Video / Audio - Plantations
African’s land rights vs. Sustainable development
In the new scramble for Africa, big business is looking for huge swathes of land for agriculture and biofuels. Governments are only too happy to sell it to them, but at what costs to the local people? This 25 minute debate with experts from African civil society groups explores the issue of land grabbing in Africa. The international NGO Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) has released two reports, examining land transactions in West and Central Africa, which have implications for what is happening across the continent. They say governments are often dangerously split, with one ministry moving to protect rural land rights, while another is busy selling it off to agribusiness and mining. But large-scale developments are already planned for nearly three quarters of the country, meaning these rights may not be worth the paper they are written on. Other examples are present in Ghana, where a project converting forest and crop land into jatropha (a plant used to make biodiesel) plantations resulted in harsh migrant-native farmer conflicts over lost jobs and income, along with the clearing of 780 hectares. (PressTVGlobalNews 2013)
Lessons Learned from Jambi: People, Forest, and Recognition
In Jambi, Sumatra, the Bathin IX and Rimba Peoples have faces incredible pressures due to the loss of forest and land they call home. Oil palm and plantation forest expansions threaten the existence of these two groups. The people of Lubuk Beringin are aware of the importance of forest and the impacts of its degradation are often seen in Jambi. The people are protecting their forest and obtained the recognition with the Village Forest scheme. This movie shows two communities who lost their forests and another community with an intact forest. (Telapak / Gekko Studio, 2011)
Inside Malaysia’s Shadow State
This new investigation reveals the systemic corruption and illegality at the heart of government in Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state. This film, shot undercover during the investigation, reveals for the first time the instruments used by members of the ruling Taib family and its local lawyers to skirt Malaysia's laws and taxes, creaming off huge profits at the expense of indigenous people and hiding their dirty money in Singapore. (Global Witness, 2013)
See more here: http://www.malaysiashadowstate.org/
Sign the petition to the Prime Minister: http://www.change.org/Sarawak
The price of palm oil
Indonesia is the world's biggest palm oil producer but critics say it is harmful and unsustainable. Can the palm oil industry strike a balance between profits and environmental protection? (101 East, 2010)
Green
Multi award winning. Set in Indonesia. Meet Green, an orangutan and victim of human impact. Follow the devastating journey as her home is destroyed by logging, clearing for palm oil plantations, and the choking haze of rainforest fires. Hauntingly poetic and without narration, the film creatively depicts the effects of consumerism on tropical rainforests as we are faced with our personal accountability in the loss of the world's treasures. (Patrick Rouxel, 2009)
ALMA
Beautifully shot, alternately joyful and horrifying, Alma captures the ecological, and even spiritual, cost of meat, dairy, and leather production in the Amazon. The film offers a unique and visually stunning exposition of a colorful cowboy culture and the millions of animals used to satisfy our voracious global appetite for meat and dairy products. In almost-wordless contemplation, the film wanders from forest to pasture to rodeo to slaughterhouse to market to tannery. In essence, Alma is a journey into the soul of humanity and a testimony of the damage inflicted by humans on the natural world. (Patrick Rouxel, 2011)
Pulp Friction
This is a clip from a documentary which looks at the devastating effects of the mass consumption of cheap white paper is creating environmental despair for communities in Indonesia. (Journeyman TV, 2002)
Don’t Pulp Pandumaan-Sipituhuta: A David and Goliath Tale
The pulp and paper industry is growing all over Indonesia. The Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) company, is expanding its eucalyptus plantations on the lands of the indigenous communities of Pandumaan-Sipituhuta in North Sumatra. The communities have lived and worked on their lands for 13 generations. They are peacefully resisting to defend their forests and their livelihoods. But their defence of their lands comes at a heavy cost as they are criminalised. Please stand together with this community at the front-line of the global land grab that is putting profit ahead of rights. (Pandumaan-Sipituhuta / KSPPM / LifeMosaic, 2013)
Don’t Pulp Pandumaan-Sipituhuta: An Update
The pulp and paper industry is growing all over Indonesia. The Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) company, is expanding its eucalyptus plantations on the lands of the indigenous communities of Pandumaan-Sipituhuta in North Sumatra. The communities have lived and worked on their lands for 13 generations. They are peacefully resisting to defend their forests and their livelihoods. But their defence of their lands comes at a heavy cost as they are criminalised. Please stand together with this community at the front-line of the global land grab that is putting profit ahead of rights. (Pandumaan-Sipituhuta / KSPPM / LifeMosaic, 2013)
Our Land Is Gone
The Malind Anim tribe in Zanegi Village, Merauke, Papua, Indonesia are hunter gatherers who rely on the forest for they livelihoods. They are born, raised and get food from the forest. But in the village of Zanegi, time have changed. The Medco corporation is clearing thousands of hectares of forest. Medco plans to convert 169,000 hectares of land to industrial tree plantations. This plantation is part of the milion hectare Meruake Integrated Food and Energy Estate, known as MIFEE. (Gekko Studio / Pusaka / SKP KAME, 2012)