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Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Abstract

Today, plantation agriculture in Indonesia is dominated by palm oil expansion. While the palm oil industry has frequently been touted as an economic boon for Indonesia, the environmental and social consequences have been dire, particularly for Indigenous peoples. Oil palm cultivation has been a part of Indonesian agriculture since its introduction by Dutch traders in the mid 19th century, but palm oil production in Indonesia really exploded in the 1990s, as seen in Figure 1. Since then, palm oil production has been a leading cause of deforestation (Austin, 2019) and caused devastation to indigenous communities as they lose swathes of their land to plantations. As a 2019 report by Human Rights Watch identified, Indigenous populations have suffered tremendously from the expansion of palm oil plantations, particularly in hotspots such as West Kalimantan. Many formerly self-sufficient people, who depended on their land for subsistence and livelihood, not even considering cultural ties, are now homeless. One woman interviewed for the report eloquently summarized the relationship of the Indigenous people to the land around them: "'Forest means everything. Forest provides water. Water is blood ... land is body, wood is breath. When we lost the forest, we lost everything"'(Nnoko-Mewanu, 2019). The reckless expansion of palm oil plantations is destroying not only the physical existence of the forests and the ecosystem services they provide, but the relationship between the forests and the people they support, and the Indonesian government is allowing it to happen.

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