Since 2004, the lands and resin forests of the Toba Batak community of Ompu Ronggur have been cleared and replaced by eucalyptus plantations of pulp company PT Toba Pulp Lestari. This State-authorised land-grab and destruction of the community’s forests violates a range of international human rights instruments ratified by the Government of Indonesia, including ILO Convention 111.
Film by Nanang Sujana for Forest Peoples Programme
Subtitles available in 4 languages. Visit: http://ifnotusthenwho.me/
The indigenous people of Sungai Utik, a Dayak Iban community in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, have maintained a strong traditional connection to their forests despite continuous pressure from logging and palm oil companies intent on taking their land. Their forests remain intact and their traditional values are keeping their community together. If we want to keep forests and maintain food security we need to trust and support communities like the indigenous Dayak Iban. As they tackle the impacts of climate change, through the sustainable forestry traditional both to their culture and to their understanding of nature, they can offer us climate solutions and hope for the future.
Subtitles available in 4 languages. Visit: http://ifnotusthenwho.me/
In a rapidly dwindling community forest the people of Pandumaan & Sipituhuta have put up a strong fight to stop the growth of monoculture eucalyptus plantations. But the aggressive actions of the company & its close alignment with local politicians & the police have led this struggle down a dark path – protests, intimidation, arrests & confrontations.
From Our Ancestors was recognised as a finalist for Best Limited Series – Short Film at the Jackson Hole Film Festival 2015. The film has been screened extensively in Indonesia as part of If Not Us Then Who? Goes to Campus, Senegal for the World Forestry Congress in 2015 and various film festivals in Malta.
ENTER Nusantara or Energi Terbarukan Nusantara means renewable energy for the nation. It is a program initiated by GreenPeace and Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (Indigenous People Alliance of the Archipelago). ENTER Nusantara aim to promote renewable energy for the local communities’ across the nation with its main purpose facilitating indigenous communities to become energy self-sufficient society. This program may leads to an energy-independent society, which will advance an economically-independent nation while giving greater power to indigenous communities a chance to develop their social life.
Filmed and edited by Nanang Sujana for Greenpeace Indonesia and Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara.
Land, Territory and natural resources are not only viewed as an economic resource for the survival of indigenous peoples, but also identity. The identity of an existence that is contained within a value system: social, cultural and spiritual, inherited from generation to generation.
Many of the permit issued by central and local government are without due process of FPIC (Free prior and informed consent). The arrival of development project permits are putting indigenous peoples as a spectator of development, not as an actor. The indigenous peoples are becoming poorer. They increasingly no longer have access to nearby resources that had been sustaining them.
A lot of the problem faced by indigenous peoples are due to no recognition and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples. The most obvious today in Indonesia is the seizure of land, indigenous territories and natural resources that they have mastered and managed for generations.
Filmed, directed and edited by Nanang Sujana
From Papua to Sumatra, representatives of indigenous peoples agree on the importance of forests. They have proven themselves to be the faithful guardians of Indonesian forests. From Papua to Sumatra, communities are facing similar troubles in the destruction of their forests: large-scale oil palm, plantation forest, and mining concessions. Can Indonesia’s indigenous communities protect more than 15 million hectares of currently pristine customary forests? To save lives, biodiversity, and global climate. This film urges everyone to think clearly, especially to the Indonesian government to place their complete trust in these communities to sustainably manage forests.
Film by Nanang Sujana/Gekko Studio (2011)
