Indigenous Peoples

DTE 88, April 2011

In the last few years, DTE has been working with local communities in Indonesia to follow the international negotiations on climate change.

Down to Earth 87, December 2010

An update on the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency - BRWA - launched earlier this year.

"We have taken back the land…but it isn't recognised as ours.  We want to be free to work our own land." (Nenek Mahbun, from Kelumpang Lima)

DTE 84, March 2010

By Pang Yuriun, Coordinator of Aceh's Indigenous Peoples' Network (JKMA).

Accepting REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) schemes as a necessary means to combat global warming bears a series of consequences for all of us. First, measures undertaken under the REDD mechanism need to be an integral part of an overall strategy to combat illegal logging and reduce the rate of forest destruction and degradation.

Down to Earth No.83, December 2009

By Chris Lang.1


Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono likes to make promises. Particularly at international meetings.

Down to Earth No.83, December 2009

Despite urgent calls for action from civil society, climate scientists and governments of some of the most vulnerable countries, the pace of progress towards a new international climate deal has been frustratingly slow.

Down to Earth No.82, September 2009

More deaths at Freeport-Rio Tinto mine in Papua

More violence near the Freeport-Rio Tinto copper and gold mine in West Papua resulted in three deaths - two Freeport employees and a police officer - in July. Police arrested seven people: two of them worked at the company's Grasberg mine. More shots were fired at a bus carrying the mine's employees in August, with one incident leaving five people injured.

Down to Earth No.80-81, June 2009

While this year's parliamentary and presidential elections have been dominating political life in Indonesia in recent months, the issue of climate change took a low priority on the competing parties' manifestos. Meanwhile, the government's much-criticised regulation on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) has been issued. Twenty projects are now underway in the country.