What's at Stake in Borneo
The community secretary Mr. Taufik delivers an impassioned speech about the community's resistance and what their demands are to BW Plantations. The banner in the background is demanding that BW Plantation's subsidiary PT. Bumi Langgeng return the rights of the community.
A delegation from RAN's agribusiness team attended the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) meeting in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo to advocate for human rights and land tenure rights, promote zero deforestation commitments, and demonstrate the need for value chain safeguards. After the RSPO conference Lafcadio Cortesi and Ashley Schaeffer visited Tanjung Puting National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and one of the last strongholds of the endangered orangutan. The team toured an area of active deforestation and tense social conflict involving the company PT Bumi Lenggeng, a subsidiary of BW Plantation - an RSPO member company that operates about 100,000 ha. of oil palm plantations in Central and Eastern Kalimantan.
Read more: From The field: Borneo’s Tanjung Puting National Park And The High Stakes Of The Palm Oil Crisis