind ofintimidation happens frequently and there arecases which show that such threats can be inearnest. On January 31, 2000, Sukardi, avolunteer with the Bamboo Thicket Institute(Yayasan Rumpun Bambu Indonesia), a localenvironmental and human rights group basedin Aceh, ‘disappeared’. His bullet-riddledcorpse was found on February 1 (HumanRights Watch, 2001). An Amnesty

International document stated:

"It is not known who is responsible for his deathor why he was killed. There are unconfirmedreports that a witness heard the sounds ofsomeone apparently experiencing severe paincoming from Sawang police station on theevening of Sukardi's ‘disappearance’."

(Amnesty International, 20000)

In January 2001, a mass gravecontaining 14 bodies was uncovered inTerbangan, Kluet Selatan in South Aceh. Oneof the bodies was identified as that of aresearcher from the Centre for InternationalForestry Research (CIFOR) in Bandung,WestJava. Three young researchers from CIFORand a member of the Gunung Leuser NationalPark staff had disappeared over a yearpreviously in September 1999 (see DTE 48).

An interview conducted by anAustralian academic in February 2000 gives afirst-hand impression of how activists who tryto prevent forest destruction are at risk:

"I worked for the LeuserProject…Myself and a friend, [name withheld],who also worked with Leuser tried to tell them itwas the local police and military doing thelogging. I know this is a fact because my ownbrother was paid by the military to help cleanthe trees once cut. He was paid by a localcommander Rp 25,000 a day.That's a lot ofmoney, but the work was hot and had to bedone quickly…My friend - the one who workedwith me - has disappeared. I don't know wherehe is.The people in the office say he hasprobably gone back to his village, or gone toJakarta or Medan to earn money. I don't thinkso - I think he has been arrested. One day lastyear, we found some military giving orders to agroup of workers about cutting trees. I wasafraid and told my friend to come away, but hewouldn't. He had an argument with the military,and told them they should not be cutting thelogs.They were very angry. It was about twomonths after that he disappeared.

…Look [shows a long scar], I got thisone day when I tried to stop a military catchingbirds. I cry when I see the birds in the nets,some die.The military officer picked up a roughstick and beat me with it.” (Unpublishedinterview, Feb 2000).

No easy answerSince resource destruction in Aceh is closelybound up both with the conflict and withIndonesia's general approach to naturalresource use, it is difficult to imagine astrategy that is capable of reducingdeforestation that does not involve conflictresolution in Aceh as well as fundamental

Forest figures Aceh:Total land area of Aceh 5,671,700 haForest Area (1989) 3,882,300 ha-of which 'critical' [degraded](1989) 46,088 haDegraded forest (mid 1990s) 1,025,858Forest cover (1997) 3,611,953 haForest cover (2000) 2,753,000 haForest areas released for transmigration sites (to 1998) 39,377 haNumber of large concessions (1987) 20Area covered by concessions (1987) 1,498,500 Area covered by concessions (1993) 2,202,900Number of large concessions (2002) 9Area covered by concessions (2002) 676,644Deforestation rate 270,000 ha /yearGunung Leuser Ecosystem 2,600,000 million ha (in N.

Sumatra & Aceh) -of which damaged 26%

Predicted damage due to Ladia Galaska road project by 2010 40%Predicted losses in natural disasters by forest destruction US$19.8bn not including the

potential loss of life.

Source: Provincial Forest Economic Profiles, Ministry of Forestry & FAO, Jakarta Dec 1989;Jakarta Post 3/Dec/03; FWI/GFW The State of the Forest, Indonesia, 2002, MoF website tables athttp://mofrinet.cbn.net.id/informasi/Statistik/Stat2002/Contents_02.htm

* The NGO Eye on Aceh has written a bookleton this topic: Fear in the shadows: Militia inAceh, see www.acheh-eye.org.

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DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

change in forest policy in Jakarta.There is no piecemeal solution to

the problems in Aceh. Those interested inpreventing forest destruction and loss ofbiodiversity should also support peacefulinitiatives to bring an end to the war in Aceh.

A negotiated peace and militarywithdrawal from Aceh, would hopefully createbetter conditions for stopping thedestruction of Aceh's forests. It would needto be underpinned by policy change whichrestores rights over the forests to thosecommunities who have most interest insustaining them - a move that is urgentlyneeded throughout Indonesia as well as inAceh. In the immediate term, the LadiaGalaska road project should be halted andalternative ways of developing Aceh'sinfrastructure properly considered. AnIndonesia-wide moratorium on industriallogging, combined with better lawenforcement and measures to tacklecorruption, would help save the forests inAceh.

The need for action is extremelyurgent - to save lives in the short, mediumand long term: to prevent more conflictcasualties, to stop more deaths from floodsand to maintain the natural resources whichwill sustain the lives of future generations ofAcehnese.

This article is adapted from a longer report,Logging a conflict zone, prepared by DTE forthe Australia-based NGO, Eye on Aceh - seewww.acheh-eye.org.

