On Friday, November 13, 2020, Indonesians highlighting the issue of Papua’s forests. The main focus is on the results of investigations on customary forests in Papua, which are allegedly deliberately burned for the sake of clearing oil palm land.
In a report by Forensic Architecture and Greenpeace Indonesia together with the BBC, it was revealed the role of the South Korean company, Korindo Group, which burned up to more than 57 thousand hectares of forest in Papua for oil palm plantations.
The land area that burned is almost equal to Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
What then becomes the spotlight is regarding compensation for each affected community. Because every 1 hectare of forest is said to receive compensation of IDR 100 thousand.
A resident of Boven Digoel named Petrus Kinggo is one of the parties that struggling to defend the 5 thousand hectares of his clan customary forest from the Korindo Group. The forest where he lives is one of the locations with the highest biodiversity in Indonesia.
“Every day, I took fish, meat, birds, sago, for free. I definitely came with my wife and children. Nobody has any objections because this is on my own customary land,” Petrus said.
However, it turned out that 6 years ago, Peter who made the decision that ultimately changed the fate of his clan forever. Because at that time, he was also the one who smoothed out Korindo Group’s steps to influence the 10 clans to release their customary forests with a disproportionate lure.
“‘Sir, we will give you honorarium and wages. As the coordinator, the education costs for your children will be borne by the company, we will give you aid houses, clean water, and generators’,” said Petrus, when the company tries to lure him.
Finally, in 2015 the “customary rights” holders released their clan customary forest for compensation of IDR 100 thousand per hectare.
At that time, the area that was successfully taken over by PT Tunas Sawa Erma, a subsidiary of Korindo Group, was approximately 19 thousand hectares.
Petrus himself released up to 4,885 hectares of customary forest belonging to the Kinggo clan with compensation of IDR 488.5 million. Korindo also later gave “excuse money” worth IDR 1 billion which was divided among 9 clans.
The case for compensation of IDR 100,000 per hectare of the customary forest was also confirmed by Korindo’s Public Relations Officer, Yulian Mohammad Riza.
In his written statement, he emphasized that Korindo was working in accordance with applicable regulations.
“The amount of compensation is about IDR 200 thousand. But, it must be clearly understood that the legal ownership of land rests with the Indonesian government, not the indigenous people who hold ‘ulayat rights’ over the land,” ,” said Yulian.
