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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 01 Aug 2026 15:59:26 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Riau environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/riau/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Indonesia braces for possible ‘Godzilla El Niño’ as fire season escalates early</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesia-braces-for-possible-godzilla-el-nino-as-fire-season-escalates-early/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesia-braces-for-possible-godzilla-el-nino-as-fire-season-escalates-early/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2026 04:12:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/05111107/student-in-haze-kalimantan-indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317563</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, El Nino, Fires, Forests, Health, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Pollution, Public Health, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia is entering the 2026 fire season with early signs of escalation, as burned area surges even before the dry season peak and forecasts raise the possibility of a so-called “Godzilla” El Niño later this year. Burned area reached 32,637 hectares (80,650 acres) by February — about three times the size of Paris, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia is entering the 2026 fire season with early signs of escalation, as burned area surges even before the dry season peak and forecasts raise the possibility of a so-called “Godzilla” El Niño later this year. Burned area reached 32,637 hectares (80,650 acres) by February — about three times the size of Paris, 20 times higher than the same period last year — even before the dry season has fully set in. Scientists say this early surge could signal the start of a more intense fire season, especially as climate forecasts point to the possible return of El Niño. Some global forecasts suggest the event could become one of the strongest in at least a decade, raising the risk of prolonged drought and widespread fires, although significant uncertainty remains over how intense it will ultimately be. A strong El Niño would also likely reshape global weather patterns and could push global temperatures to record levels in 2027, due to the lagged warming effect the phenomenon has on the climate system. El Niño refers to a warming of sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean that can disrupt weather patterns worldwide. In Indonesia, it is typically associated with drier conditions and heightened fire risk. Indonesian agencies have at times referred to the potential event as a Godzilla El Niño, a nonscientific term used to describe an unusually strong episode that could significantly intensify drought and fire risk. Indonesia’s meteorological agency, BMKG, says there is a 50-80% chance of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesia-braces-for-possible-godzilla-el-nino-as-fire-season-escalates-early/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesia-braces-for-possible-godzilla-el-nino-as-fire-season-escalates-early/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317563</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia says intervention in notorious Sumatran national park part of new ‘model’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/indonesia-says-intervention-in-notorious-sumatran-national-park-part-of-new-model/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/indonesia-says-intervention-in-notorious-sumatran-national-park-part-of-new-model/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 09:44:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suryadi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/17090357/sumatran-elephant-and-mahout-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314327</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Elephants, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Forestry, Forests, Governance, National Parks, Palm Oil, Protected Areas, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PELALAWAN, Indonesia — A radical new policy to relocate people living in a notoriously deforested national park on Sumatra has moved hundreds of families to date, with Indonesian officials presenting the controversial program as a blueprint for other protected areas across Asia’s largest remaining tropical forests. “This activity will serve as a model for other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PELALAWAN, Indonesia — A radical new policy to relocate people living in a notoriously deforested national park on Sumatra has moved hundreds of families to date, with Indonesian officials presenting the controversial program as a blueprint for other protected areas across Asia’s largest remaining tropical forests. “This activity will serve as a model for other locations in restoring national parks,” Indonesian Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said in a statement. Tesso Nilo is one of the few remaining habitats of the critically endangered Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis) and Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae). The forest is also home to thousands of plant species. The lowland national park in Sumatra’s Riau province has suffered extensive deforestation, however, despite being granted the highest level of state protection two decades ago. Tesso Nilo was designated a national park in 2004 on a former logging timber concession. Following a subsequent expansion in 2009, Tesso Nilo National Park now spans 81,793 hectares (202,115 acres) — an area larger than New York City. Data from Global Forest Watch, a satellite platform managed by the World Resources Institute, showed Tesso Nilo National Park lost 78% of its old-growth forest between the expansion in 2009 and end-2023. Fieldworkers in Riau say the extraordinary level of destruction in Tesso Nilo reflects complex challenges to the rule of law on the ground, from community encroachment and migration to corruption and organized criminality, which successive local and national governments have failed to control. In an attempt to halt the crisis,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/indonesia-says-intervention-in-notorious-sumatran-national-park-part-of-new-model/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314327</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia says 4 million hectares of plantation, mining lands reclaimed in crackdown</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-says-4-million-hectares-of-plantation-mining-lands-reclaimed-in-crackdown/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-says-4-million-hectares-of-plantation-mining-lands-reclaimed-in-crackdown/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jan 2026 11:43:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/14165901/indonesia_20152253-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312938</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Land Conflict, Landscape Restoration, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia has reclaimed more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres, about the size of Switzerland) of land nationwide that had been used for plantations, mining or other activities inside areas officially designated as forest, according to the government. The ongoing crackdown — the country’s most sweeping enforcement drive to date against illegal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia has reclaimed more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres, about the size of Switzerland) of land nationwide that had been used for plantations, mining or other activities inside areas officially designated as forest, according to the government. The ongoing crackdown — the country’s most sweeping enforcement drive to date against illegal activities in forest areas — is being carried out by a task force established by President Prabowo Subianto in January 2025, involving the military, police, prosecutors and multiple ministries. Officials say the task force initially targeted 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of land to seize in 2025, and thus it has exceeded its initial target by more than 400% within its first 10 months of operation. But the unprecedented scale of the seizures has also exposed unresolved questions about the data underpinning the campaign, how much of the land involved is actually oil palm, and what will happen to seized plantations and mines after enforcement. The reclaimed areas span mostly oil palm plantations as well as mining concessions — primarily nickel and coal — and conservation zones such as national parks and protected forests. Enforcement actions cited by authorities include oil palm plantations operating without proper forest-area permits, mining operations lacking approval for forest-area use, unlicensed gold mining, illegal tourism structures inside conservation areas and oil palm encroachment inside national parks. Burned land inside Tesso Nilo National Park in Indonesia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Questions about the numbers The scale of the government’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-says-4-million-hectares-of-plantation-mining-lands-reclaimed-in-crackdown/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-says-4-million-hectares-of-plantation-mining-lands-reclaimed-in-crackdown/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312938</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How Indonesian companies dodge fines for forest &#038; peatland fires</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-indonesian-companies-dodge-fines-for-forest-peatland-fires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-indonesian-companies-dodge-fines-for-forest-peatland-fires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2025 12:16:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/19155325/f77a088b-14c2-4493-bed4-a40f43f954ed-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304524</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jambi, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Climate, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forests, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Pollution, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s courts have ordered plantation companies to pay more than 21 trillion rupiah ($1.3 billion), an amount 28 times the environment ministry’s entire annual budget, for forest and peatland fires — yet almost none of that has been collected. This leaves burned land unrestored, smoke returning each dry season and climate goals slipping [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s courts have ordered plantation companies to pay more than 21 trillion rupiah ($1.3 billion), an amount 28 times the environment ministry’s entire annual budget, for forest and peatland fires — yet almost none of that has been collected. This leaves burned land unrestored, smoke returning each dry season and climate goals slipping further out of reach. The challenges stem from legal loopholes, noncooperation, strategic bankruptcies and weak inter-agency coordination. But not all companies dodge responsibility — some are settling their debts, albeit painfully late. After a decade of legal stalemate, palm oil company PT Kallista Alam has begun paying its 366 billion rupiah ($22.6 million) fine for burning peat forest in the Tripa swamp, an important Sumatran orangutan habitat, between 2009 and 2012. Another company, pulpwood producer PT Bumi Mekar Hijau, a supplier to paper giant Asia Pulp &amp; Paper (APP), has also paid in full its fines of 78.5 billion rupiah ($4.8 million) for fires in its concession. These exceptions underscore the norm: Most fines remain unpaid, fueling a cycle of impunity where fires continue to flare up in concessions already found guilty by court. Four recent cases illustrate the different ways companies evade payment, and how weak enforcement perpetuates the cycle. Smoke rising from a forest fire in Riau. