Dear all,

 

Patrick Anderson sent this sign-on letter today. A company, APRIL, wants to take over customary land in the Kampar Peninsular. This is an area with the most deep peat soil. APRIL, a huge pulp and paper company, is part of the Raja Garuda Mas Group, one of Indonesia´s largest holdings that also has lots of palm oil plantations in the same area and has already destroyed vast peat forests.

 

 Please sign the letter and send your response to panderson@...

 

Thanks, Marianne
………………………………………

Dear friends,

 

The indigenous community of Teluk Meranti in the Kampar Peninsular, Riau, Sumatra, is resisting efforts by a pulp and paper company to take over their customary lands, and has asked for letters of support.  Please find following information on this issue including a sign on letter to the company which will be sent next Monday. The attached maps show the general location of the Teluk Meranti community lands within the Kampar Peninsular. Please let me know if you can sign on to the letter or need further information.   

 

Sincerely,

 

Patrick

 

 

Background to the request from the Teluk Meranti community

 

The pulpwood plantation company, Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper, owned by the pulp and paper giant, APRIL, has obtained in principle permits to develop Acacia plantations on 45,000 hectares of peat swamp forest in the Kampar Peninsular, Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. RAPP would like to develop up to 150,000 hectares of Acacia plantations in a ring around the edge of the 700,000 Kampar Peninsular on peat forests that are under the traditional management and ownership of about ten indigenous communities.

 

RAPP’s permits cover peat forests that are the customary lands of the indigenous community of Teluk Meranti. If the Acacia plantations are developed on their lands, the Teluk Meranti community will lose an essential source of livelihood, as it manages and uses the area for fish, shrimp, small game, building materials and non timber forest products. RAPP plans to start clearing the forests this year.

 

Representatives from the Forest People Programme, Rainforest Action Network and Scale Up, a Riau NGO that assists indigenous communities, traveled to the Kampar Peninsular in May this year and met with the Teluk Meranti community. Scale Up is now assisting the Teluk Meranti community to prepare a map of their customary territory, and was recently requested by community leaders to contact national and international groups and ask for their support in their struggle to stop their peat forests being destroyed by RAPP.

 

In June, the community of Teluk Meranti sent the following letter to RAPP:

 

TELUK MERANTI COMMUNITY LETTER OF REJECTION

 

TO RAPP COMPANY (APRIL)

 

Teluk Meranti, 20 June 2009

 

Regarding: UPHOLDING TELUK MERANTI COMMUNITY RIGHTS

 

To the Honourable, President Director of RAPP company (APRIL)

 

With this, the community of Teluk Meranti subdistrict, based on our needs to the land located across the river from our village, land intended to become a part of your company’s operational area, declares that it: REJECTS THE PRESENCE OF THE RAPP COMPANY.

 

This is done with regard to the following considerations:

1. The land is to be retained for our grandchildren’s future
2. Experiences by other surrounding villages and areas where the RAPP company has operated have impacted negatively on the local community’s rights
3. It has caused loss of agricultural and horticultural land belonging to the community
4. The community will lose the source of its livelihood (economic, social and cultural) from the forest which will be converted to an industrial timber plantation

 

We, the community of Teluk Meranti, have inhabited and utilised this area in a wise and traditional way since long before Indonesia’s independence.

 

Thus concludes this rejection letter, made with great consideration so that unwanted problems will be avoided in the future.

 

Respectfully yours,

 

The community of Teluk Meranti

 

Signed by 82 community members

 

With acknowledgement and agreement,

Subdistrict Head

 

H. Hasan E.

(duly signed and sealed)

 

Carbon Copies to:

1. Republic of Indonesia Minister for Forests, Jakarta
2. Republic of Indonesia House of Representatives Commission III, Jakarta
3. Republic of Indonesia House of Representatives Commission IV, Jakarta
4. National Commission on Human Rights, Jakarta
5. National Forests Board, Jakarta
6. Governor of Riau, Pekan Baru
7. Riau Province House of Representatives Chair, Pekan Baru
8. Head of Riau Forestry Services, Pekan Baru
9. Pelalawan District Head, Pangkalan Kerinci
10. Pelalawan District House of Representatives Chair, Pangkalan Kerinci
11. Head of Pelalawan Forestry Services, Pangkalan Kerinci
12. Head of Jikalahari NGO, Pekan Baru
13. Head of Scale Up NGO, Pekan Baru
14. Head of Walhi Riau NGO, Pekan Baru
15. Riau Community Leaders Communication Forum, Pekan Baru

 

 

Please find following the letter that Forest Peoples Programme plans to send to RAPP next Monday, 17 August.  Please contact me before then if you would like to sign on.

 

To: Thomas Handoko, Director of RAPP
 
Re: Respecting indigenous peoples’ rights in the Kampar Peninsular
 
Dear Sir,
 
It has come to our attention that the Teluk Meranti community has rejected RAPP’s plans to develop Acacia pulpwood plantations that will impact the community’s customary territories on the Kampar Peninsular. In a letter to RAPP on 20 June, the Teluk Meranti community wrote that it has used and managed its customary forests on the Kampar Peninsular since long before Indonesia achieved independence, and that it rejects RAPP’s presence on its territory.
 
We note that in March 2007, the then Director of RAPP, Mr Rudi Fajar, informed an international meeting in Riau organized by The Forest Dialogue, that RAPP would respect the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in establishing new plantation areas and resolving land conflicts with indigenous communities.
 
The right of indigenous peoples to FPIC, which is included in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, includes the right of indigenous peoples to reject planned developments that would affect their customary lands.
 
We urge you to respect the decision of the Teluk Meranti community, and to implement procedures in line with the principle of FPIC within your company.
 
Sincerely,
 
 Marcus Colchester

Director, Forest Peoples Programme

 
Cc:
Sub district head (Camat) of Teluk Meranti
Communities of the Kampar Peninsular: Teluk Meranti, Teluk Binjai, Pulau Muda
Minister of Forestry, Republic of Indonesia
NGO’s of Riau and Indonesia

Media
Customers of RAPP…