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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.

Gender justice discussion on KBR 68H radio

DTE, October 31st, 2014

This Indonesian language discussion was broadcast on October 30th to mark the launch of DTE's 100th edition newsletter, Fair enough? Women, men, communities and ecological justice in Indonesia.

The four women discussing gender justice with their KBR 68 hosts are: Siti Maimunah (SAINS), Betty Tio Minar (DTE), Ratri Kusumohartono (Sawit Watch) and Puspa Dewi (Solidaritas Perempuan).

The broadcast, which also invites callers to phone in, and responds to their questions, starts 3.09 minutes into the file.

Solidaritas Perempuan: Save the Earth, Stop the Commodification of Nature!

DTE 99-100, October 2014

This was the message to the candidates taking part in this year’s Presidential elections, issued by Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity for Human Rights) in its Earth Day press release, 22nd April 2014.

Translated by DTE.

Indigenous Women decision-makers

DTE 99-100, October 2013

Too often indigenous women are prevented from making key decision for themselves, leaving them powerless to ensure gender-related injustices which directly affect them, their families and their communities are understood and addressed.

Solidaritas Perempuan: Gender and Natural Resources

DTE 99-100, October 2014

The following article is based on a discussion with Solidaritas Perempuan (SP) in July 2014, with some additional information by DTE.

Election Politics 2014 and Natural Resources Management

How green are the elections? Do Indonesia’s voters care about ecological justice? We take a very brief look...

DTE 98, March 2014

The environment is a marginal issue not worthy of any attention. This is the perception evident from the election campaigns of parliamentary candidates, almost all of which are failing to focus on the environment.

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.

Why systemic agrarian conflicts are continuing to break out across the land

DTE 93-94, December 2012

By Noer Fauzi Rachman*

The systemic agrarian conflicts referred to in this article are protracted conflicts arising from opposing claims made on particular pieces of land, or over natural resources and community-owned areas or territories, by giant corporations in the business of infrastructure, production, resource extraction and conservation, and where each opposing side is taking direct or indirect action to negate the claim of the other.