A recent meeting in Indonesia addressed three important issues facing the future of the forests in the country: gazettement of state forest; exclusion of indigenous peoples’ forest from the state forest; and the resolution of forestry conflicts.
Category: West Papua
MIFEE’s massive seizure of indigenous lands is causing starvation and poverty in Papua
The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) industrial plantations project is having serious impacts on people and forests in Papua province, Indonesia. Forest Peoples Programme’s Sophie Chao visited the project area earlier this year and reports that “disease and undernourishment are rampant”.
Missing the Poorest for the Trees?
“In order to be both effective and equitable, REDD+ will require large areas of land with clear tenure arrangements. Yet many developing countries suffer from conflicts over land ownership and continue to exclude local communities from land use decisions. How will REDD+ impact peace and security in these countries?”
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court returns customary forests to indigenous peoples
Yesterday, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled that indigenous peoples’ customary forests should not be classed as “State Forest Areas”. This is a landmark ruling and an important step for the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights in Indonesia.
Dorjee Sun, Ulu Masen and The Burning Season
At a presentation at the 2012 meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, Dorjee Sun talked briefly about his involvement in forest protection and carbon trading. “We made front page of Time magazine with our project in Indonesia”.