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. PT Merbau Pelalawan Lestari One of the starkest cases involves industrial forestry firm PT Merbau Pelalawan Lestari (MPL). In 2016, the Supreme Court fined PT MPL 16.2 trillion ($1&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-indonesian-companies-dodge-fines-for-forest-peatland-fires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-indonesian-companies-dodge-fines-for-forest-peatland-fires/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304524</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NASA satellites show surge in Indonesia hotspots as 2025 fires send smoke to Malaysia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/nasa-satellites-show-surge-in-indonesia-hotspots-as-2025-fires-send-smoke-to-malaysia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/nasa-satellites-show-surge-in-indonesia-hotspots-as-2025-fires-send-smoke-to-malaysia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 13:08:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/24234827/indonesia_20150815-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304212</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, data, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Peatlands, Pollution, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s 2025 fire season is spiraling into one of the worst in recent memory, with a sharp spike in hotspots and toxic haze already choking parts of Malaysia. Forest and peat fires, mostly caused by deliberate land clearing for agriculture, are an annual problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighboring countries. July [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s 2025 fire season is spiraling into one of the worst in recent memory, with a sharp spike in hotspots and toxic haze already choking parts of Malaysia. Forest and peat fires, mostly caused by deliberate land clearing for agriculture, are an annual problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighboring countries. July 2025 has seen a dramatic escalation in fire activity across Indonesia with official data from NASA satellites showing a surge in fire hotspots compared with previous months. NASA’s VIIRS (S-NPP) satellite detected 794 hotspots in July — up nearly tenfold from June and more than thirtyfold from May. The hotspots in July also represent a more than tenfold increase from the same period last year (68 in July 2024) and are significantly higher than the 532 hotspots recorded in July 2023. Graph showing hotspots in Indonesia from 2023 to 2025 based on NASA’s VIIRS (S-NPP) satellite. Image courtesy of Indonesia&#8217;s Ministry of Environment. Data from NASA’s Terra and Aqua MODIS satellites paint a similar picture, showing 879 hotspots in July, a more than tenfold increase from May, and are higher than the same period last year (463 in July 2024 and 776 in July 2023). While VIIRS has finer resolution and detects smaller fires, MODIS captures a wider range of fire activity multiple times per day. These are all high-confidence hotspots, meaning satellite algorithms consider them very likely to be actual vegetation fires, not false alarms. The sharp spike in fire activity highlights how the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/nasa-satellites-show-surge-in-indonesia-hotspots-as-2025-fires-send-smoke-to-malaysia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/nasa-satellites-show-surge-in-indonesia-hotspots-as-2025-fires-send-smoke-to-malaysia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304212</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Indonesia reclaims forests from palm oil, smallholders bear brunt of enforcement</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/as-indonesia-reclaims-forests-from-palm-oil-smallholders-bear-brunt-of-enforcement/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/as-indonesia-reclaims-forests-from-palm-oil-smallholders-bear-brunt-of-enforcement/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2025 10:05:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/30093053/ac37d07e0ed471387f81e726cd66eba9-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303403</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, Jambi, Riau, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Social Conflict, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia has launched a sweeping and militarized crackdown on illegal forest use, reclaiming millions of hectares of land — but civil society groups warn the campaign is displacing Indigenous peoples while sparing corporate offenders and entrenching land inequality. Under a regulation issued in January, President Prabowo Subianto established a task force to crack down on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia has launched a sweeping and militarized crackdown on illegal forest use, reclaiming millions of hectares of land — but civil society groups warn the campaign is displacing Indigenous peoples while sparing corporate offenders and entrenching land inequality. Under a regulation issued in January, President Prabowo Subianto established a task force to crack down on illegal activities inside forest areas, such as oil palm cultivation and mining. Illegal oil palm plantations alone occupy a combined 3.37 million hectares (8.33 million acres) of forests, or an area larger than Belgium, and account for a significant portion of palm oil output in Indonesia, the world’s top producer of the commodity. Since its launch in February 2025, the task force has reclaimed 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) and handed over nearly half that land to a state-owned plantation company, PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara. This potentially creates what could be the world’s largest state-owned palm oil company by land area, and risks replacing private land monopolies with a state-owned one, critics say. Critics say the regulation makes no distinction between large-scale corporate activities and those of local communities, including Indigenous peoples who have historically faced tenure conflicts due to unilateral forest area designations. As a result, the crackdown has displaced Indigenous and local communities, while shielding large corporations, and transferred land to Agrinas without due process, according to an analysis by the country’s largest environmental NGO, Walhi. Illegal road leading to an oil palm plantation in Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. ‘Exploitative&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/as-indonesia-reclaims-forests-from-palm-oil-smallholders-bear-brunt-of-enforcement/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303403</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s Indigenous Akit community faces exploitation &#038; land loss (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indonesias-indigenous-akit-community-faces-exploitation-land-loss-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indonesias-indigenous-akit-community-faces-exploitation-land-loss-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Mar 2025 20:43:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alberta Christina Cahya PertiwiNukila Evanty]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/21201728/Akit-Tribe-Residence-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296271</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Culture, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Social Justice, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the Akit tribe of Bengkalis and Pelalawan districts in Riau province, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, land is more than just soil beneath their feet: it is their identity, their lifeblood, and their heritage. As one elder has said, “Adat is like a part of the body, an epitome of blood and heart,” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For the Akit tribe of Bengkalis and Pelalawan districts in Riau province, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, land is more than just soil beneath their feet: it is their identity, their lifeblood, and their heritage. As one elder has said, “Adat is like a part of the body, an epitome of blood and heart,” where adat means cultural values passed down through generations, with one of its tangible forms being land. Embedded within their ancestral land are wisdom, spirituality, and centuries of tradition passed down through generations. This profound connection contrasts sharply with the commodified view of land that has dominated since colonial times, reducing it to an economic resource to be traded and exploited. Their case illustrates how land grabbing perpetuates colonial legacies, threatens Indigenous cultures, and undermines sustainable development efforts. To address these injustices, we must push Indigenous land rights forward and challenge exploitative practices. Immediate action is needed to navigate these injustices through stronger legal protections, community advocacy, and international accountability measures. A history of marginalization The Akit people are an Indigenous tribe, or Suku Asli, who trace their lineage to the Malay Peninsula. They were historically sea nomads, living on rafts and navigating rivers and coastlines. Today, they predominantly inhabit North Rupat Island, relying on fishing, handicrafts, and subsistence farming for their livelihood. Their animistic beliefs and deep respect for nature have shaped their sustainable way of life. Akit tribe residence, Mendol Island, Pelalawan, Riau, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Nukila Evanty. Despite their rich cultural&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indonesias-indigenous-akit-community-faces-exploitation-land-loss-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indonesias-indigenous-akit-community-faces-exploitation-land-loss-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296271</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Volunteer radio station brings old media to remote Sumatran tiger habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/volunteer-radio-station-brings-old-media-to-remote-sumatran-tiger-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/volunteer-radio-station-brings-old-media-to-remote-sumatran-tiger-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2025 02:30:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suryadi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/17090733/sumatran-tiger-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294517</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Cats, Communication, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Endangered Species, Habitat, Indigenous Peoples, Tigers, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAMPAR, Indonesia — The information from Radio Komunitas Lintas Subayang 107.7 FM reaches the remote corners of the Sumatran forest from a small broadcasting house in a market. “Accessing telecoms and disseminating information used to be a challenge,&#8221; said Agustinus Wijayanto, the director of a tiger conservation program in Indonesia’s Riau province. But that began [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAMPAR, Indonesia — The information from Radio Komunitas Lintas Subayang 107.7 FM reaches the remote corners of the Sumatran forest from a small broadcasting house in a market. “Accessing telecoms and disseminating information used to be a challenge,&#8221; said Agustinus Wijayanto, the director of a tiger conservation program in Indonesia’s Riau province. But that began to change a decade ago after conservation officials, together with WWF and Yapeka, an Indigenous people’s nonprofit, began work on a means of reaching people living within this protected forest in an upland pocket of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In 2014, the government zoned off 141,226 hectares (348,977 acres) of forest in Riau province for Bukit Rimbang Baling Wildlife Sanctuary, protecting one of the few remaining habitats of the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) in the upland of Riau’s Kampar district. Tiger subspecies endemic to the Indonesian islands of Java (Panthera tigris sondaica) and Bali (Panthera tigris balica) were both declared extinct during the 20th century as forests on those islands dwindled. In 2017, the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, declared the Sumatran tiger critically endangered, following decades of killings on