The tailings disposalrecommendation may also affect the plannedoperations of at least four more foreign-owned mining companies, including PT WedaBay Minerals' proposed cobalt mine onHalmahera Island, North Maluku. Otherprojects are planned by PT Ingold Maluku Satuin Central Maluku, PT Meares Soputan Miningin North Sulawesi and PT Jember Metal andBanyuwangi Minerals in East Java.The British-Australian-owned BHP-Billiton, which waspreviously reported to be planning to use STDin a major nickel-mining project on Gag Island,West Papua, has stated that it would not usethe method, and also that it has not yet madea decision whether to go ahead with the mine.

NGOs have called for the Team'srecommendations to be followed, but thereare signs that the new government may notact as decisively as they hope. While it isencouraging that the complete report will bemade publicly available, the new governmentwill be under a lot of international pressure tocontinue the pro-industry stance of itspredecessors. In October, an incompleteversion of the study was released - withoutthe team's permission - by the departingenvironment minister Nabiel Makarim, whoindicated that there was no pollution. Asreported in the New York Times, additionaldocuments released with the Team's findings,show that the environment ministry had foundalarming levels of arsenic in fish as long ago as2000 and, in 2002, had demanded that

Newmont take immediate steps to improvewaste treatment.

Newly installed environmentminister, Rachmat Witoelar, said "I don't wantto be part of throwing investors out ofIndonesia, and yet you have to give protectionto the victims." This, then is the real test: carryon business as usual, allowing multinationalcompanies a free hand, or make a stand toprotect the villagers of Buyat Bay - as well asmany, many more communities in existing andfuture minesites. The first option would beseverely disappointing for such communitiesand for civil society which has made realprogress in securing these findings andrecommendations. However, the secondoption would also not be too surprising giventhe new president's keenness to attract moreinvestment and his apparent lack ofcommitment to the environment.

(Source: Buyat Bay is polluted and a risk to thecommunity: highlights of the joint investigation ofBuyat Bay: WALHI/JATAM/ELSAM, 10/Nov/04;New York Times 9/Nov/04; Miningindo.com6/Aug/04; 9/Nov/04; Jakarta Post10&11/Nov/04; Dow Jones Newswires via JoyoIndonesia News 21/Oct/04; AP 24/Sep/04;Kazinform/Antara 24/Sep/04).

For more information about the campaignfor justice for the Buyat Bay community seehttp://www.jatam.org;http://dte.gn.apc.org/jatam04.htm;www.walhi.or.id.

(continued from page 11)

sold customary land. When concessionlicenses expire, the farmers want the land tobe returned to them, rather than theplantation permits to be extended or re-issued to new Indonesian or foreign-ownedcompanies.

Letters to the authorities andattempts to resolve the dispute throughdiscussions with the plantation company andthe government at local and national levelshave proved fruitless. BPRPI has held manydemonstrations outside the offices of NorthSumatra's local assembly, governor and policechief to press for negotiations - most notablyin 2000 and again in 2002 when thousands ofpeople attended.

Now 754 BPRPI members aretaking legal action against the plantationcompany, the minister for state-ownedenterprises and the agriculture minister, toforce PTPN II to return their land and paycompensation.The basis of the legal action isthe Agrarian ministerial decree No.5/1999which provides some recognition ofindigenous land rights.

BPRPI has, through the years, gainedsupport from and given it to others who aredemanding their land rights - nationally and

internationally. Its allies include the VíaCampesina, a growing movement of peasantand farm organisations from all the regions ofthe world as well as the Indonesian indigenousalliance,AMAN.

Abah Nawi is expected to be one ofthe participants at an international meeting onplantations to be held in Jakarta Nov 28-Dec1st. This meeting - organised by WALHI andthe World Rainforest Movement - will bringtogether community representatives from allparts of the Indonesian archipelago and theSouth, plus people from national andinternational NGOs. The agenda will addressthe threats to local communities from large-scale oil palm and pulpwood plantations.

Sources: KPA 2/Sept/04; LBHmedanhttp://www.ngo.or.id/lbhmedan/artikel01.htmand interview with Abah Nawi.

More information on the BPRPI and thehistory of their fight for land recognition is inthe book Badan Perjuangan Rakyat PenungguIndonesia vs PTPN II by Budi Agustono,Muhammad Osmar Tanjung and EdySuhartono (1997). It is available from Akatiga,Bandung, in Bahasa Indonesia only.

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DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

Melayu farmers’ long struggle for land rights

indigenous peoples / plantations

The North Sumatran organisation of peasantfarmers, BPRPI, is engaged in one ofIndonesia's longest running land disputes.Numerous confrontations between theindigenous community and successive state-owned plantations in Deli Serdang andLangkat over the last 50 years have resultedin deaths and imprisonment, yet BPRPI'sthousands of supporters continue to fight forrecognition of their customary land rights.

"It has been a long and bitterstruggle," says BPRPI's veteran leader AfnawiNoeh, widely known as Abah Nawi to hissupporters. The most recent incident waswhen, early in the morning of August 30th,PTPN II employees burned down shelters andcleared crops belonging to villagers of Terjun.Local people tried to protect their property,but were helpless against the plantationcompany's armed security guards who wereaccompanied by paid thugs.

The company claims that its actionswere essential to protect its oil palmplantation. According to the community, theplantation, which had been established ontheir customary land, was no longerproductive. Many plots along the main roadhave been claimed by local land speculatorsand used to set up bars and brothels.

