[SIGN ON] Solidarity with Buol
August 28, 2024
Sign on to the joint statement from Indonesian civil society to demand the end to the criminalization and militarization suffered by the land and environmental defenders of Buol Regency in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia!
tinyurl.com/SolidarityWithBuol
Update (November 26, 2024): The verdict made by the Business Competition Monitoring Commission (KPPU RI) back in July was upheld, confirming that the palm oil corporation PT. HIP was guilty of land-grabbing and abuses against the local farmers. The corporation’s objection to the ruling was rejected. Read below statement by APNED member Forum Plasma Petani Buol.
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Stand with Buol Plasma Farmers and Criminalized Land and Environmental Defenders
APNED stands in firm solidarity with the peasants and environmental defenders of Buol Regency in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, who have been protesting the abuses and land-grabbing of the oil palm plantation company PT. Hardaya Inti Plantations (PT. HIP). It is the constitutional right of the Buol plasma farmers to defend their lands and oppose corporate land-grabbing.
For 16 years, PT. HIP has failed to uphold its end of the plasma-core partnership with its plasma farmers (small land-holding farmers), who are legally entitled to a share of the company’s profits in exchange for allowing the company to cultivate and harvest oil palm on their lands. Plasma farmers have not received anything from PT. HIP in the past six years, and have not been paid in full for longer than that. In addition, the company has shifted onto the farmers the enormous debt burden of up to 500 billion rupiah (~USD $32 million) and their land certificates as collateral.
Special Armed Police troops (“bri-mob”, in dark blue uniform) and company security personnel (in brown uniform; also trained by provincial police) forces deployed in partnership areas.
PT. HIP is an oil palm plantation company that is a subsidiary of Cipta Cakra Murdaya, a supplier of fresh fruit bunches and crude palm oil to many global brands such as Wilmar, Unilever, Nestle, and Hershey. The company has a bad track record in human rights and environmental violations, as well as corruption, with its owner, Hartati Murdaya Poo, even getting arrested in 2012 for bribing the district chief to grant a land concession in Buol. In July 2024, PT. HIP was found guilty of violating their partnership agreement with Buol plasma farmers by the Business Competition Monitoring Commission (KPPU). Despite these cases, PT. HIP has even been granted further concessions in protected areas, and continued their operations.
Protesting the many years of PT. HIP’s grave violations against them, Buol plasma farmers went on strike in January 2024 and stopped operations on their lands. PT. HIP has not been open to meaningful negotiation with the villagers. Instead, the company has tried to weaken the struggle of the peasants through forcefully trying to harvest from their lands and criminalizing leaders and cooperative members. Since July 31, 2024, hundreds of police and military personnel have been deployed across the partnership plantation areas in Buol, due to a false report from the company that farmers would be rioting. APNED denounces this act of criminalization by the company, and the militarization ordered by the provincial police, which has sown fear in the community and hindered villagers from exercising their right to protest and voice their grievances against PT. HIP and the Buol government.
In addition, seventeen peasants and activists received summons from the police for questioning, with one named a suspect. Among those who received summons are women land and environmental defenders Fatrisia Ain and Seniwati, coordinator and secretary respectively of Forum Petani Plasma Buol (FPPB). FPPB is a community organization built by the peasants of Buol themselves to fight for their human, land, and environmental rights. FPPB is also a member of APNED. These environmental defenders have been reported by the company for alleged violations of criminal and plantation laws. Many of them fear that they may soon be made into formal suspects, which frequently happens in cases of criminalization by companies. The criminalization of the 17 environmental defenders is another harmful tactic to weaken the struggle of the plasma farmers.
Forum Petani Plasma Buol farmers and community partners
The land-grabbing and other abuses of PT. HIP are not unique to the plasma partnership scheme and overall palm oil industry, which has long ravaged local communities and forests using promises of local jobs and economic development. Indonesia holds an estimated area of at least 13 million hectares, an area the size of Greece. Yet in spite of copious evidence of numerous violations, palm oil mega-projects continue to be proposed, threatening large swathes of forest in the islands of Sulawesi and Papua.