Indonesia’s main western island. The Indigenous people living in the area are largely cut off from society in Riau province, with cellphone reception only available in a handful of more than a dozen communities. Volunteers record a program at the community radio station in Sumatra. Image by Suryadi/Mongabay Indonesia. Relay information Rakom Lintas Subayang, as the station is known, broadcasts a mix&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/volunteer-radio-station-brings-old-media-to-remote-sumatran-tiger-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/volunteer-radio-station-brings-old-media-to-remote-sumatran-tiger-habitat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294517</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/satellite-data-show-bursts-of-deforestation-continue-in-indonesian-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/satellite-data-show-bursts-of-deforestation-continue-in-indonesian-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Nov 2024 19:43:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/30193103/sumatra_9232-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290970</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Critically Endangered Species, data, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Habitat Loss, Industrial Agriculture, National Parks, Old Growth Forests, Palm Oil, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Tigers, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When the Indonesian government established Tesso Nilo National Park in 2004 on a former logging concession, little could it have known that the legacy of logging and deforestation would continue years after granting it official protection. The park, which was expanded in 2009, now covers more than 80,000 hectares of land in Sumatra’s Riau province, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When the Indonesian government established Tesso Nilo National Park in 2004 on a former logging concession, little could it have known that the legacy of logging and deforestation would continue years after granting it official protection. The park, which was expanded in 2009, now covers more than 80,000 hectares of land in Sumatra’s Riau province, and is one of the last tracts of lowland forest blocks that remains on the island. Tesso Nilo National Park is home to nearly 3% of the world’s mammals, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – Indonesia, including the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) and the Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), both critically endangered. It also boasts more than 4,000 plant species within its borders — one of the highest levels of lowland plant diversity in the world. As few as 400 Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) may persist in the wild. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. However, for decades since its designation of a national park, Tesso Nilo has experienced unabated deforestation, driven by illegal logging, establishment of palm oil plantations within the national park, and encroachments in the form of villages. A 2018 investigation from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that nearly three-fourths of Tesso Nilo is converted into palm oil plantations, and related deforestation has continued to destroy primary forest in the park. Satellite data from monitoring platform Global Forest Watch (GFW) show Tesso Nilo lost 78% of its primary forest cover between 2009 and 2023. And preliminary data&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/satellite-data-show-bursts-of-deforestation-continue-in-indonesian-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/satellite-data-show-bursts-of-deforestation-continue-in-indonesian-national-park/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290970</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sumatra pulp &#038; paper giants violate zero-deforestation pledge, activists allege</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/sumatra-pulp-paper-giants-violate-zero-deforestation-pledge-activists-allege/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/sumatra-pulp-paper-giants-violate-zero-deforestation-pledge-activists-allege/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jul 2024 05:16:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/12051418/Logged-area-RAPP-Blok-Mandau-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284286</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Industry, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Peatlands, Plantations, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Activists allege that two of the world’s biggest pulp and paper companies have violated their zero-deforestation pledge by clearing natural forests and peatlands in Indonesia. An investigation by a coalition of Indonesian NGOs found deforestation within and around the concessions of Asia Pulp &#38; Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Activists allege that two of the world’s biggest pulp and paper companies have violated their zero-deforestation pledge by clearing natural forests and peatlands in Indonesia. An investigation by a coalition of Indonesian NGOs found deforestation within and around the concessions of Asia Pulp &amp; Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd. (APRIL) on the island of Sumatra. In the case of APRIL, the coalition alleged that two of its concessions had cleared natural forests and destroyed peatlands, with some of their activities suspected to have been carried out without legal permits. The first concession is operated by PT Riau Andalan Pulp &amp; Paper (RAPP) in Sungai Mandau region, Siak district, Riau province. Using satellite imagery analysis and on-the-ground investigation, the coalition found 9 hectares (22 acres) of deforestation within RAPP’s concession since June 2023, and beginning in August 2023, new clearance of 83 hectares (205 acres) has been detected around the concession. Satellite image showing deforestation in PT Riau Andalan Pulp &amp; Paper (RAPP) in Sungai Mandau region, Siak district, Riau province. Image courtesy of Jikalahari. What once had been native trees was replaced with newly planted acacia trees, a fast-growing pulpwood tree species, the coalition found. The forest clearance was still detected as of April 2024. According to the investigation, the forest clearance was done by the same workers using the same equipment, indicating that RAPP is not only behind the deforestation within its concession, but also outside it. This, the coalition said, might be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/sumatra-pulp-paper-giants-violate-zero-deforestation-pledge-activists-allege/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/sumatra-pulp-paper-giants-violate-zero-deforestation-pledge-activists-allege/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284286</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Floods set to worsen on Sumatra peat as landscape gives way</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/floods-set-to-worsen-on-sumatra-peat-as-landscape-gives-way/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/floods-set-to-worsen-on-sumatra-peat-as-landscape-gives-way/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2024 02:31:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suryadi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/29151603/Police-are-cooling-burnt-peatlands-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282669</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Community Forests, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Peatlands, Plantations, Rehabilitation, Restoration, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PEKANBARU, Indonesia — Traffic stopped gradually, then suddenly, as the new year approached around an hour’s drive out of the city of Pekanbaru here on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Within minutes, the arterial highway linking the island’s east and west coasts turned into a dark river. “The problem is complex,” said Sigit Sutikno, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PEKANBARU, Indonesia — Traffic stopped gradually, then suddenly, as the new year approached around an hour’s drive out of the city of Pekanbaru here on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Within minutes, the arterial highway linking the island’s east and west coasts turned into a dark river. “The problem is complex,” said Sigit Sutikno, a peatland hydrologist at the University of Riau. “The floods will become more frequent, the impact will widen, and the duration will be longer.” Across much of Indonesia’s Riau province, motorcyclists coated in translucent ponchos scrambled under shop awnings, while young children gazed out of car windows, unaware that the tailback snaked back for tens of kilometers. Sigit said he expects extreme conditions like Riau&#8217;s New Year flood to worsen even without the aggravation of rainfall patterns caused by climate change, which will bring more frequent extreme weather events over Sumatra. Dumai, a coastal city in Riau, is prone to wildfires. Image courtesy of Walhi-Riau. Thousands were caught up in the chaos on New Year’s Eve in Riau, which Sigit attributed to the deterioration of Indonesia’s largest peatland. The province, which comprises much of Sumatra’s Malacca Strait coastline, accounts for a wider expanse of carbon-dense peatland than anywhere else in Indonesia. The country as a whole is home to around a third of the world’s tropical peat, which accumulates over thousands of years from the incomplete decomposition of plants in waterlogged marshes. Peat accounts for about 3% of land surface area around the globe, but these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/floods-set-to-worsen-on-sumatra-peat-as-landscape-gives-way/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/floods-set-to-worsen-on-sumatra-peat-as-landscape-gives-way/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282669</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sumatra firefighters on alert as burning heralds start of Riau dry season</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/sumatra-firefighters-on-alert-as-burning-heralds-start-of-riau-dry-season/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/sumatra-firefighters-on-alert-as-burning-heralds-start-of-riau-dry-season/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2024 16:55:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suryadi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/06144238/karhutla-dumai-2-768x480-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279538</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests, Indonesian Palm Oil, and Jokowi Commitments]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Climate Change, Conservation, Disasters, Drought, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forests, Governance, Health, Impact Of Climate Change, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Pollution, Protected Areas, Public Health, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PEKANBARU, Indonesia — Emergency workers and community firefighters battled isolated fires in Sumatra’s Riau province in late February as the onset of the region’s first dry season of 2024 sparked wildfires in some peatland areas. “The water source is pretty far away and the surrounding area is very dry,” said Joko Susilo, the head of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PEKANBARU, Indonesia — Emergency workers and community firefighters battled isolated fires in Sumatra’s Riau province in late February as the onset of the region’s first dry season of 2024 sparked wildfires in some peatland areas. “The water source is pretty far away and the surrounding area is very dry,” said Joko Susilo, the head of the emergency and logistics section at the disaster management agency in Dumai, a port city on the Malacca Strait. State and community firefighters spent much of February attending to fires smoldering in areas of peatland, which are carbon-dense wetlands formed by compaction of biomass over thousands of years. Riau province has 3.8 million hectares (9.4 million acres) of peatland, more than any other province in Indonesia. Riau experiences two