Indonesia

SwissInfo in conversation with Kartini Samon from GRAIN on the impacts of industrial oil palm production on communities and on the role of Swiss banks in financing land grabbing by funding expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, resistance against the cement production complex of the Indonesian company Semen Indonesia which willl destroy the Kendeng karst forest area in uphill Java, has been growing. Patmi, a woman from one of the villages in the district of Tambakromo traveled to the capital Jakarta to join protests against the forest destruction for the cement production. She died on March 21st, possibly of a heart attack, after days of sit-in protest in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.

 

An obituary. By Hendro Sangkoyo (1)

Asia Tenggara: menghubungkan rakyat melawan investasi dan inisiatif konservasi skala-besar WRM Bulletin 229_Bahasa version

Since joining Indonesia officially in 1969, Papua had only seven oil palm companies until 2005. In 2014, the number jumped to 21 companies, with another 20 companies gearing up to start their operations.

The Scale of Disaster

An article from “The Guardian” highlights how despite fire raging across over 5,000 km in Indonesia, the media “dominated by corporate press releases, photo ops and fashion shoots” is not paying attention. This catastrophe is having severe effects on many levels. Children are being prepared for evacuation on warships. Populations of species, including threatened species, are going up in smoke at an untold rate.