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Indonesia

Indonesia has great natural wealth but many of its citizens live in extreme poverty. Democratic progress has been made since the resigation of former president Suharto in 1998, but many civil society organisations feel that far too little progress has been made towards sustainable management of the country's resources, and ensuring that Indonesia's diverse communities have a real say in decisions which affect their future.

Biofuels gridlock continues into 2014

DTE 98, March 2014

Indecision and uncertainty on EU biofuels policy persists, as communities in Indonesia continue to suffer the impacts of oil palm expansion.

DTE Newsletter 96-97 full edition for download

DTE 96-97, December 2013

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Agrofuels: impacts in Indonesia, time for policy change in Europe, DTE Special Edition newsletter

Fix the policy!

DTE 96-97, December 2013

Biofuels - once promoted as the silver bullet for climate change - have turned out to be one of the European Union’s biggest policy mistakes.

CSOs tell EU to ‘stop grabbing Indonesia’s land for biofuels’

DTE 96-97, December 2013

A crucial vote on biofuels in the European Parliament on September 11th 2013 has failed to fix a flawed policy which is driving deforestation, landgrabbing and human rights abuse, while undermining communities' food sovereignty in producer countries like Indonesia.

Europe’s agrofuels imports: check the reality on the ground in Indonesia

DTE 96-97, December 2013

Bondan Andriyanu of Sawit Watch, visited Berlin, Brussels and Strasbourg in September 2013. The aim was to convey to Europe’s policymakers the urgent need to reform the EU’s policies on agrofuels due to their harmful impacts in Indonesia.

Prior to the trip to Europe, DTE interviewed Bondan about his organisation, and his intentions in Europe.

Why not Wilmar?

DTE 96-97, December 2013

The name Wilmar looms large in the Europe-Indonesia agrofuels picture.  This Singapore-based company sells Indonesia-made biodiesel to Europe as well as selling oil palm feedstock for making biodiesel in Europe.

Policies and practice: favouring big business over communities

DTE 93-94, December 2012

In this article we highlight some of the influences at work inside Indonesia which are contributing to the ongoing transfer of land from communities to corporations. These influences include national and local government policies, laws, governance and practices, whose provisions for supporting indigenous peoples and communities’ rights and livelihoods have been deprioritised in favour of large-scale, commercial ‘development’ projects. The result is a growing disparity between rich and poor, worsening imbalance in the control over agrarian resources and more and more conflicts between communities, private sector and the state.