“Only informed and empowered citizens can hold their leaders accountable. Leaders who know that their citizens cannot hold them accountable tend to be irresponsible, abuse power and abuse their citizens. They mismanage resources and in the process cause much poverty and suffering. In fighting poverty it is essential to empower communities” Wangari Maathai
What to do with REDD? A manual for indigenous trainers A training manual for use by indigenous peoples' organisations and communities to raise awareness of REDD processes at the national and international level view report
Wild Money
The Human Rights Consequences of Illegal Logging and Corruption in Indonesia’s Forestry Sector By Human Rights Watch, 1st DECEMBER 2009 view report
Carbon Footprint of Indonesian Palm Oil Production: a Pilot Study
The impacts and opportunities of oil palm in Southeast Asia: What do we know and what do we need to know?
By the World Agroforestry Centre, ICRAF SE Asia Office. August 2009 view report
Malaysian palm oil - green gold or green wash?
A commentary on the sustainability claims of Malaysia's palm oil lobby, with a special focus on the state of Sarawak.
Miliedefensie; Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM); Friends of the Earth Europe, October 2008. view report
Agrofuels and the Myth of the Marginal Lands
A briefing by The Gaia Foundation, Biofuelwatch, the African Biodiversity Network, Salva La Selva, Watch Indonesia and EcoNexus September 2008 view report
Losing Ground
The human rights impacts of oil palm expansion in Indonesia. This report shows how Indonesian government policies and palm oil industry practices are harming the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.Sawit Watch, Friends of the Earth and LifeMosaic, by Serge Marti, Feb 2008
view report summary view report
Resource Kit on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues
UN Department of economic and social affairs. view report
Land is Life
Land Rights and Oil Palm Development in Sarawak
This report reveals escalating conflicts between indigenous peoples and oil palm companies due to the rapid expansion of plantations in the Malaysian State of Sarawak. Based on field interviews with community representatives in 12 different villages, the report details the rate of expansion of oil palm plantations, reasons for the conflicts, why some 40 legal cases about land conflicts between communities and oil palm companies are now clogging the courts in Sarawak, how the process of oil palm development in Sarawak is contrary to international standards adopted by the RSPO, and offers recommendations for reform.
Forest Peoples Programme and Perkumpulan SawitWatch by Marcus Colchester, Wee Aik Pang, Wong Meng Chuo and Thomas Jalon. November 2007 view report
The Golden Crop
Palm oil in a post tsunami Ache. Eye on Ache, Samsul, Firman, Muhib, Sayarwani, Helmi, Nurdin, Zakaria September 07 view report
Request for Consideration of the Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Kalimantan, Indonesia, under the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s Urgent Action and Early Warning Procedures Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Seventy-First Session, 30 July – 18 August 2007 view report (PDF - 0.6 MB)
Policy, practice, pride and prejudice
Review of legal, environmental and social practices of oil palm plantation companies of the Wilmar Group in Sambas District, West Kalimantan (Indonesia).
Milieudefensie, Lembaga Gemawan and KONTAK Rakyat Borneo, Adriani Zakaria, Claudia Theile and
Lely Khaimur July 2007 view report
Oil Palm and Other Commercial Tree Plantations, Monocropping: Impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ Land Tenure and Resource Management Systems and Livelihoods.
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues,Sixth session, New York, 14-25 May 2007 view report
Ghosts on our Land
Oil palm smallholders in Indonesia and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
Forest Peoples Programme and Sawit Watch, Bogor (also available in Bahasa Indonesia) Marcus Colchester and Norman Jiwan, November 2006 view report
Promised Land
Palm Oil and Land Acquisition in Indonesia – Implications for Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples
Forest Peoples Programme, Sawit Watch, HuMA and ICRAF, Bogor
by Marcus Colchester, Norman Jiwan, Andiko, Martua Sirait, Asep Yunan Firdaus, A. Surambo and Herbert Pane. November 2006 view report
Greasy Palms
Palm oil, the environment and big business - explains what needs to be done to stop it. Friends of the Earth Eric Wakker of AIDEnvironment, Jan Willem van Gelder of Profundo, Ed Matthew and Hannah Ellis of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland 2005 view report on impacts view report summary
The Oil for Ape Scandal
How oil palm is threatening orang-utan survival. Friends of the Earth, The Ape Alliance, The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, The Orangutan Foundation (UK), The Sumatran Orangutan Society, Helen Buckland, September 2005 view report
The Hesitant Boom
Indonesia’s Oil Palm Sub-Sector in an Era of Economic Crisis and Political Change. CIFOR, Anne Casson, November 1999 view report
Films
Malaysian Palm Oil Council (1minute)
The Agrofuel lobby which includes the The Malaysian Oil Palm Council have won the ‘Worst EU Lobbying Award’ for their use of misleading information and greenwash to influence crucial debates in the European Parliament and Council by claiming that agrofuels are sustainable. The Malaysian Palm Oil Council 2007
What Rainforest? (35minutes)
When bulldozers mowed over the ancestral farmlands of Kampung Lebor, Segan Anak Degon stood his ground and defended his land. Now, he is the only person out of 101 families, whose land is left intact and unaffected by the oil palm plantation. However, Segan is the rare few who managed to halt the feverish onslaught of oil palm advancement that threatens to devastate the embattled Sarawak forested landscape
By Ketapang Pictures
Borneo's burning forests (13 minutes)
A three part series from Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reporting from Sarawak, Malaysia, on the politics of deforestation including the human cost of the rainforest's destruction.
By Al Jazeera Jul 09 View Video Part 1 View Video Part 2 View Video Part 3
In the name of oil palm (12minutes)
Video about the impact of oil palm in the Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, and about the challenges faced by landowners and organisations who are trying to stop the expansion of oil palm plantations in the region. By Engagemedia. 2008 view video
Palmed Off (20mins)
The film is based on testimonies from indigenous peoples affected by oil palm plantations in Indonesia and explores the impacts of oil palm plantations on their local economies, on the local environment, on their culture and on the prospects for the future generations. By LifeMosaic. 2007
Flattened forests (5mins)
Expansion of palm oil in West Papua is leading to the destruction of the Mooi people's lands in Sorong District. In this film they tell their own story. EIA and Telapak. 2007 view video
Lost in Palm Oil Video(43minutes)
Sky News programme on palm oil from Kalimantan. By JourneymanTV. 2007 view video
The Palm Numbers(3minutes)
A short film about palm oil in Colombia. By Nadaveo. 2007 view video
