Coalition to Save Tripa Peat Swamp Forest: Historic Cancellation of Oil Palm Permit Opens Door for Prosecution of Companies' Crimes
Latest Satellite Image shows company still burning protected peatlands
JAKARTA - Less than
one week after history was made as the Aceh Government revoked the first
industrial palm oil permit from the Tripa Peat Swamp Forest, a coalition of
NGO’s known as ‘Save Tripa Peat Forest’ highlighted today in a press briefing additional
clear breaches of Indonesia's multi million dollar forest protection agreement
with Norway, only kilometers from the first location, and demanded National
Police increase their activities to quickly bring these crimes to trial.
Deddy Ratih, Forest
Campaigner for Walhi (Friends of the Earth Indonesia) explained “This continues
to be the leading test case for a National problem. While the revocation of
PT Kallista Alam is a step in the right direction, there is still much more action
required by police and Government to resolve the problems in Tripa. The
Ministry of Environment continues to investigate a raft of the environmental
crimes in Tripa with no end in sight. Meanwhile, the legal testimonies of local
communities to the National Police continue to be ignored”
Kamarrudin, the
lawyer representing local people and the environment in the Tripa case, said,
“There are strong
indications that the enforcement of the law in the Tripa case has been
“hijacked” by the financial power of corporations operating in the Tripa peat
swamps. This can be seen in the less than optimal work of the provincial and
national police, and the investigators of the Ministry of the Environment. We
request that the National Police Chief and the Ministry of the Environment
immediately evaluate the investigative processes to date, and move forward with
a thorough investigation of the criminal crimes against spatial planning,
plantation and environmental laws and regulations in the Tripa peat swamps. We
hope that this case, that has drawn national and international attention, will
not be frozen by those with vested interests in the law enforcement and
government agencies. We also hold the Ministry of the Environment to its
promise to launch criminal and administrative against companies that have
committed serious environmental crimes in the Tripa peat swamps”.
In an impassioned
address, Adnan NS, a prominent Community leader from Aceh stressed, “Despite
the recent cancellation of the PT Kallista Alam permit, and ongoing
investigations into violations of the law by this and other companies in Tripa,
on the ground nothing has changed yet. Community livelihoods continue to be
destroyed, even though local community leaders traveled all the way to Jakarta
to report this to the national police back in November 2011. We are still
waiting for action and demand to know why their testimonies have been ignored”.
“Over the last two
months I’ve been on speaking tours of both the USA and Australia, and all
around the world people are continually asking me about the situation in
Tripa.” Said Dr Ian Singleton, Conservation Director of the Sumatran
Conservation Programme. “International interest in the governance of
Indonesia's remaining forests and rapidly declining wild species populations is
extremely high, and to them my message is clear - anyone with a computer can
now check on forest clearance in Indonesia, measure and quantify it, and get
daily updates on illegal fires, and circulate that information globally. As
individuals we have never before had access to so much quantifiable information
in other parts of the world or the ability to share it so widely and people
around the world continue to be extremely alarmed and concerned about Tripa, as
what they see is that so far nothing has yet changed. Unless the destruction is
halted very very quickly, we are still likely to see the local extinction of
Sumatran Orangutans from Tripa in the very near future.
“The forest
concession known as Dua Perkasa Lestari (DPL) has been marked as off-limits in
all three releases of the Government’s moratorium map, a tool designed to
reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation, but satellite
imagery from last week clearly show that burning and illegal clearing of
Tripa’s peat swamp forests is still taking place. Furthermore, the DPL area has
no clear HGU permit, it clearly lies within the Leuser Ecosystem protected by
National Spatial Planning law 26/2007, and it contains peat over 3m deep.
There are three companies that have been the major burning culprits,
namely PT.SPS2, PT DPL and PT KA. We should pay greater attention to this
because it is in violation of Law No. 32/2009 on the Environmental Protection
and Management” explained Riswan Zen, a Senior GIS mapping expert from the
Univeristy of North Sumatra.
“Over 25,000 people
have already signed a petition calling for immediate action to halt the
destruction of Tripa’s unique ecosystem, from within Tripa itself, from Aceh,
from Indonesia, and from all over the world, contributing to the recent closure
of the illegal PT Kallista Alam concession. Now we, together with the local
community, are launching a new petition (at http://www.change.org/savetripa2) calling
on Indonesia’s National Police to support the findings of the REDD+ Taskforce and
the Ministry of Environment, and immediately escalate the cases under
investigation to formal prosecutions. Much more still needs to be done to
protect the remaining forests of Tripa, Aceh, and Indonesia as a whole. But the
recent cancellation of the illegal PT Kallista Alam concession is an historic
legal precedent for the country and it now needs to be followed up with the
investigation and processing of all law breakers, and prosecution for their
offences” Said Usman Hamid of Change.org Indonesia.
Its up to all of us
to take action to protect the environment, and it can be as simple as signing a
petition online, sharing it with your friends, tweeting and using social media
to make our country a better place for all Indonesians,” said Melanie Subono.
“I’m proud to have signed the petition to save Tripa and to see our laws
finally being enforced. In fact, it is our duty as citizens to demand that our
laws be upheld, especially those protecting the environment we all live in. Very
soon I plan to visit Tripa and see the Orangutans, the forests, and the
destruction still taking place with my own eyes. I’ll be going in close to 4
weeks time, and sincerely hope that before I get there, the National Police
will have finally begun to take action on this globally important issue”
For further media comment or information, please contact:
Dr Ian Singleton
Director of Conservation, Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program
mokko123@gmail.com
Deddy Raith
Forest Campaigner, WALHI Indonesia (Friends of the Earth Indonesia)
Yuyun Indradi
Political Campaigner, Greenpeace Indonesia