BPRPI's history BPRPI (Badan Perjuangan Rakyat PenungguIndonesia) or the Indonesian Group for theWaiting People's Struggle was founded in1953, shortly after Indonesian independence.The unusual name of the organisation stemsfrom its history. The word 'penunggu' usuallymeans watchman, guard or attendant. In thiscontext, the word reflects the fact that thesepeople are waiting for justice and for returnof their land.

The land in question is a highlyfertile area bounded by the rivers Sungai Ularin Deli Serdang and Sungai Wampu in Langkatdistrict which is the home of east coastMalays (Melayu Sumatra Timur). Extensivetracts along the eastern coast of NorthSumatra became plantations during the Dutchcolonial period.The Melayu's ruler during the19th century, the Sultan of Deli, rented out62,000 hectares of communally heldcustomary land to the Dutch for tobaccoplantations, on the understanding that landuse rights would eventually return to theindigenous community. But, after theJapanese occupation, control passed toIndonesian state-owned plantation companies(PTPN) who paid some compensation to theDutch, not to the local people who were therightful owners. The disputed area is now

59,00 hectares or less, as some land has beensold.

Peasant organisations became apowerful element in local and national politicsduring the early years of Indonesianindependence. Even so, by the early 1950s, thepeople of Deli Serdang and Langkat wereconcerned that regulations issued bySukarno's government favoured concessionholders rather than indigenous landownerslike the Melayu. So they set up the BPRPI tostrengthen their position in reclaiming theircommunal land. Little did they know thattheir struggle for justice would continue over5 decades.

Full-scale confrontation with theauthorities began after the people's land wasincluded in a state-owned plantationconcession (then PTP IX) and a 1968 decreeby the governor of North Sumatra denied allindigenous land claims in the province. BPRPImembers in several villages immediatelyoccupied their land, but were forcibly evictedby the security forces. The organisationcontinued to press its case through officiallocal and national government channels,despite the risk of being stigmatised ascommunist supporters, but without success.

Mass occupationWhen Abah Nawi, the younger brother ofone of the five original founders, took overthe leadership of BPRPI in 1979, theorganisation became more radical. BPRPIorganised the reoccupation of customarylands long before the wave of 'reclaimingactions' which followed the fall of president

Suharto in 1998. Local groups tried to takeback land from the plantation in 1980, but itwas only in 1995 that - frustrated by the lackof government response to their attempts tonegotiate a settlement - the whole BPRPImembership decided unanimously toreoccupy their customary land en masse.Farmers moved into 27 locations around thevillages of Mabar, Kelambir Lima, Percut,Tanjung Morawa, Batang Kuis, Bandar Kalippaand Patumbak from September 1995 toOctober 1996 where they grew rice, maizeand vegetables and set up hundreds oftemporary shelters and some simple prayerhouses.

PTPN II, the state-owned plantationcompany which had taken over theconcession, used its own employees andguards, reinforced by the local security forces,to force the villagers off their land anddestroy their crops. BPRPI has a policy ofnon-violent resistance. Nevertheless, somepeople were beaten up and all sufferedserious losses through the destruction ofcrops and property. Six people were shot inanother incident when the police mobilebrigade was called in to stop villagers fromTanjung Morawa from farming within theplantation concession in 1998. People whohave cut down cacao bushes, sugar or oil palmto make room for their own crops have beenarrested and sentenced to several month'simprisonment and heavy fines for damagingplantation property.

The local government has donenothing to protect the community; it treatsBPRPI supporters as illegal squatters on stateland. An official instruction from Jakartaduring the Suharto years that 10,000hashould be returned to the community fromthe plantation concession was ignored.Worsestill, according to Abah Nawi, this land wasdivided up and shared out between local andnational officials and some has even become agolf course. Megawati's government addedinsult to injury by offering to give BPRI5,000ha. "We are not asking the governmentfor land," he said, "We want them to returnour ancestral lands".

The people's demandsBPRPI continues to demand that the localgovernment recognise indigenouscommunities' land rights and that the policeand military stop forcing its members fromtheir homes and land and destroying theircrops. Its members are pressing theauthorities to investigate and impose legalsanctions on people who have procured or

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Abah Nawi of BPRPI, in 2004 (DTE)

DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

Sustainable palm oil: mission impossible?Palm oil industry representatives, conservation organisations and NGOs met to discuss ‘sustainable palm oil’ in

Jakarta in October.The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an industry-dominated voluntary body, was set up bythe palm oil industry and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) partly in response to NGO charges than oil palm

plantations destroy forests and impoverish local communities.The following is an edited version of Down to Earth’s paper prepared for the Roundtable.

oil palm

It is fitting that the Second RoundtableMeeting on Sustainable Palm Oil is held inIndonesia - the world's second largest palm oilproducer, the third most extensive area oftropical forest and one of the richest centresof biodiversity. With Indonesia's forestsdisappearing at 3.8 million hectares per year,the area converted to oil palm plantations hasdoubled during the past decade to nearly 5million ha.

The first Roundtable Meeting in2003 (RT1) saw the key issue as the need fora definition of 'sustainable palm oil' and amajor purpose of this year's meeting is towork towards one. RT1 and subsequentdevelopments represent a partnershipbetween business players and WWF. Theoverall aim is 'solution-focused initiatives' forthe palm oil industry, not to consider themany problems associated with the rapidexpansion of oil palm cultivation.