APNED echoes the demands of the local peasants of Buol and other Indonesian environmental defenders to put an end to the criminalization of environmental defenders and militarization in the villages of Buol, and to seek accountability from PT. HIP and the provincial police. We call on the Indonesian government to ensure that the company is accountable to its legal, social, and environmental obligations, and to PT. HIP’s global clients to pressure the company to uphold sustainability commitments. The plight of Buol peasants show clearly that the reckless expansion of palm oil concessions must be stopped, and that companies who do not uphold plasma partnerships must return the lands of the farmers.
#DefendEnvironmentalDefenders #TolakSawit
Photos courtesy of Forum Petani Plasma Buol.
Sign on to the joint statement from Indonesian civil society to demand the end to the criminalization and militarization suffered by the land and environmental defenders of Buol Regency in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia!
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
1994: The company began forcing residents off the land by clearing the forests in the area for plantation
2008: Profit-sharing agreement reached between PT. HIP and Buol peasants
2012: Owner of PT. HIP, Hartati Murdaya Poo, was arrested for bribing Buol district chief to be granted a land concession, but the illegally obtained concession was not revoked
2018: PT. HIP submitted a request for forest conversion
Nov 2018: The Minister of Environment and Forestry issued a decree on release and determination of forest conversion to PT. HIP, despite presidential moratorium (Impres Moratorium) and moratorium set by Buol district chief
2019: Buol regency files case protesting issued decree against the Ministry of Environment and Forestry
2022: Land-owning farmers formed association called Forum Petani Plasma Buol due to cooperative management being unreliable
Jan 2023: Special armed police troops begin patrolling villages
2024
January 8: Buol farmers start to strike to protest losses in collaboration with PT. HIP
May 7 and 10: PT. HIP workers come to force-harvest from villagers’ lands; 2 separate clashes between villagers and plantation workers result in at least 9 villagers and 1 worker injured
June: 17 peasants and activists have received summons from the police for questioning; 1 was named a suspect
July 9: PT. HIP was found guilty of violating their partnership agreement with Buol plasma farmers by the Business Competition Monitoring Commission (KPPU)
July 31: PT. HIP deployed hundreds of police and military personnel across the partnership plantation area to weaken peasants’ struggle and forcefully open plasma plantation areas
August 8: Management of Amanah cooperative secretly signed MOU with PT Usaha Kelola Maju Investasi (UKMI), facilitated by Buol government
August 19: Hundreds of plasma farmers and members of Amanah Farmers Cooperative protest, demanding return of land and cessation of plantation operations
Currently, the farmers’ strike has been temporarily stopped in some areas due to the upcoming regional head elections. But the demands remain the same.
References and Further Reading
Jong, H. N. (2019, April 24). Not in my backyard: Indonesian official fights corrupt palm concession. Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/not-in-my-backyard-indonesian-official-fights-corrupt-palm-concession/
____. (2024, June 4). Indonesian palm oil firm clashes with villagers it allegedly shortchanged. Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/indonesian-palm-oil-firm-clashes-with-villagers-it-allegedly-shortchanged/
____. (2024, July 26). Palm oil company fined for cheating; Sulawesi farmers to reap their due rupiah. Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/palm-oil-company-fined-for-cheating-sulawesi-farmers-to-reap-their-due-rupiah/
Lahay, S. (2024, August 8). Indonesia palm oil lobby pushes 1 million hectares of new Sulawesi plantations. Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/indonesia-palm-oil-lobby-pushes-1-million-hectares-of-new-sulawesi-plantations/
____. (2024, July 21). Petani Sawit Buol Menanti Perusahaan Kembalikan Lahan [Bahasa]. Mongabay. https://www.mongabay.co.id/2024/07/21/petani-sawit-buol-menanti-perusahaan-kembalikan-lahan/
____. (2024, August 20). Pasca Putusan KPPU, Petani Plasma Buol Tuntut Kejelasan Lahan [Bahasa]. Mongabay. https://www.mongabay.co.id/2024/08/20/pasca-putusan-kppu-petani-plasma-buol-tuntut-kejelasan-lahan/
Mongabay, The Gecko Project, & BBC News. (2022, May 23). ‘The promise was a lie’: How Indonesian villagers lost their cut of the palm oil boom. Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/the-promise-was-a-lie-how-indonesian-villagers-lost-their-cut-of-the-palm-oil-boom/
WALHI. (2019, April 15). Violates the legal norms, Siti Nurbaya sued by Bupati Buol. WALHI. https://www.walhi.or.id/violates-the-legal-norms-siti-nurbaya-sued-by-bupati-buol