Indigenous activists from the Indonesian province of West Papua have held traditional ceremonies in front of the country's Supreme Court in Jakarta calling for their traditional lands and forests to be protected from palm oil plantations.
Representatives of the Awyu and Moi communities held prayers and danced in front of the Supreme Court building on Monday as the court reviewed an appeal regarding their efforts to revoke permits from four palm oil companies whose proposed plantations threaten their customary forests. Indonesia began legally recognizing customary forests in 2016.
“We have taken the long, difficult and expensive road from Tanah Papua [Papua homeland] end here in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, asking the Supreme Court to restore our rights and the land that was taken from us when these palm oil companies obtained permits for it,” said Hendrikus “Franky” Woro, an indigenous Awyu.
Woro filed an environmental and land rights lawsuit in Jayapura, Papua's capital, challenging a Malaysian-owned palm oil company's plan to clear tens of thousands of hectares of previously intact West Papuan forests, including traditional indigenous lands.
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace said potential emissions from clearing 26,326 hectares (65,053 acres) of primary forest on its concession would amount to around 23 million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to 5 per cent of the country's annual carbon emissions. Indonesia expected in 2030.
The Awyu have also intervened in appeals brought by two other palm oil companies against the decision of the Minister of Environment and Forestry to cancel the permits he had previously granted them to clear indigenous lands. The repeal has the potential to save 65,415 hectares (161,644 acres) of pristine rainforest, six times the area of the city of Paris, Greenpeace said.
The Supreme Court is the communities' last chance to defend their customary forest and generations-old ancestral heritage.
“For years we have been tormented by the threat of our traditional forests being replaced by oil palm plantations. We want to raise our children with the help of nature and the food and materials we harvest from the forest. Palm oil will destroy our forests, we reject it,” said Rikarda Maa, an indigenous Awyu woman.
Meanwhile, the Moi indigenous community is fighting to protect thousands of hectares of customary forest that have also been used for oil palm cultivation. The company involved had its permits revoked amid community opposition, but lower courts later ruled in favor of the planter.
“The judicial panel must prioritize aspects of the case related to environmental and climate justice, the impact of which will not only be felt by the Awyu and Moi but by all Indonesian people,” Tigor Hutapea, member of the legal committee. Pusaka Bentala Rakyat team said in a statement.
Global Forest Watch, a monitoring platform run by the World Resources Institute, said last month that since 1950, more than 74 million hectares (183 million acres) of Indonesian rainforest – an area twice the size of Germany – had been cut down, burned or degraded. for the development of palm oil, paper and rubber plantations, nickel mining and other commodities.
Indonesia is the world's largest producer of palm oil and Malaysia the second. Indonesia is also a major exporter of commodities such as coal, rubber and tin.