The fundamental question for localcommunities and the environment - notaddressed at the inaugural meeting or by theRoundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) -is whether large-scale oil palm plantations arecompatible with sustainable development. Tostate that "The best companies andsmallholders within the palm oil sector aremodels of sustainability" is too easy. Itincreases the vulnerability of the industry tocharges of greenwash. Best managementpractice in plantations is a worthwhile aim, butis not synonymous with sustainability.

The most significant issuesassociated with large-scale plantations andsustainability are not only social orenvironmental, but also economic andpolitical.These must be taken more seriouslyif examples of good practice are to have awider impact and be taken up across theindustry in more than one country. Practicalinitiatives on sustainable palm oil must begrounded in the broader principles ofsustainability. Discussions about criteria forsustainable palm oil need to consider:

GovernanceLand law/tenureFree prior and informed consentLabour rights and welfareLaw enforcement and the judiciaryConflict resolution mechanisms Models of developmentMarket forces and terms of trade

These principles are more easily illustrated inthe context of one particular country -Indonesia - but many of the same issues applyelsewhere.

Governance in Indonesia is weak.The difficult transition from decades ofSuharto's dictatorship to an effectivedemocracy has been made more painful by aprolonged economic crisis. Indonesia ranks asone of the most corrupt countries in theworld on Transparency International's index.The allocation of permits for logging andplantations depends on patronage rather thanperformance. One consequence is thatcompanies that have caused forestdestruction through overlogging have beenrewarded with land use permits forplantations run by sister companies.Government agencies have not got thebudgets, staff or power to monitor or controlbusiness practices. Law enforcement agencies,including the police and judiciary, are weakand corrupt. Witness the small number ofsuccessful prosecutions against palm oilcompanies where fires have been used illegallyto clear forested land.

Safeguards already exist on therecognition of customary land rights andpeople's rights to a free choice ofemployment, an adequate standard of livingand a healthy environment, throughinternational legal instruments drawn up

through the United Nations and InternationalLabour Organisation. These standards shouldform the basis of any criteria for the definitionof sustainable palm oil. However, Indonesiahas not signed up to the InternationalCovenant on Economic, Social and CulturalRights. Nor has it ratified ILO Convention 169on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples' rights; ILOConvention 110 on Plantations or ILORecommendation 132 on Tenants &Sharecroppers. Neither has Malaysia, whichhas substantial investments in oil palmplantations in Indonesia and employsthousands of Indonesian migrant workers inplantations in its own country. Even whereIndonesia has signed ILO Conventions, it hasnot always submitted regular reports oncompliance and the Committee of Expertshas commented on a number of violations.

Implementing internationalstandards in a country which sets lowerstandards though national laws is highlyproblematic. This has been seen in thecertification of timber from Indonesian loggingconcessions under the Forest StewardshipCouncil Scheme. FSC Principles 2 & 3 requirethe recognition of communities' land tenureand resource use rights as well as the rights ofindigenous peoples. Principle 1 states thatnational laws must be respected. But, undercurrent Indonesian law, full legal recognition ofcommunities' land rights inside forestconcessions is not possible. Even outside'state forests', there is no formal means ofacknowledging and protecting collective landrights. So how are oil palm companies torecognise local/customary land rights whenthe licences for their forest lands deny suchrights?

Even national legislation may not beproperly implemented. Indonesia's highestlegislative body passed framework legislationin 2001 (TAP MPR IX) to reform all sectorallaws affecting natural resources and land in acoherent way which afforded someprotection to 'people following customarylaw'. Instead, a new plantation law was passedin July 2004. Its primary aim of stimulatinginvestment in the plantation sector is hard tosquare with its objectives to promotesustainability and environmental protection.Different sections of civil society attacked thelegislation at draft stage for its failure toprotect the interests of small-scale farmers

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Stretching into the distance: oil palm plantation,Kalimantan (DTE)

DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

and indigenous communities and for giving bigbusiness too much power. The plantation lawcan be used to criminalise peasant farmersand indigenous communities whose rightsover land are not adequately recognised.

The term 'smallholders' inIndonesia deserves special attention. It canmean farmers who, seeing rising palm oilprices and hearing the government's hopesfor a brighter future, decide to plant oil palmson their own small patches of land. In NorthSumatra, many individual landowners havemade a reasonable living from palm oil forseveral decades. Far more common are the'smallholders' who, in effect, had no suchchoice. Transmigrants, forced to leave islandslike Java, Madura and Bali, by poverty, evictionand landlessness, started new lives in the1980s and 90s in Sumatra, Kalimantan andSulawesi as labourers on nucleus-estateplantations (NES/PIR). They had to clearforests for the plantation company, in returnfor a simple house and 2ha of land. OtherNES participants were local people displacedfrom their land by the plantation. Either way,they provided cheap labour, but their futurewas insecure and wholly dependent on thenucleus estate, the company and internationalmarkets. Some were successful; many morefound themselves poorer than before.Without the fare to return home and with noother means of supporting themselves, theyhad to remain as plantation workers.

