Indonesia tribe's homeland at risk after losing final appeal: NGOs

Indonesia tribe's homeland at risk after losing final appeal: NGOs
by AFP Staff Writers
Jakarta (AFP) Nov 1, 2024

Indonesia's top court on Friday rejected an appeal by an Indigenous tribe in its lawsuit against a palm oil firm, leaving it at risk of losing vast swathes of ancestral forest, rights groups said.

The Awyu tribe, whose roughly 20,000 members rely on the land for their subsistence, had sought to freeze the operations of PT Indo Asiana Lestari (PT IAL) in the eastern Indonesian province of West Papua.

But Indonesia's Supreme Court rejected their final appeal, according to a document published on its website Friday, upholding the company's 36,000-hectare (89,000-acre) government concession, more than half the size of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

"I feel heartbroken because I am left with no other legal avenue to protect the land and the people of my ancestral homeland," said Awyu tribe plaintiff Hendrikus Woro.

"I am shattered because throughout this struggle, there has been no support from the government, local or central. Who am I supposed to turn to, and where should I go now?" he said in a statement released by the Coalition to Save Papuan Customary Forests, made up of 10 environmental NGOs.

A supreme court spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by AFP about the ruling.

The Awyu tribe's case drew attention in Indonesia earlier this year after a campaign called 'All Eyes on Papua' spread on social media.

"Both the government and the legal system have failed to stand with Indigenous peoples," said Sekar Banjaran Aji of the Save Papuan Customary Forest advocacy team.

"The struggle to protect Papua's customary forests has become all the more challenging."

In November, a Papuan court had ruled that PT IAL's permit was valid, rejecting the Awyu tribe's argument that the concession had been granted based on a flawed environmental impact assessment.

The tribe and environmental NGOs also claim opponents of the palm oil firm's plans have faced intimidation.

PT IAL did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

Palm oil is a billion-dollar industry in Indonesia, which is the world's largest producer and exporter of the commodity used in everything from chocolate spreads to cosmetics.

Indonesia produces about 60 percent of the world's palm oil, with one-third consumed by its domestic market.

Papua lost 2.5 percent of its tree cover between 2001 and 2023, according to Global Forest Watch.