Indonesia: Common Vision towards a stop to the expansion
of pulpwood plantations
Members of twenty-five Indonesian NGOs
and community organisations met in Riau, Sumatra, on 13th January
2007, to give voice to their serious concerns about the impacts
of the pulp and paper industry and its fastwood plantations on
people and forests.
Under the program referred to as HTI
(Hutan Tanaman Industri), “Industrial Timber Plantation and Pulp
Industry Development” launched by the government in the early
1980s, more than 5 million hectares were allocated for fast growing
monoculture tree plantations (Acacia mangium and Eucalyptus) to
support the pulp, paper and rayon industry. This massive expansion
is underway to convert primary forest into timber --as well as
rubber and oil palm plantations.
Representatives from the civil society
organisations which have been discussing the basic demands to
be made to the pulp and paper industry and the government, have
submitted and signed a document which expresses their strong feeling
that the expansion of pulpwood plantations “has surpassed the
limits that the forests and humanity can bear”.
The process leading to include the country
within the global paper market as a cheap provider of raw material
has been sustained by the strip-mining of nature as well as the
suffering and dispossession of forest people. As they put it in
the document: “The use of forests to meet demand for raw materials
from the pulp and paper industry in order to supply paper for
international consumption has a terrible history of expropriating
and violating communities' rights which has left its scars. We
have seen how the workings of the market, facilitated by various
government policies, have directly and indirectly brought about
company practices that damage peoples' livelihoods and the environment
in general.”
The negative impacts of the pulp and
paper industry on the environment and the surrounding communities
deprives them of their livelihoods and generates social conflicts
and poverty. So, the claim is “to save the remaining forests and
protect local and indigenous peoples' rights in all the areas
affected by pulpwood plantations and pulp and paper factories
from unimaginable disaster.”
Among concerned parties there is now
“a shared vision on the reconstruction and transformation needed
in the development of Indonesia's pulp and paper industry.”
They have stated that: “A number of
points have been arisen as we have shared our experiences of organising
advocacy and supporting affected communities through serious discussions
about the pulp and paper industry. These have motivated us to
take a stand together and to press for policy changes in order
to stop all damaging practices and any further expansion of this
industry. Over the next few years, we intend to monitor
closely all policy instruments and to press for changes or revisions
in these, working together in our different ways.
Based on these experiences, we have
drawn up this Common Vision for Changes in Indonesia's Pulp &
Paper Industry which addresses policies, the industry and social
conditions.
AIMS
To ensure that local and indigenous
communities' rights and interests are respected and ecological
priorities are protected in fulfilling demand for Indonesian paper.
OBJECTIVES
1.
To intervene in policy changes at local, national and international
level that promote the expansion of pulpwood plantations and the
pulp and paper industry in Indonesia.
2. To extend recognition of local
and indigenous communities' sustainable forest practices;
3. To close down pulp and paper factories
that cause environmental pollution and damage communities' interests;
to oppose the construction of new plants; and to stop the expansion
of pulpwood plantations.”
The ensuing action of the
civil society organizations is to hold a strategic follow-up
meeting later this year.
Article based on “CSOs take a stand
on pulp”, Down to Earth Nº 73, May 2007, e-mail: dte@gn.apc.org,
http://dte.gn.apc.org