Debt trapThe debt trap is a serious obstacle to'sustainable oil palm oil' in Indonesia.This is acharacteristic feature of the more recentvariant of Indonesian 'smallholder' schemes:KKPA.Typically, communities who have givenup their land to plantation companies receive2ha plots of oil palm and join a co-operative -usually set up by a local official or thecompany. The smallholders receivesubsistence level support for the 4 years orso before the oil palms start bearing fruit.They must then repay this, plus the costs ofland clearance, planting, fertilisers and otherinputs - including co-operative administration- from the harvest. Where palm mills arescarce and owned by the plantation company,farmers have no bargaining power over theprice for their crop. International CPOfluctuations and instability of the Indonesianrupiah mean that smallholders can remain indebt for decades without ever knowing whenthey will be free of this burden.

Migrant workers on Malaysianplantations are particularly vulnerable toexploitation and forced labour. Indonesianswishing to work abroad have to go throughrecruitment agencies, which charge themextortionate processing and training fees.They are thus severely indebted even beforethey start working abroad.They are requiredto sign contracts, sometimes in a languageforeign to them, with little or no power tonegotiate their terms. Many migrants end upaccepting whatever they are offered, even if itis different from the work they werepromised. Neither country has ratifiedinternational conventions intended to protectmigrant worker rights.

ConflictsConflicts between local communities and oilpalm companies are common. Thegovernment issues land use permits (HGU)to areas claimed by local communities orsubject to communal use rights undercustomary law. As Indonesian law is, at best,only weak on acknowledging these rights,local people were never involved in land-useplanning by local authorities. Companies haveexploited poor governance at village level bynegotiating with a few selected officials.Communities were not even consulted, letalone asked for their permission before thebulldozers cleared their land. Frustration overland rights violations and little or nocompensation turns into protests. Companiespay their own security forces or the police toprotect their interests. Intimidation, beatingsand even deaths by shooting may result. Theauthorities send in a team to investigate, withfew concrete results and the whole cycle ofresentment slowly builds again until thecommunity is too impoverished or dispiritedto protest. They accept a company co-operative scheme or are forced to move toanother area because they no longer haveenough land to support their families.

AgrochecmicalsPlantation workers and communities needmore protection in Indonesia from thepotentially harmful effects of agrochemicals.Statutory controls are weak and monitoringby government environmental agenciesalmost non-existent. There is no legislationcovering the training of plantation workers inthe safe use of pesticides. Sprayers may rinseout their equipment in small streams thatsupply communities with their main source ofwater for drinking and washing. In addition tothe obvious risk of contamination throughskin contact or inhalation, pesticides can alsoenter domestic water supplies in the run-offfrom plantations in areas of high rainfallunless preventative measures are taken. Legalrequirements for monitoring workers' healthand pollution are minimal. The governmentchecklist for testing does not even includemany of the agrochemicals most commonlyused on plantations. Samples are taken atwaste outlet pipes from palm mills, notwatercourses which supply worker and local

Palm oil pollutionHundreds of kilo-litres of crude palm oilpoured into the sea at Belawan, NorthSumatra.The spill was caused by a leak in apipe connecting a storage facility withships and tankers which transport the oil.Belawan is one of Indonesia's mostimportant ports for crude palm shipments.Between 8,000 and 10,000 tons per day onaverage are exported.

(Source: Jakarta Post 3/Sept/04)

17

Palm oil processing, Kalimantan (DTE)

State-sponsored povertyState-owned oil palm plantations in NorthSumatra are keeping plantation workers inpoverty, according to Indonesian pressreports.The three big state-owned oilpalm plantations in the province - PTPNusantara IV in Simalungun regency, PTPNusantara II in Tanjung Morawa regency and PTP Nusantara III in Langkat regency -employ over 100,000 workers, but mostare not covered by the statutory basicinsurance plan, Jamsostek. Ginting, DeputyChair of North Sumatra's provincialassembly, who also chairs the NusantaraPlantation Labour Union Federation, said31,000 of the plantation workers wereunderpaid and lived in inhumane companyhousing.

Another labour unionist claimedthousands of workers on PT Nusantara IIoil palm plantation in Limau Mukur arepaid a mere Rp315,000 (US$37) monthly,even though they may have worked for thecompany between 15 to 25 years. Someare paid on a daily basis, far below theprovincial minimum wage. Requests for thestatutory insurance have been rebuffed bythe management several times. Localgovernment says it has no powers to forcestate-owned companies to comply withthe law.(Source: Jakarta Post 2/Mar/04)

DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

needs. As a result, companies do not evenknow whether they have such problems, letalone take responsibility for them.

High-riskThe concept of sustainability includeseconomic, as well as social and environmentalaspects.As the world's most traded vegetableoil, palm oil is vulnerable to price fluctuations.Boom-bust cycles are encouraged becauselarge international buyers for the processedfood industry can - to some extent - switchbetween vegetable oils depending on theprice. Palm oil is therefore a high riskdevelopment strategy for any country.

Indonesia is still expanding itsplantations, not least to satisfy the demandsof local governments who were givenconsiderable power over land use decisionsand income generation when regionalautonomy was introduced in 2001. Largeareas have already been allocated for oil palm- 1 million ha in Jambi; 1 million ha in EastKalimantan; 3 million hectares in WestKalimantan - with overall targets of over 9million ha. Central and local governments arenow looking to the plantation sector as thedriving force for development and a majorrevenue earner for the economy. Ironically,this is needed to replace the wood-processing sector - relegated to a sunsetindustry as forests outside protected areashave been logged almost to the extent theyare no longer commercially attractive.

