A Human Problem: FPP Discusses Effects of Palm Oil Plantations
Forest Peoples Programme's (FPP) Marcus Colchester discusses the scale and social consequences of palm oil plantations for forest people in Indonesia.
London, UK, July 21, 2016
Case Excerpt:
“Legal confusion as to ownership of land and natural resources in Indonesia has fueled thousands of conflicts, some violent, between native populations and plantation companies or smallholder migrants. Such conflicts are not limited to customary rights recognition issues. According to human rights observers, they also commonly include instances where plantations are established without a government license, where compensation payments are not paid, where smallholders’ lands are not allocated or tied to abusive levels of debt, and where coercion and violence are used to put an end to local resistance. In some communities, local groups have taken to reoccupying land, destroying plantation assets, and chasing workers away, even decades after the original license was granted. These conflicts and their consequences on human rights are FPP's raison d'être.”