distinct dry seasons a year: in addition to the same dry season that occurs across much of the rest of Indonesia, typically peaking around August, the province also sees another dry spell around February-March, owing to the shift to a northeasterly monsoon wind pattern. Southern districts of Riau such as Kampar usually record sufficient rainfall during February, but the northern plains and wetlands, home to the province’s oil palm and acacia plantations, typically endure around six weeks of water deficit. Rainfall in northern Riau then accelerates in April and May, before Indonesia’s principal dry season saps the water table and elevates fire risk from June through October. Emergency workers and community firefighters battled isolated fires in Sumatra’s Riau province in late February as the onset of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/sumatra-firefighters-on-alert-as-burning-heralds-start-of-riau-dry-season/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279538</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sumatra community faces up to ‘plasma’ disappointment after palm oil policy shift</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/sumatra-community-faces-up-to-plasma-disappointment-after-palm-oil-policy-shift/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/sumatra-community-faces-up-to-plasma-disappointment-after-palm-oil-policy-shift/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2024 23:35:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suryadi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/04155619/protest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279415</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Palm Oil, Plantations, Politics, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PEKANBARU, Indonesia — Almost two years after a joint Mongabay investigation revealed systemic failure by Indonesia’s plantation industry to share gains with community farmers, countless small farmers have yet to benefit from the profit-sharing scheme established almost two decades ago. “We’re looking for the best solution for the community,&#8221; said Jonhor Amin, a neighborhood leader [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PEKANBARU, Indonesia — Almost two years after a joint Mongabay investigation revealed systemic failure by Indonesia’s plantation industry to share gains with community farmers, countless small farmers have yet to benefit from the profit-sharing scheme established almost two decades ago. “We’re looking for the best solution for the community,&#8221; said Jonhor Amin, a neighborhood leader in Tebing Tinggi Okura village on the outskirts of Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province on the island of Sumatra.  Like thousands of communities living alongside land zoned for oil palm concessions, people in Tebing Tinggi Okura say they haven’t received what was promised when Indonesia made its “plasma” scheme a legal requirement in 2007. The issue has continued to foster bad faith in the Sumatran village. Smallholdings have formed an integral part of Indonesia’s palm oil sector for decades. Several million individual farmers today account for around 40% of output in the world’s largest producer of palm oil, which is used in everything from consumer goods to fuels.  Beginning around the 1980s, Indonesia’s government accelerated issuance of permits for companies to convert vast tracts of old-growth rainforest for oil palm cultivation at scale. Corporate growers often promised to share proceeds with the communities whose land was zoned for production in order to soothe community relations. In 2007, the scheme known as plasma became legally mandatory, in which companies were required to allocate 20% of any new plantation to local communities. However, a 2022 investigation by Mongabay, in partnership with the BBC and The Gecko Project, a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/sumatra-community-faces-up-to-plasma-disappointment-after-palm-oil-policy-shift/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/sumatra-community-faces-up-to-plasma-disappointment-after-palm-oil-policy-shift/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian palm oil firm fined for fires sues expert a second time over testimony</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/indonesian-palm-oil-firm-fined-for-fires-sues-expert-a-second-time-over-testimony/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/indonesian-palm-oil-firm-fined-for-fires-sues-expert-a-second-time-over-testimony/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jan 2024 07:59:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/10/11072908/WhatsApp-Image-2018-10-08-at-15.59.18-e1539260748821-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277740</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, and Plantations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — An Indonesian palm oil company that dropped a lawsuit against a fire expert whose testimony led to its being fined is suing a second time, in what observers call a frivolous action meant to intimidate him. The first hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 17, with PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa (JJP) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — An Indonesian palm oil company that dropped a lawsuit against a fire expert whose testimony led to its being fined is suing a second time, in what observers call a frivolous action meant to intimidate him. The first hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 17, with PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa (JJP) suing Bambang Hero Saharjo, an expert on fire forensics at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), for 500 billion rupiah ($32 million) for what it says was false and exaggerated testimony. JJP had previously sued Bambang in 2018 for a similar amount, 510 billion rupiah ($36 million at the time), only to subsequently drop its case. That came after Bambang had testified in legal proceedings brought in 2015 by Indonesia’s environment ministry against JJP for negligence over fires on its concession in Sumatra. Bambang’s testimony was seen as key in JJP being found liable and fined 491 billion rupiah ($36.7 million at the time). In its first lawsuit, JJP had focused on a technicality — Bambang’s use of the IPB logo in materials he presented during his testimony — rather than the substance of his expertise. The new lawsuit, filed in December 2023, centers on Bambang’s assessment of the total area burned as a result of the company’s negligence. The company says the figure he gave of 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) was much larger than the 120 hectares (300 acres) that a lower court had ruled the company liable for. The environment ministry in 2016&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/indonesian-palm-oil-firm-fined-for-fires-sues-expert-a-second-time-over-testimony/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/indonesian-palm-oil-firm-fined-for-fires-sues-expert-a-second-time-over-testimony/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277740</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian districts trial a shift from commodity monocrops to sustainable produce</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/indonesian-districts-trial-a-shift-from-commodity-monocrops-to-sustainable-produce/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/indonesian-districts-trial-a-shift-from-commodity-monocrops-to-sustainable-produce/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Dec 2023 03:34:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/07150047/Kelapa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277131</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Community Development, Community Forests, Environment, Farming, Forests, Industrial Agriculture, International Trade, Nature-based climate solutions, Palm Oil, Plantations, Solutions, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Since its inception in 2017, the Jakarta-based Sustainable District Association, or LTKL, has brought together district governments and other stakeholders to take collective action toward greater sustainability, mainly in the palm oil industry. Most of the nine districts that currently make up the LTKL network have economies that are heavily reliant on monoculture [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Since its inception in 2017, the Jakarta-based Sustainable District Association, or LTKL, has brought together district governments and other stakeholders to take collective action toward greater sustainability, mainly in the palm oil industry. Most of the nine districts that currently make up the LTKL network have economies that are heavily reliant on monoculture plantations like palm oil, or other extractive industries like oil and gas. To break this reliance and build a more sustainable economic model, the network is experimenting with various nature-based commodities, from coffee and cocoa, to coconut, bamboo and agroforestry byproducts. The shift is necessary to better preserve forests and peatlands, as well as indigenous Indonesian forest commodities, according to LTKL head Ristika Putri Istanti. She said that while the member districts of the association have lots of potential to produce nature-based commodities, they lack the resources and capacity to identify potential buyers and market their products. At the same time, there’s growing global demand for nature-positive products, Ristika added. “We can’t tap [the market] because the pipeline’s not ready yet,” she told reporters at a recent press event in Jakarta. Part of the problem, she said, is that there isn’t a robust source of information on what nature-based commodities are available in a given district, who’s produce them, and how to buy them. “This pipeline [of data] is what we’re preparing,” she said. The LTKL is also preparing to establish entities at the local level to engage with investors and potential buyers, Ristika said.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/indonesian-districts-trial-a-shift-from-commodity-monocrops-to-sustainable-produce/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/indonesian-districts-trial-a-shift-from-commodity-monocrops-to-sustainable-produce/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277131</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report alleges APP continues deforestation 10 years after pledge to stop</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-alleges-app-continues-deforestation-10-years-after-pledge-to-stop/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-alleges-app-continues-deforestation-10-years-after-pledge-to-stop/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2023 05:42:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/31043802/GP049LC-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274819</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jambi, Kalimantan, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Peatlands, Plantations, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Social Conflict, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A decade after Asia Pulp &#38; Paper (APP), one of the world’s biggest paper producers, launched its landmark no-deforestation policy, the company continues to clear forests to feed its mills and drain and develop peatlands, a clear breach of the policy, a new report alleges. APP has a long history of deforestation, with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A decade after Asia Pulp &amp; Paper (APP), one of the world’s biggest paper producers, launched its landmark no-deforestation policy, the company continues to clear forests to feed its mills and drain and develop peatlands, a clear breach of the policy, a new report alleges. APP has a long history of deforestation, with an estimated 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) — an area the size of Wales — of natural forest having been cleared in the three decades preceding 2010 for conversion into pulpwood plantations in two provinces alone, Riau and Jambi. Following widespread criticism of its role in driving deforestation and contributing to social conflicts, APP launched in February 2013 its Forest