The majority of Indonesia's palm oilplantations have been established on land thatwas forested only a short time before. Somecompanies have proclaimed their 'greencredentials' by sparing what conservationorganisations label High Conservation ValueForests, while clearing forests which -although less attractive - are hugely importantto local communities. In too many cases,forest land left fallow as part of traditionalrotational practices has been cleared as'scrub'. The government and industry claimthat oil palm plantations constitutedevelopment because they can be establishedon 'neglected' or 'critical' land. Officially, therehas been a ban on 'conversion' of forests foragriculture since 2000. However, the privatesector is not prepared to invest in thesustainable management of forests. It is moreprofitable to allow selectively logged forest tobe illegally clear-felled or burned to make wayfor plantations. Furthermore, local authoritiesin the regions invoke regional autonomy asthe reason to ignore edicts from Jakarta andissue yet more permits.

ConclusionsThe RSPO is well-intentioned and may bringabout an improvement in local people'swelfare, increase company profits and securea greater section of the international marketfor certain countries, but this is notsustainability. Without genuine political

reform to bring about democracy and socialjustice, the production of sustainable palm oilis 'Mission Impossible'. It is much too early tobe talking about 'sustainable practices' incountries like Indonesia where nationallegislation and entrenched corruption resultin fundamental social inequalities for localpeople, smallholders and plantation workers.

Indonesia is among the world'slowest-cost producers. It owes itscompetitive advantage over Malaysia to lowland and labour costs. The costs associatedwith establishing environmentally and sociallysustainable practices are not compatible withcreating a competitive plantation industry. In afree market, the result is a 'race to thebottom' in terms of sustainability standards.Better standards are needed, but these arenot the same thing as environmental andsocial sustainability. They need to be legallyenforceable, not voluntary codes.

What is happening in Indonesian oilpalm sector is important for RSPO and theindustry as a whole: Indonesia intends tobecome the largest producer in the world;and the issues illustrated here are relevant tosustainable resource use and development in

other countries.We therefore support the

recommendations about the generalprinciples for palm oil production made bySawitwatch and Friends of the Earth/WALHIas a result of consultations with localcommunities, labour organisations, indigenouspeoples' organisations and NGOs (seewww.foe.co.uk and www.sawitwatch.or.id).

DTE also calls on:The Indonesian government to halt thedevelopment of new plantations, as, atpresent, expansion of oil palm cannot bedone sustainably in Indonesia.There shouldbe no expansion of existing plantations inthe disputed territories of Aceh and WestPapua.The Indonesian government to impose, bylaw, higher environmental and socialstandards for existing plantations.International investors not to finance thedevelopment of oil palm plantations inIndonesia until there has been legal reform- implementation of TAP MPR IX.Governments in the home countries of

The palm oil explosion - in figures

Indonesia: the world's second largest palm oil producer and rapidly growing.Crude palm oil production (2003) 10.6 million tonnes [1]Crude palm oil production (1998) 5.6 million tonnes [2]Crude palm oil production (2005 - projection) 12 million tonnes [3]Domestic consumption 2.3 million tonnes [4]CPO exports (2003) 6.5 million tonnes [5]Value of CPO exports (2003) US$2,454 million [6] Value of CPO exports (2002) US$2,092 million [7]Total planted area (2004) 5.3 million ha [8]Owned by smallholders 1.8 million ha [9] (29.7%) [10] Owned by state plantation companies 0.6 million ha [11] (13.2%) [12]Owned by private companies 2.8 million ha [13] (57.1%) [14] Average yield/ha (2003) 3.5 tonnes/ha [15]

Area of oil palm plantation has doubled in last 5 years [16]Extra 500,000 tonnes production this year expected from new plantations created 1991-2000 [17]

Total area forests (official 2002) 90.9 million ha [18]Deforestation rate 1997-2000 3.8 million ha/yr [19]Area of damaged forests and critical land 50 million ha [20]Forest rehabilitation 2003 300,000 ha [21]

Notes[1-3] Agriculture minister Saragih, quoted inKompas 27/Aug/04. Figures quoted below donot add up to this amount as they come fromother sources.The split is still approx 1/3total for domestic consumption and 2/3 forexport.[4] GAPKI quoted in Dow Jones 30/Jul/03[5] GAPKI quoted in JP 16/Mar/04[6] Agriculture minister Saragih, quoted inAsia Pulse/Antara 30/Aug/04[7,8] Agriculture minister Saragih, quoted inKompas 27/Aug/04[9] Director of Cash Crops Purusuwarso,

quoted in Antara 26/Mar/04[10,12] Kompas 27/Aug/04[11,13,14] Director of Cash CropsPurusuwarso, quoted in Antara 26/Mar/04[15] GAPKI quoted in Dow Jones 30/Jul/03[16] see [7][17] see [5][18]http://mofrinet.cbn.net.id/informasi/Statistik/Stat2002/Baplan/[19] Baplan, Dec 2003[20,21] DirGen Land Rehabilitation, quoted inAntara 18/Jun/04

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DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

Plantations: fortune of misfortune?The case of Nyayat village, as told in a new Indonesian-language publication by Indonesian NGO, PENA.

