Today, on the way to a meeting with the local NGO Elang, I passed villagers from the Kampar Peninsula, a carbon-rich and biodiverse ecoystem that is under attack by Sinar Mas’ oil palm operations and their timber division Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), on a hunger strike.

In front of the provincial parliament building, a group of men and women from the village of Kijang Kejo have set up a plastic tarp and banner, announcing to Riau’s elected officials that they will not eat until the oil palm plantation PT Arindo Tri Sejahtera, who stole their land and then paid thugs to kill three of their family members, is brought to justice.

10 days into their hunger strike, the villagers are pale and weak, sleeping while motor bikes and buses fly by them on the road. They told me they have not been able to meet with any members of the provincial government, and were not sure how much longer they could last without food.

The group that owns this particular plantation, Surya Dumai, might be on the nastier end of the scale of dirty, dangerous, and destructive oil palm and timber companies, but this is how the resource extraction game is played here in Riau, Sumatra; buy the military, government, and media and trample any local people that dare to stand up for their rights.

APP and Sinar Mas have been shown to violate Indonesian law and human rights, but with the authorities in their pocket, it is us, the consumers of timber and palm oil, that must demand  producers respect forests and the people who inhabit them.

David Gilbert is a Research Fellow at RAN. He has worked in the tropical forests of the Amazon and Indonesia, with a special focus on forest conservation and indigenous rights. He can be reached at davidgilbert@ran.org

TOWARDS RAPP COMPANY (APRIL)

Regarding: UPHOLDING TELUK MERANTI COMMUNITY RIGHTS

To the Honourable,

President Director of RAPP company (April)

With this, the community of Teluk Meranti subdistrict, based on our needs to the land located across the river or land intended to become a part of your company’s operational area, declares that it: REJECTS THE PRESENCE OF THE RAPP COMPANY.

This is done with regard to the below considerations:

1. The land is to be retained for our grandchildren’s future
2. Experiences by other surrounding villages or areas where RAPP company has operated which have impacted negatively on the local community’s rights
3. It has caused loss of agricultural and horticultural land belonging to the community
4. The community will lose the source of its livelihood (economic, social and cultural) from the forest which will be converted to an industrial timber plantation

We, the community of Teluk Meranti, have inhabited and utilised this area in a wise and traditional way far preceeding Indonesia’s independence.

Thus concludes this rejection letter, made with great consideration so that unwanted problems will be avoided in the future.

Respectfully yours,

The community of Teluk Meranti