The international demand for palm oil has resulted in South East Asian forests suffering from slash-and-burn deforestation methods, which has been devastating for locals, orangutans, and some of the world's most biodiverse regions. However, there is another lesser-known narrative -- how some local tribes of Papua used to work with a palm oil industry giant.
For generations, the indigenous tribes of Papua, Indonesia have been the defenders of the land long before the formation of environmental groups. Things drastically changed in 2014 when an elder of the Manobo tribe and member, Petrus King, was approached by the South Korean palm oil giant Korindo.
In exchange for convincing eleven tribes, including his own, to sell their property, they would be compensated $8 per hectare of land. Petrus would also receive enough funds for his children to go to school, a new house, clean water, and a generator.
Petrus said, "Corporations use various methods to get us to surrender our land to them," such as sending school supplies for the children, pressure from the military, or violent threats. When the military visited his house to escort him to a meeting with the company, he was told they wouldn't know what would happen if he didn't comply.
Soon, he agreed to the company's requests. Since then, Korindo has cleared about 60,000 hectares of forest to replant new palms. In doing so, the company resorted to the illegal slash-and-burn method. When asked about the forest fires, the company said they've only used machinery to clear the land, not fires.
Evidence of Deliberate Fires
In 2018, the Forest Stewardship Council concluded that there was no evidence of Korindo using illegal and deliberate fires to clear the land for palm oil. However, a recent investigation by the University in London's Forensic Architecture and Greenpeace International reveals evidence of deliberate forest fires during the land-clearing period.
Forensic Architecture developed a model and research technique using spatial and architectural analysis that can determine if a fire was set deliberately or not, explained Samaneh Moafi. The evidence can be used to hold large corporations liable in court.
"If fire was being used to clear the concessions operated by Korindo, the company would be in breach of the Indonesian law and the credibility of the FSC investigation could be questioned," wrote the group. The slash-and-burn method not only contributes to climate change and destroys natural habitats, but it's also contributed to thousands of people attaining respiratory illnesses and nearly 100,000 premature deaths.
With the help of NASA satellites, the team compared hotspot datasets between 2011 and 2016 to study the normalized burn ration. Moafi explained that during the time that Korindo was clearing land, there was evidence of the same pattern, direction, and speed matching intentional fires from years before.
If fires were set outside the concession (lands granted to the company) or were natural forest fires, they would have had a different pattern and directionality. BBC reported that locals near the concession also said that the company cleared the land using fires for years, supporting the evidence even more.
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Fighting for Future Generations
What Petrus received after agreeing to Korindo's request for land was a little over $40,000 and educational fees for only one out of eight children. He has nothing left, he said, after sharing the money with his relatives and spending the rest on the education of his other children.
Acknowledging his mistakes, he now continues to fight for the land they have left so that the future generations of his clan would live off of the forest and not money. Currently, 19,000 hectares have been earmarked for clearing inside the Korindo concession.
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