Summary translation by DTE.

Nyayat is a hamlet in Sambas district, WestKalimantan, of only 200 Dayak Bekati. Tooutside eyes, it looks much like any othersmall village in the province. Most of itsinhabitants farm the land traditionally and tapnative rubber. The striking difference is thatthese villagers have refused to accept oil palmplantations on their land. The cost of theirresistance has been jail sentences for threepeople.

PT Rana Wastu Kencana (RWK) is aplantation company registered to Haji AmanSyafri from Pontianak, the provincial capital.The company originally applied for a permitto grow rubber and cacao on 5,000 hectaresnear the villages of Maribas and Seret Ayon,later changing their plan to oil palm.The localgovernment granted PT RWK land use rightsin 1995 for a 3,000 ha plantation on thegrounds that the people of Maribas had giventheir consent. "But we knew nothing aboutthis deal. No-one from the company ever metus to talk about their intentions for our land.It was the former village head who did thedeal", said Manjud bin Sindir, the customaryleader of the community.

In 1996, PT RWK got permissionfrom the local land agency to extend theplantation to 9,500ha. The inhabitants ofNyayat watched these developments withgrowing concern. They did not take actionagainst the land clearance which affectedneighbouring communities, but clearlymarked the boundaries of their customarylands where they practised agroforestry(tembawang).The company took no notice ofthe boundary markers and, in September1998, cleared 1,400ha of fruit trees and othercrops.A burial ground with 31 graves was alsobulldozed.

The Nyayat community was furiousby this lack of respect for their property andancestors and demanded compensation and ahalt to operations on their land. When PTRWK continued to ignore them, the villagersconfiscated two company vehicles. This

stirred the company into action and theyproposed a meeting in West Java, but the localpeople refused. "We wanted them to come toour village for discussions - why should we goall that way? ", one of them explained.

PT RWK was more cunning. Itinvited a group of representatives from other,nearby communities to West Java togetherwith two district officials where they did adeal in late 1999 - in the absence of anyonefrom Nyayat.The company agreed to restorethe graveyard* , but compensated for the lossof agroforests by offering to plant fruit trees

on 8ha of land outside the plantation. It alsoprovided Rp66 million (US$6,000) for atraditional community hall at the village ofSungai Enau plus more than Rp9 million(US$900) for a traditional celebration.Whenthe Nyayat people heard this decision theywent out and cut branches off the oil palmsplanted on the disputed land, but the treesjust grew more.

The Nyayat community continuedto press for compensation, but was ignoredby PT RWT. In mid-2000, some of theplantation was burned. Nyayat's customaryleader was arrested and charged with arson.He denied the allegation, as he was 12kmaway when the incident occurred. "The policetold me to plead guilty or the communitywould never get any compensation", saidManjud bin Sidir. Although he could not reador write, he put his name to a confession andwas sentenced to 18 months probation.

PT RWT completely refused thecommunity's compensation demands(Rp1.4bn - over US$100,000), so people fromNyayat made several attempts to persuadethe base camp workers to leave theplantation. On Oct 15th 2001, theyransacked two buildings. Fifty armed policecame to the village in November and tookaway 3 people, including the customaryleader.All three were sentenced to one year'simprisonment by the district court atSingkawang in May 2002.

One of the imprisoned menexplained why they had taken such drasticaction. "I live here.What is there for me in lifeif my forest has been destroyed and we justsuffer and get no benefit at all (from theplantation)? Once the forest has gone, wherewill our children and grandchildren go?", saidLeobertus.

*RWK never did repair the damage to thegraves.This was done by the community at acost of over RP5.6 million (US$560).

investors, including the UK, to passlegislation requiring companies to adhereto high environmental and socialconditions and to report on these to thegovernments and civil society organisationswhere the plantations are located.Voluntary codes are not sufficient.Governments in the home countries ofinvestors, including the UK, to enableaffected communities to seek damagesthrough the courts for serious negative

environmental and social impacts causedby the policies and practices of overseascompanies.RSPO to finance studies into therelationship between poverty and palm oilplantations in Indonesia, and intoidentifying alternative incomes/livelihoodsfor communities negatively affected byexisting oil palm developments.RSPO to consult on the definition of 'bestmanagement practice' and the monitoringof its implementation with civil societyorganisations, including labour

representatives, indigenous people andwomen.

For more information on the Roundtable -see http://www.sustainable-palmoil.org.For information about the industry's impactin Indonesia see www.sawitwatch.or.id, pastissues of DTE at http://dte.gn.apc.org/ andwww.foe.org.uk for Friends of the EarthEngland, Wales and Nothern Ireland's 2004report, Greasy palms, European buyers ofIndonesian palm oil'.

PENA’s Indonesian language book on the oilpalm conflict at Nyayat,West Kalimantan isavailable for USD15 including p&p (registeredmail outside Indonesia).

Contact pena_kalbar@yahoo.com to order.

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19

DOWN TO EARTH is the newsletter of the International Campaign for Ecological Justice in Indonesia. If you want to receive the newsletter on a regular basis, please fill out the form provided.We would welcome information about your work in the field of environment and development in Indonesia.