Conservation Policy (FCP), in which it pledged to not destroy natural forests for its pulpwood plantations. Under its FCP pledge, the pulp giant vowed to exclude timber sourced from the clearing of peatlands and rainforests as well as to reduce social conflict and seek free, prior and informed consent from communities when establishing new plantations. The policy was meant to apply to all APP operations and those of its suppliers, beginning in February 2013. Greenpeace, which helped forge APP’s policy, called the pledge “a game-changer” for the tropical pulp and paper sector as it was the biggest and most comprehensive corporate promise to end deforestation and peatland destruction by any company at the time. Furthermore, APP is one of the world’s largest pulp and paper manufacturers that supplies pulp and paper products like paper tissue, packaging&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-alleges-app-continues-deforestation-10-years-after-pledge-to-stop/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-alleges-app-continues-deforestation-10-years-after-pledge-to-stop/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274819</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sumatran Indigenous seafarers run aground by overfishing and mangrove loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/sumatran-indigenous-seafarers-run-aground-by-overfishing-and-mangrove-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/sumatran-indigenous-seafarers-run-aground-by-overfishing-and-mangrove-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2023 05:24:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[SuryadiTonggo Simangunsong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/23051137/Madi-and-wife-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274495</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Fishing, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mangroves, Oceans, Overfishing, Saltwater Fish, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[INDRAGIRI HILIR, Indonesia — For generations, the seafaring Duano Indigenous community in Indonesia&#8217;s Riau province has relied on paddles and basic nets for their livelihood, launching small boats into healthy fishing grounds off the eastern coast of Sumatra. In the past, a single Duano canoeist could haul 80 kilograms (176 pounds) of fish to shore [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[INDRAGIRI HILIR, Indonesia — For generations, the seafaring Duano Indigenous community in Indonesia&#8217;s Riau province has relied on paddles and basic nets for their livelihood, launching small boats into healthy fishing grounds off the eastern coast of Sumatra. In the past, a single Duano canoeist could haul 80 kilograms (176 pounds) of fish to shore every day, explained Samsuri, a fish trader who belongs to one of 33 families of the Duano community here in Kuala Selat village. On a recent fishing expedition, he said, what remains of Kuala Selat’s artisanal fleet managed to collect only 60 kilograms (132 pounds) between them. “Today we can’t be sure; it’s unpredictable,” Samsuri said as a few fishers arrived at his home with plastic boxes of fresh fish. “It keeps on going down.” Years of environmental stress compounded by inflationary pressures mean this traditional way of life survives among just a handful of Duano families today. Few hold much hope it can continue for much longer. Instead, many here now rely on poorly paid day labor to make ends meet. Young people are increasingly crewing long shifts at sea on larger fishing vessels or taking casual work hauling aggregates on land. Like many here in Kuala Selat, Samsuri links the deterioration of the community’s economic position with the dearth of mangroves separating the land from sea. Samsuri (left) weighs the fish caught by Kuala Selat&#8217;s fishermen. Image by Tonggo Simangunsong. The world’s largest archipelago country accounts for more mangrove forests than anywhere else,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/sumatran-indigenous-seafarers-run-aground-by-overfishing-and-mangrove-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/sumatran-indigenous-seafarers-run-aground-by-overfishing-and-mangrove-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report: Half of plantations in Indonesia’s palm oil heartland are illegal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-half-of-plantations-in-indonesias-palm-oil-heartland-are-illegal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-half-of-plantations-in-indonesias-palm-oil-heartland-are-illegal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Oct 2023 11:29:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/09143728/indonesia_20151276-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274283</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Environment, Forests, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Nearly half of oil palm plantations in Indonesia’s Riau province, the heartland of the commodity’s production, is illegal, according to a new report. The report was published by a coalition of NGOs based in Sumatra called Eyes on the Forest (EoF). Using spatial analysis of Riau’s palm oil landscapes, based on government maps [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Nearly half of oil palm plantations in Indonesia’s Riau province, the heartland of the commodity’s production, is illegal, according to a new report. The report was published by a coalition of NGOs based in Sumatra called Eyes on the Forest (EoF). Using spatial analysis of Riau’s palm oil landscapes, based on government maps and a 2020 map compiled by WWF, it found 5.41 million hectares (13.37 million acres) of land planted with oil palm trees across the province. Of these, 47%, or 2.52 million hectares (6.23 million acres), are in areas designated by the government as forest — which, under a 2013 law, is supposed to be off-limits to activities like oil palm cultivation and mining. The majority of these illegal plantations, 91.3%, are established in forest areas zoned for production (logging and other forestry activity), while the rest are in conservation and protected areas. The government has identified 3.37 million hectares (8.33 million acres) — or an area the size of the Netherlands — of illegal plantations in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil. The new finding makes Riau home to the largest expanse of illegal plantations in the country, with more than half of them found inside the province. That should make Riau a priority in the government’s efforts to tackle the issue of illegal plantations, according to Nursamsu, the EoF coordinator. “If Riau can be solved, then the same issue in other provinces could be easily solved,” he told Mongabay. The government plans&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-half-of-plantations-in-indonesias-palm-oil-heartland-are-illegal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-half-of-plantations-in-indonesias-palm-oil-heartland-are-illegal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274283</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts slam massive ‘discount’ in fines for Indonesian palm oil billionaire</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/experts-slam-massive-discount-in-fines-for-indonesian-palm-oil-billionaire/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/experts-slam-massive-discount-in-fines-for-indonesian-palm-oil-billionaire/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Sep 2023 10:14:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/08095928/Screen-Shot-2022-09-08-at-4.59.15-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273677</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Corruption, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Experts have slammed a court ruling that significantly slashes the fines imposed on Indonesian palm oil billionaire Surya Darmadi, even as it increased his jail sentence, in the biggest corruption case in the country’s history. The Supreme Court, Indonesia’s highest court of appeals, ruled in a Sept. 14 decision to uphold Surya’s earlier conviction [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Experts have slammed a court ruling that significantly slashes the fines imposed on Indonesian palm oil billionaire Surya Darmadi, even as it increased his jail sentence, in the biggest corruption case in the country’s history. The Supreme Court, Indonesia’s highest court of appeals, ruled in a Sept. 14 decision to uphold Surya’s earlier conviction of conspiring with a local official to illegally obtain licenses for his oil palm plantations. It extended his original 15-year prison sentence by one year. However, the court cut the 41.9 trillion rupiah ($2.7 billion) in various fines and damages that a lower court in February had ordered Surya to pay. He now owes the state 2.23 trillion rupiah ($144 million). The reasoning behind the drastic reduction in fines, which local media have dubbed a massive “discount,” is unclear. Ketut Sumedana, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, Ketut Sumedana, said prosecutors hadn’t received a copy of the court ruling yet and thus weren’t able to learn more about the reasoning behind the judges’ decision. Bambang Hero Saharjo, a forestry lecturer at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) who testified as an expert witness for the state, said the Supreme Court ruling deals a blow to law enforcement in the country. “As an expert who verified, went to the field and calculated the losses, I feel sad and concerned,” he told Mongabay. “We wanted the burden of the [environmental] damage to fall on those who responsible for it, but the Supreme Court removed that responsibility.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/experts-slam-massive-discount-in-fines-for-indonesian-palm-oil-billionaire/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/experts-slam-massive-discount-in-fines-for-indonesian-palm-oil-billionaire/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273677</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian regulator gets 12 years’ jail for palm oil permit bribery</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/indonesian-regulator-gets-12-years-jail-for-palm-oil-permit-bribery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/indonesian-regulator-gets-12-years-jail-for-palm-oil-permit-bribery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2023 15:16:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/10142952/20221130_122241-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273201</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Maluku, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Corruption, Environment, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Palm Oil, and Plantations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A court in Indonesia’s Riau province, the country’s palm oil heartland, has sentenced a high-ranking official to 12 years in prison for taking bribes in exchange for issuing or renewing plantation permits. The court in Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, found on Aug. 31 that Muhammad Syahrir, the former head of the Riau land [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A court in Indonesia’s Riau province, the country’s palm oil heartland, has sentenced a high-ranking official to 12 years in prison for taking bribes in exchange for issuing or renewing plantation permits. The court in Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, found on Aug. 31 that Muhammad Syahrir, the former head of the Riau land agency, was guilty of abusing his authority and taking bribes from a number of companies in recent years. The latest bribery case revolved around palm oil company PT Adimulia Agrolestari, which paid Syahrir the equivalent of $82,000 to renew the firm’s right-to-cultivate permit, known as an HGU. The permit was set to expire in 2024. In all, Syahrir was found to have taken bribes, solicited and unsolicited, amounting to 21.13 billion rupiah ($1.38 million) over the course of five years from several palm oil and mining companies in Riau and before that at the North Maluku provincial land office. The Pekanbaru court sentenced Syahrir to 12 years in prison and fined him the equivalent of $1.5 