$4,500 to support travel costs to participate in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) annual meeting and the launching there of an updated report, ‘Who Watches the Watchmen?,’ to continue to publicly pressure the RSPO to enact meaningful change in the palm oil industry towards forest protection and upholding community rights.
$4,800 to support several Indigenous villages working together to stop industrial logging that would impact their traditional territories, which cover about 125,000 acres and include some of the last remaining primary forest in Sarawak, Malaysia.
$1,200 to support an Indigenous delegation from 5 communities in Papua and West Papua, Indonesia, to advocate for the enforcement of the country’s palm oil moratorium and the need to restore and strengthen Indigenous land rights.
$3,800 to support Indigenous and farming communities impacted by large-scale palm oil plantations in West Papua, Indonesia, which has become a center of attention for investors, to develop the production of lemongrass essential oils as an alternative economic livelihood activity.
$10,000 to support work with Indigenous Tano Batak families in the Lake Toba region in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, impacted by Toba Pulp Lestari, a US$600 million pulp company, through local organizing and facilitated discussions to raise awareness regarding collective community rights to customary forests as well as trainings to prepare community members through negotiation and mediation training to enter into a conflict resolution process that will create the possibility of securing the return of land rights and compensation. Many Batak communities steward and plant kemenyaan (benzoin) trees, which produce a fragrant resin similar to frankincense and provides a critical source of sustainable income.
$1,250 to support community meetings and workshops regarding Indigenous land rights and potential threats related to the expansion of palm oil plantations in Papua, Indonesia, and specifically prepping 2 villages for mediated resolution processes mandated by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil resulting from a formal complaint process.
$12,500 to support farmers groups in 5 villages in Jambi Province engaged in conflict resolution processes with pulp and paper companies to document land tenure history, perform participatory mapping of conflicts, hold village discussions and trainings (legal, rights and conflict resolution) and coordinate with and pressure company and government officials to resolve conflicts and recognize land rights.
$5,000 to support work with Indigenous Dayak communities in Sarawak, one of last frontier areas for palm oil expansion left in Malaysia and a critical ecological area due to forests and peatlands, with an action plan and framework towards achieving a mediated resolution to return native customary lands back to community ownership.
$10,500 to support efforts to monitor major pulp and paper companies’ implementation of social and environmental commitments in Sumatra, Indonesia. The specific focus is to review concessions that are currently non-active and/or held by small companies, which collectively cover huge areas and are likely targets for expanded operations due to wood supply shortages.
$5,000 to support documenting traditional practices and local wisdom and conducting participatory mapping in South Sulawesi, Indonesia as part of the Last Forest campaign and land rights initiative in 6 key regions of critical forest areas throughout the country where large blocks of rainforest have been well-managed by Indigenous communities but are now under threat of mining, palm oil, and pulp and paper plantations.