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DOWN TO EARTH No. 63, November 2004

In brief...Munir poisonedIn November it was revealed that leadingIndonesian human rights defender, Munir, whodied in September whilst on a flight fromIndonesia to the Netherlands, was poisonedwith arsenic. Indonesian and internationalcolleagues have expressed shock at the newsthat Munir was murdered. Munir - anoutspoken critic of the military, was co-founder of the Commission for MissingPersons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) andthe Indonesian Human Rights Watch(Imparsial). (Tapol 11/Nov/04)

West Papua military raidsAt least three people have been killed and asmany as 20,000 displaced after military raidsin Puncak Jaya, West Papua, according toRadio Australia. Indonesian special forces,Kopassus, are reported to have fired fromhelicopters and destroyed crops, forcingpeople to flee to the mountains, where theyhave insufficient food. Papuan human rightsNGO, Elsham, believes the attack, on October17th, was in retaliation for the killing of agroup of road workers. Indonesian dailyKompas reported that five were killed,including a priest. Kompas said members ofIndonesia’s new Regional RepresentativeCouncil from Papua were calling on PresidentYudhoyono to stop such operations and toprovide emergency relief to the refugees.There is speculation that Kopassus may betrying to pressure the president into giving uphis plan to implement special autonomy inPapua, which may hamper the military’sbusiness activities, including illegal logging.

A former police chief and fivesubordinates are expected to be tried forinvolvement in illegal logging in Papua.However, in November, the Jakarta Postreported that the suspects had not yet beenarrested and the former police chief wasworking at police headquarters in Jakarta.

Indonesia’s constitutional courtannounced in November that a 1999 lawdividing Papua into three provinces violatedthe constitution. Nevertheless, the courtrecognised the existence of West Irian Jaya

province - an effective division of theterritory which NGOs predict will lead toincreased military and police numbers and abigger bureaucracy staffed by non-Papuans.

In September, Jakarta imposed a banon foreign journalists wanting to travel toPapua, Aceh and other trouble spots. (RadioAustralia 8/Nov/04; Kompas 21/Oct/04;Jakarta Post 10&12/Nov/04 )

NGOs set targets The Coalition for Land Reform and NaturalResources Management has listed its keydemands for President Susilo BambangYudhoyono’s new government:1) a minimum1-year moratorium on new laws

related to land and natural resourcesmanagement and a review of existingsectoral laws;

2) a 1-year moratorium on new resourceexploitation licences and review of existingprojects, especially in the extractive sectorsuch as mining, pulp/paper and plantations;

3) an independent conflict resolution body tosettle disputes or conflicts over land andnatural resources. A draft framework forthe establishment of a NationalCommission for Land and ResourceConflict Resolution has already beenproposed by Indonesia’s national humanrights commission and NGOs;

4) law enforcement against Newmont;5) a ban on military involvement in business

related to natural resources and withdrawalof military units from guarding resourceprojects such as mines.

(Memo, Koalisi Untuk Pembaruan Agraria danPengelolaan Sumberdaya Alam, 4/Oct/04.The13-member Coalition includes indigenouspeoples organisation, AMAN plusenvironmental NGOs,WALHI and SKEPHI.)

President promises clamp-down on illegal loggingPresident Yudhoyono instructed central andlocal government heads “not to tolerateillegal loggers and smugglers” and said lawenforcers should take firm action againstillegal loggers and their backers.The presidentissued the instruction after viewing evidenceof forest destruction in Central Kalimantan’sTanjung Puting National Park by helicopter.

Before his election in September this year,Yudhoyono made no specific pledges on theenvironment. (Jakarta Post 12/Nov/04)

Hasan-style profits?Newly-appointed forestry minister MalamSambat Kaban says he wants to contribute tostate coffers by revitalising the forestryindustry. “The question is, why can’t we dothe same thing as Bob Hasan?”he asked.During the Suharto era, Hasan presided overthe wholesale destruction of millions ofhectares of forests and the impoverishmentof forest-dependent communities. Hasanserved a six year jail sentence for corruption,but has never been held to account forhuman rights abuses and forest destructioncarried out by his companies. Kaban said hisministry would earn more than the US$9bncontributed to the state budget by Hasan.

Kaban, who is secretary general ofthe Crescent Star party (PBB) has nobackground in forestry. Longgena Ginting,director of WALHI (Friends of the EarthIndonesia) said Kaban’s appointment wasmere horse-trading, with Susilo rewardingKaban’s political support with the “gold-mine”forestry ministry. (Jakarta Post 25/Oct/04)

Merapi Park campaignLocal organisations have protested against aMay 2004 forestry ministry decree turningMount Merapi in Yogyakarta province, centralJava, into a national park.They argue that thedecision disadvantages local people who havemanaged the slopes of the volcano sustainablyfor generations. The campaigners say thedecree goes against the ministry's ownlegislation which sets out the process ofgazetting a national park and contravenes LawNo 22/1999 on regional autonomy because itignores the authority of regional governmentsin the area.Writing in the Jakarta Post, MiminDwi Hartono of Wana Manhira Foundation,warns that Mt Merapi National park will gothe way of other parks in Indonesia, whichhave followed a western conservation modelill-suited to Indonesia, have failed to fulfilconservation objectives and have insteadmeant "more damage to nature and theimpoverishment of local communities."(Jakarta Post 18/Sep/04, see also DTE 55:18)