million. Failure to pay could see him face an additional three and a half years in prison. Syahrir’s legal team didn’t immediately say whether they would appeal the sentence, which is slightly harsher than the 11.5 years sought by prosecutors. Raynaldo Sembiring, executive director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), said Syahrir’s crimes are only “the tip of the iceberg,” as bribery is widely perceived as part of the cost of doing business in Indonesia. The case&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/indonesian-regulator-gets-12-years-jail-for-palm-oil-permit-bribery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/indonesian-regulator-gets-12-years-jail-for-palm-oil-permit-bribery/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273201</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia permit payoff raises alarm about palm oil industry corruption</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/indonesia-permit-payoff-raises-alarm-about-palm-oil-industry-corruption/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/indonesia-permit-payoff-raises-alarm-about-palm-oil-industry-corruption/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Aug 2023 04:08:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/10142952/20221130_122241-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272453</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Maluku, North Maluku, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Corruption, Environment, Environmental Law, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, and Transparency]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A million-dollar bribery case in Indonesia’s Riau province, the country’s palm oil heartland, has prompted calls for a wider investigation into corruption between business players and the local officials tasked with policing their operations. Prosecutors at a court in Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, are seeking an 11.5-year sentence for Muhammad Syahrir, the former [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A million-dollar bribery case in Indonesia’s Riau province, the country’s palm oil heartland, has prompted calls for a wider investigation into corruption between business players and the local officials tasked with policing their operations. Prosecutors at a court in Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, are seeking an 11.5-year sentence for Muhammad Syahrir, the former head of the Riau land agency, for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for renewing oil palm plantation permits. In the case at the center of the trial, they allege Syahrir solicited the equivalent of $228,000 in payments from PT Adimulia Agrolestari ahead of the company’s right-to-cultivate permit, known as an HGU, expiring in 2024. In all, Syahrir is alleged to have taken bribes, solicited and unsolicited, amounting to 20.9 billion rupiah ($1.36 million) from several palm oil companies during his tenures in Riau and before that at the North Maluku provincial land office. The case is almost certainly not an isolated incident, with bribery widely perceived as part of the cost of doing business in Indonesia, said Raynaldo Sembiring, executive director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL). “The corrupt practice [of bribes for permits] is only just starting to be revealed in Syahrir’s case,” he said. “This case involves [the land agencies in] Riau and North Maluku. And there’s a likelihood that it’s also happening in other regions.” He added, “So this is only the tip of the iceberg.” Hariadi Kartodihardjo, a lecturer in forestry policy at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB),&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/indonesia-permit-payoff-raises-alarm-about-palm-oil-industry-corruption/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/indonesia-permit-payoff-raises-alarm-about-palm-oil-industry-corruption/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272453</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With El Niño likely, Indonesia’s volunteer firefighters gear up — with new gear</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/with-el-nino-likely-indonesias-volunteer-firefighters-gear-up-with-new-gear/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/with-el-nino-likely-indonesias-volunteer-firefighters-gear-up-with-new-gear/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jul 2023 20:31:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Haze Beat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/03051741/firefighter-peat-indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270451</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Oceans, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Poaching, Research, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When battling to protect Indonesia&#8217;s peatlands during wildfire crises in 2015 and 2019, most volunteer firefighters confronted the infernos with a dire shortage of equipment and technological resources. For community firefighters like Indra My Lubis, that disadvantage is beginning to shift. Around three years ago, the village of Bathin Sobanga, south of the city of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When battling to protect Indonesia&#8217;s peatlands during wildfire crises in 2015 and 2019, most volunteer firefighters confronted the infernos with a dire shortage of equipment and technological resources. For community firefighters like Indra My Lubis, that disadvantage is beginning to shift. Around three years ago, the village of Bathin Sobanga, south of the city of Dumai in Sumatra’s Riau province, used the village budget to procure a drone to help monitor their coverage area, according to Indra. “It’s been a huge help,” said Indra, who leads Bathin Sobanga’s Masyarakat Peduli Api (MPA), village volunteer firefighters. “We can easily monitor whether there is any smoke.” Indonesia established a volunteer firefighting network more than a decade ago as the first line of defense against wildfires. Groups of local volunteers were given basic fire training, in the hope that quick interventions by those who knew the ground best would extinguish a blaze before it grew out of control. Manggala Agni, the government fire department run by the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, would then be better able to triage resources to battle the worst fires. Smoke rising from a forest fire in Riau. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. However, insufficient investment and a lack of coordination in the early years undermined building capacity in the MPA network, according to several field workers. “One way of increasing community participation is through the MPA program and there has been a lot of progress, including financial support from the government and the private&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/with-el-nino-likely-indonesias-volunteer-firefighters-gear-up-with-new-gear/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/with-el-nino-likely-indonesias-volunteer-firefighters-gear-up-with-new-gear/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270451</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sumatra Indigenous community displaced by Samsung palm oil unit await justice</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/sumatra-indigenous-community-displaced-by-samsung-palm-oil-unit-await-justice/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/sumatra-indigenous-community-displaced-by-samsung-palm-oil-unit-await-justice/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2023 02:40:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suryadi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/05150904/Batin-Irasan-pemimpin-adat-masyarakat-Talang-Parit.-Foto-Suryadi-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269402</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Palm Oil, Plantations, Sustainability, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TALANG PARIT, Indonesia — For more than two decades, the residents of this Indigenous community in Riau province, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, have watched as their lakes dried up and the rainforest dwindled. “The forest is gone,” Batin Irasan, the village’s ketua adat, or spiritual leader, told Mongabay Indonesia. “What was sacred has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TALANG PARIT, Indonesia — For more than two decades, the residents of this Indigenous community in Riau province, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, have watched as their lakes dried up and the rainforest dwindled. “The forest is gone,” Batin Irasan, the village’s ketua adat, or spiritual leader, told Mongabay Indonesia. “What was sacred has already been lost.” A once-thriving ecosystem with vibrant lakes in the heart of Sumatra is now failing. More than two decades ago, excavators from PT Inecda Plantation began clear-cutting more than 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) of forest that the Talang Parit community had called home for generations. The community is part of the broader Talang Mamak Indigenous community based in this part of Sumatra, where Riau&#8217;s northern peatlands border the more central mineral soils. The company, an arm of South Korean conglomerate Samsung, cut canals into the swampy soil to drain off enough water from the landscape to enable its oil palm trees to grow. The Talang Parit community’s main fishing grounds dried up and the water supply petered out. Sudiman, the village chief, said he’s worried the community’s way of life is under threat. Two of the four hamlets that make up the community are experiencing water stress. One hamlet in the upland attempted to drill a ground well 30 meters (98 feet) deep, but found no drinkable water. In the fourth hamlet, where many residents work for a state-owned plantation firm, PT Perkebunan Nusantara V, the water is an undrinkable shade of red.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/sumatra-indigenous-community-displaced-by-samsung-palm-oil-unit-await-justice/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/sumatra-indigenous-community-displaced-by-samsung-palm-oil-unit-await-justice/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269402</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian palm oil billionaire gets 15 years for corruption</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/indonesian-palm-oil-billionaire-gets-15-years-for-corruption/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/indonesian-palm-oil-billionaire-gets-15-years-for-corruption/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2023 16:01:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/08095928/Screen-Shot-2022-09-08-at-4.59.15-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266008</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corruption, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, International Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Rainforests, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A court in Indonesia has sentenced palm oil billionaire Surya Darmadi to 15 years in prison for his role in the biggest corruption case in the country’s history. The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court ruled on Feb. 23 that Surya had conspired with the elected head of Indragiri Hulu district in Sumatra, Raja Thamsir Rachman, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A court in Indonesia has sentenced palm oil billionaire Surya Darmadi to 15 years in prison for his role in the biggest corruption case in the country’s history. The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court ruled on Feb. 23 that Surya had conspired with the elected head of Indragiri Hulu district in Sumatra, Raja Thamsir Rachman, in 2004 to secure plantation permits for Surya’s company, PT Duta Palma. Surya was also found guilty on money laundering charges. In addition, the court ordered Surya to pay 1 billion rupiah ($65,600) in fines and 2.23 trillion rupiah ($146 million) in restitution for the profit he reaped from the illegal plantations. The judges also ordered Surya to pay an additional 39.7 trillion rupiah ($2.6 billion) for losses incurred by the state. Thamsir Rahman is currently on trial in the same case, and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. There’s been a mixed response to the verdict in Surya’s case, in which prosecutors had sought a life sentence and total fines of 86.55 trillion rupiah ($5.7 billion). That’s the figure that prosecutors say represents the total loss to the state from the scheme, making it Indonesia’s costliest corruption case. The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the country’s biggest green NGO, criticized the verdict as too lenient and not commensurate with the environmental damage that the illegal plantations had caused. “The time it takes to recover the environmental damage caused by the activity of the illegal plantations is longer than the prison&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/indonesian-palm-oil-billionaire-gets-15-years-for-corruption/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/indonesian-palm-oil-billionaire-gets-15-years-for-corruption/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266008</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fishers on Indonesia’s Batam Island suffer as mangrove cover declines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/fishers-on-indonesias-batam-island-suffer-as-mangrove-cover-declines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/fishers-on-indonesias-batam-island-suffer-as-mangrove-cover-declines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2023 04:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yogi Eka Sahputra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/12082721/Fishers-on-Indonesias-Batam-Island-suffer-as-mangrove-cover-declines-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264544</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Riau Islands, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Fishing, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Mangroves, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BATAM, Indonesia — “There’s no more fish,” says Abdul Ganip, holding up a mostly empty flask containing a few prawns. “It&#8217;s a quiet catch.” For decades, the 57-year-old has lived and worked as a fisherman on the Indonesian island of Batam, better known as an industrial hub and special economic zone off the eastern coast [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BATAM, Indonesia — “There’s no more fish,” says Abdul Ganip, holding up a mostly empty flask containing a few prawns. “It&#8217;s a quiet catch.” For decades, the 57-year-old has lived and worked as a fisherman on the Indonesian island of Batam, better known as an industrial hub and special economic zone off the eastern coast of Sumatra. He and other fishermen eked out a profit catching and selling seafood on this 715-square-kilometer (276-square-mile) island, where the mangrove habitat accounted for only 4% of the landmass as of 1990. Similar to Singapore, less than an hour by ferry to the north, the rest of Batam is paved over and even expanded with infill, the reclamation of coastal and brackish areas with sand to create new land for factories, resorts and apartment blocks. Today, mangrove covers a mere 1.5% of the island, according to the satellite-imaging web service Nusantara Atlas. Landsat imagery shows that Batam had 5,873 hectares (14,513 acres) of mangrove in 1990. Today the island only has 2,395 hectares (5,918 acres). Ganip says he experienced a decline in catch in the past two years. His bubu traps, basket-like contraptions that float on the water’s surface, used to net him 3 kilograms (nearly 7 pounds) of fish a day. Now he can barely catch half a kilogram. His earnings have dropped from 250,000 rupiah ($16) a day to barely 50,000 rupiah ($3). Awang Gafar, 67, collects shrimp at the south end of Batam. In the 1980s, he says, those waters easily&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/fishers-on-indonesias-batam-island-suffer-as-mangrove-cover-declines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264544</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As dry season looms, Sumatra villagers hope their peat restoration pays off</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-dry-season-looms-sumatra-villagers-hope-their-peat-restoration-pays-off/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-dry-season-looms-sumatra-villagers-hope-their-peat-restoration-pays-off/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2022 15:33:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/05110853/forest-fire-in-Riau-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264133</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Air Pollution, Climate Change, Community Forests, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Nature-based climate solutions, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Rehabilitation, Research, Restoration, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PEKANBARU, Indonesia — Intensive efforts in recent years to prevent fires in Indonesia’s Riau province, the country’s perennial epicenter of forest and land fires, will be put to the test this year as the dry season makes a full return. At the heart of these efforts are community-led initiatives aimed at restoring degraded peatlands and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PEKANBARU, Indonesia — Intensive efforts in recent years to prevent fires in Indonesia’s Riau province, the country’s perennial epicenter of forest and land fires, will be put to the test this year as the dry season makes a full return. At the heart of these efforts are community-led initiatives aimed at restoring degraded peatlands and finding ways to farm that don’t involve setting the land on fire. Riau province, on the eastern coast of the island of Sumatra, has been spared major fires the past three years because of prevailing La Niña conditions that resulted in wetter-than-usual dry seasons. But that’s set to fade away with the onset of the next dry season in early 2023, according to Ramlan, head of the Riau office of Indonesia’s national weather agency, the BMKG. “Until March 2023, there’s still an indication that there’ll be a weak La Niña. But after March, the condition will be neutral,” Ramlan told Mongabay. “So if we compare 2023 with the condition in 2020-2022, then of course it’ll be drier compared to the past three years.” This, he said, raises the risk of forest fires in Riau. That makes the upcoming dry season a sort of litmus test for Riau’s fire-prevention efforts, according to Even Sembiring, head of the Riau chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi). “With next year’s weather prediction, it is a test for us to see how effective [peat] restoration efforts and law enforcement have been,” he told Mongabay. Among the fire-prevention&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-dry-season-looms-sumatra-villagers-hope-their-peat-restoration-pays-off/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264133</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Trial of palm oil tycoon Surya Darmadi begins in Jakarta</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/trial-of-palm-oil-tycoon-surya-darmadi-begins-in-jakarta/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/trial-of-palm-oil-tycoon-surya-darmadi-begins-in-jakarta/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2022 10:06:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Haze Beat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/08104353/WhatsApp-Image-2022-09-08-at-5.42.35-PM-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260073</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jakarta, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Law Enforcement, Logging, Palm Oil, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Palm oil tycoon Surya Darmadi began trial in Jakarta on Thursday over an alleged corruption scheme that deforested tens of thousands of hectares on the island of Sumatra. &#8220;He is very happy the file has been submitted to the court so that he can defend himself,” Surya’s lawyer, Juniver Girsang, told reporters on Wednesday. Surya [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Palm oil tycoon Surya Darmadi began trial in Jakarta on Thursday over an alleged corruption scheme that deforested tens of thousands of hectares on the island of Sumatra. &#8220;He is very happy the file has been submitted to the court so that he can defend himself,” Surya’s lawyer, Juniver Girsang, told reporters on Wednesday. Surya could have begun the process of clearing his name sooner had he not elected to spend eight years evading investigators probing one of Indonesia&#8217;s largest corruption cases. Indonesia’s antigraft agency, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), named Surya a suspect in 2014 over a suspected 3 billion rupiah ($200,000) payment to the then-governor of Riau province, Annas Maamun, to amend a forestry regulation for the benefit of Surya’s company, PT Duta Palma. Annas Maamun, the then-governor Riau province, was caught red-handed taking a bribe in 2014. The KPK issued Surya with a travel ban in 2019, but the tycoon managed to flee abroad. He then resisted subsequent attempts to repatriate him by claiming medical problems. On Aug. 1, the Attorney General’s Office named Surya a suspect over alleged payments to the then-head of Indragiri Hulu district in Riau, Raja Thamsir Rachman. Thamsir, who helmed the district for two terms from 1999-2008, issued permits to five subsidiaries of PT Duta Palma to convert 37,000 hectares (91,000 acres) of forest into oil palm estates. The former district chief remains incarcerated on unrelated corruption convictions. One of the Duta Palma plantations in Riau. Image courtesy of Greenpeace. The plantations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/trial-of-palm-oil-tycoon-surya-darmadi-begins-in-jakarta/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/trial-of-palm-oil-tycoon-surya-darmadi-begins-in-jakarta/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260073</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Encircled by plantations, a Sumatran Indigenous community abides changing times</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/encircled-by-plantations-a-sumatran-indigenous-community-abides-changing-times/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/encircled-by-plantations-a-sumatran-indigenous-community-abides-changing-times/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Aug 2022 01:46:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suryadi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/19100545/Sumatran-Indigenous-community-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259412</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Medicinal Plants, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Religions, Tropical Forests, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[INDRAGIRI HILIR, Indonesia — Customary leaders Patih Majuan, Datuk Manti and Datuk Mangku approach their scared forest with hands clasped in prayer. Other residents of the village of Talang Durian Cacar follow in tow, as the three elders reach a tennis court-sized opening here in the south of Sumatra’s Indragiri Hilir district. The four corners [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[INDRAGIRI HILIR, Indonesia — Customary leaders Patih Majuan, Datuk Manti and Datuk Mangku approach their scared forest with hands clasped in prayer. Other residents of the village of Talang Durian Cacar follow in tow, as the three elders reach a tennis court-sized opening here in the south of Sumatra’s Indragiri Hilir district. The four corners of the clearing are marked with tombstone-like rocks, but it’s not a cemetery. Manti sprinkles incense over a small fire. “We ask permission to visit here,” Manti says. “Please forgive any wrongdoing.” The customary forest here in Indragiri Hilir, the easternmost district of Indonesia’s Riau province, is known as Hutan Keramat Penyabungan, or the Sacred Forest of the Penyabungan River. For generations it has been a holy site for the Talang Mamak Indigenous group. From the forest, the Penyabungan flows into the Ekok River nearby, which in turn is a tributary of the Batang Cenaku River. But the water quality in the river is worsening. And what remains of the Talang Mamak’s customary forest is little more than 2 hectares (5 acres). That reflects wider changes to land use that have taken place in this low-lying district of Riau, whose northernmost community, Danai, is less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the south coast of Singapore. From 2001 to 2022, Indragiri Hilir lost more than 50% of its old-growth primary forest cover, according to Global Forest Watch, owing to rapid expansion in oil palm and acacia plantation concessions. Data from the statistics agency census in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/encircled-by-plantations-a-sumatran-indigenous-community-abides-changing-times/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259412</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nearness to roads and palm oil mills a key factor in peatland clearing by smallholders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/nearness-to-roads-and-palm-oil-mills-a-key-factor-in-peatland-clearing-by-smallholders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/nearness-to-roads-and-palm-oil-mills-a-key-factor-in-peatland-clearing-by-smallholders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Aug 2022 14:23:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/02/02182421/Sabah-oil-palm-495x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259288</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Infrastructure, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Roads, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Smallholder farmers in Sumatra who cultivate oil palms are more likely to expand their farms into carbon-rich peat forests the closer they are to roads and palm oil mills, a new study finds. The study by researchers from the University of Maryland in the U.S. and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore looked at [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Smallholder farmers in Sumatra who cultivate oil palms are more likely to expand their farms into carbon-rich peat forests the closer they are to roads and palm oil mills, a new study finds. The study by researchers from the University of Maryland in the U.S. and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore looked at the spatial distribution and drivers of smallholder oil palm expansion into peat forests in the Indonesian province of Riau. Riau has both the second-largest area of peatland in Indonesia and the highest palm oil production of any province in the country, with a rapid rate of expansion of smallholder farms. This expansion has come at the expense of natural ecosystems, as farmers drain and clear peat swamp forests, a practice that releases large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change. The researchers wanted to know what factors drive small farmers to clear peat swamp forests, given the dearth of research on the issue, especially for independent farmers cultivating plots smaller than 25 hectares (62 acres). The lack of data is also jarring given that smallholders manage nearly half of the total oil palm plantation area in Indonesia. Jing Zhao, the study’s lead author and an agricultural economist at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science, said this gap might be due to the fact that smallholders’ expansion came later than the initial spurt of growth of industrial oil palm estates. “[A]lso, ‘smallholders’ are by definition small individually and often widely&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/nearness-to-roads-and-palm-oil-mills-a-key-factor-in-peatland-clearing-by-smallholders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259288</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Indonesia’s forest fire capital, the dry season brings yet more burning</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/in-indonesias-forest-fire-capital-the-dry-season-brings-yet-more-burning/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/in-indonesias-forest-fire-capital-the-dry-season-brings-yet-more-burning/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2022 10:42:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/03/16133114/Wahyudi-YUD_4082-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258899</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Air Pollution, Dry Forests, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forests, Peatlands, Plantations, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires are flaring up in Indonesia’s Riau province, the perennial epicenter of the burning season in Sumatra, as the dry season sets in. At the end of March, fires had burned nearly 169 hectares (417 acres) of land in Riau, where large swaths of forests and peatlands have been burned to make way [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires are flaring up in Indonesia’s Riau province, the perennial epicenter of the burning season in Sumatra, as the dry season sets in. At the end of March, fires had burned nearly 169 hectares (417 acres) of land in Riau, where large swaths of forests and peatlands have been burned to make way for plantations of oil palms and pulpwood. Since then, however, the scale of fires has intensified, with more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of land burned — an area three times the size of New York City’s Central Park — according to data from the province’s disaster mitigation agency, or BPBD. Responding to the intensifying fires, more than half of the 12 districts and cities in Riau have declared an emergency status for forest and land fires. To prevent new fire spots from popping up and current fires from spreading, the BPDP has requested cloud-seeding efforts to induce rainfall, as well as patrol helicopters and water bombing to fight the flames. The coordinator of the cloud-seeding efforts in Riau, Tukiyat, said there’s been an increase in the number of hotspots in the province since early July. “That’s why weather modification is now being done again in Riau,” he said as quoted by local media. Firefighters try to extinguish fires in Rokan Hilir, Riau, Indonesia, in July 2022. Image courtesy of BPBD Rokan Hilir. One of the districts most affected by the fires is Rokan Hilir, where more than 100 hectares (250 acres) are up in flames. Rokan Hilir&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/in-indonesias-forest-fire-capital-the-dry-season-brings-yet-more-burning/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258899</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/a-utopia-of-clean-air-and-wet-peat-amid-sumatras-forest-fire-hell/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/a-utopia-of-clean-air-and-wet-peat-amid-sumatras-forest-fire-hell/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Aug 2022 15:53:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suryadi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/01145904/Sadikin-recipient-of-Kalpataru-2020-from-Bengkalis-Riau-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258767</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Indonesia's Forest Guardians, Indonesian Forests, and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Agroforestry, Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Peatlands, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Restoration, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BENGKALIS, Indonesia — On the east coast of the island of Sumatra lies a grove of timber, fruit and native trees known as the Marsawa Peat Arboretum. This shady grove, spread across 1.1 hectares (2.7 acres), is a labor of love for local land and air — one that originated in a place of loss. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BENGKALIS, Indonesia — On the east coast of the island of Sumatra lies a grove of timber, fruit and native trees known as the Marsawa Peat Arboretum. This shady grove, spread across 1.1 hectares (2.7 acres), is a labor of love for local land and air — one that originated in a place of loss. Sadikin, who maintains this tract of towering trees and birdsong, conceived of the initiative after losing his son to smoke exposure during one of the many forest fires that rage almost every year in Sumatra’s Riau province. According to Global Forest Watch, Riau — a province nearly the size of the U.S. state of Maine and three times larger than Belgium — lost half its tree cover between 2001 and 2021. 2005 was Riau’s worst fire year on record: 280,000 hectares (692,000 acres) of forest burned, an area more than one and a half times the size of London. So far, 2022 has been a typical fire year for the province, with the head of the province&#8217;s disaster agency recently announcing that fires were currently burning over 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) and some districts declaring an emergency alert status. Perennial smoke and air pollution convinced Sadikin to convert his parents’ derelict vegetable garden into an orchard that eventually became the Marsawa arboretum. Image by Suryadi/Mongabay Indonesia. Perennial smoke and air pollution convinced Sadikin to convert his parents’ derelict vegetable garden into an orchard that eventually became the Marsawa arboretum. He planted cashew, rubber, banana and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/a-utopia-of-clean-air-and-wet-peat-amid-sumatras-forest-fire-hell/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258767</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As dry season starts in Indonesia, risk of fires — and haze — looms</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/as-dry-season-starts-in-indonesia-risk-of-fires-and-haze-looms/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/as-dry-season-starts-in-indonesia-risk-of-fires-and-haze-looms/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jul 2022 14:59:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/26024454/indonesia-fire_RAB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258032</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Riau, Singapore, South Kalimantan, South Sumatra, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Air Pollution, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A new analysis warns of the potential for forest fires in Indonesia that could spread smoke to neighboring countries as this year’s dry season sets in, following two years of haze-free skies across this part of Southeast Asia. In their “Haze Outlook 2022” report, researchers at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A new analysis warns of the potential for forest fires in Indonesia that could spread smoke to neighboring countries as this year’s dry season sets in, following two years of haze-free skies across this part of Southeast Asia. In their “Haze Outlook 2022” report, researchers at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) said there’s a higher risk this year than last of the region experiencing some fires and transboundary haze. They looked at three factors — weather, policies and people — to determine that the risk comes primarily from the prospect of forest fires being set to clear land for plantations. Current record-high prices for palm oil and other forest commodities pose an incentivize for small farmers and big companies alike to expand their operations. In their report, the researchers cited an NGO warning of the potential for degraded peatlands in several provinces on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo being burned. “Fires in Riau, Jambi, and South Sumatra might reach Singapore and Peninsula Malaysia, while fires in West Kalimantan might affect air quality in East Malaysia,” the report said. “However, the NGO noted that this haze would be ‘short and limited’ compared to previous haze years.” This region of Southeast Asia has experienced several episodes of severe transboundary haze in the past, particularly in 1997/1998, 2015 and 2019, when smokes from fires in Sumatra blew across the Malacca Strait to Singapore and Malaysia, even going as far as southern Thailand, a distance of more than 600&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/as-dry-season-starts-in-indonesia-risk-of-fires-and-haze-looms/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258032</doi>				</item>
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