On June 19 2012, Dayak Ngaju peoples in Katunjung, Indonesia held a protest to coincide with the global United Nations Rio+20 conference in Brasil - photos on this page. Local organisation Petak Danum Kalimantan Tengah released the statement below, calling on the Australian Prime Minister to act immediately to stop the REDD KFCP pilot project in Central Kalimantan.

The Dayak Ngaju protest targetted the Australian government's Kalimantan Forest and Climate Partnership REDD forest offset project in their community. It is intended as a pilot for the Asia-Pacific region to potentially create offsets for purchase by big polluters in Australia, enabling ongoing pollution.

Download the statement as a PDF here in English and Indonesian

For a background on the Australian government's Kalimantan Forest and Climate Partnership, see here.

 

Statement of Petak Danum Kalimantan Tengah to Rio+20

Our Land is not a Carbon Toilet for dirty industries of developed countries

June 19 2012, Kuala Kapuas, Indonesia

The peatlands are our lifeblood over generations. For centuries, the processes of creating the technology, knowledge, skills and ability to manage the peatlands – by way of rubber gardens, rotan gardens, reed gardens, pantung gardens, traditional forests, rivers, canals and ditches*, swamps, and lakes – have been beneficial for our education, health and culture, and boundaries that safeguard our sovereignty, autonomy and our rights to protect the peatland territories forever.

Climate change is happening fast, corresponding to the growth of industries in mining, oil, gas, oil palm, electronics, transportation, and agricultural technologies that are not environmentally friendly. These have been created by developed countries and have encountered failure as the planet's condition worsens.

Over a long, long time and over generations, millions of people in every corner of the world have been cultivating and protecting trees, coping with the destruction of nature caused by investment, providing subsistence for our families, and being subjected to the impact of ongoing economic crises.

In Central Kalimantan, the very people who were the victims of the peatland development projects have been working to rehabilitate these lands. From 1999 to 2012 – by way of replacing rotan and rubber gardens and through reforestation – the area of traditional forests we are protecting has reached over 300,000 hectares. We have been standing against the rapid growth and expansion of oil palm plantations and mining. Our brothers and sisters in Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Papua and Java, and our brothers and sisters in Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, Brazil and other developing countries have started to do the same kind of thing. We have become a force of the developing world as part of the solution to climate change.

However, our initiatives have not been regarded as an important contribution in the global solution to climate change. The initiatives of people throughout the world constitute a model for managing the environment in a way that could save our families and all the inhabitants of the earth. But this is ignored as a matter of global importance. Now the term 'green economy' has taken precedence in talks at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil 20-22 June 2012.

This situation makes us even more certain than ever, that a “solution” to climate change by way of carbon market mechanisms and the “green economy”, and promises of financial returns for developing countries, is nothing but empty talk. These ideas are nothing more than a new face of capitalism in the shape of ecological imperialism. This has formed our view of the developed countries' solution to climate change through the REDD scheme, as only turning our homes into a carbon toilet. 

When developed countries don't want to stop their own carbon emissions, those who are innocent have to shoulder the entire burden. For example, Australia could not handle the difficulties within their country, so the Kalimantan Forest Climate Partnership REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of forest) project, conducted over a space of 120,000 hectares in Central Kalimantan, places this heavy burden on 10,000 residents of 14 villages. We are the victims of this perverse climate “solution”.

If we look at the reality on the ground, it is completely inconsistent with the intentions of the KFCP project. The area covered by the operations of Australian mining companies in Central Kalimantan alone reaches around 500,000 hectares.

The Prime Minister of Australia should act immediately to stop the REDD KFCP pilot project in Central Kalimantan because the project is sure to bring plenty of problems, starting with duping people on their understanding of climate change, creating social conflict, and the violation of our social, cultural and economic rights in relation to the peatlands.

[Indonesian] President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must immediately revoke and cancel the concessions for oil palm plantations, mining, polluting factories and industries, and the dirty technology of the developed countries – this is needed if action on climate change will succeed and not rip people away from their land.

We call upon our brothers and sisters of developing countries: let us walk together in our struggle to contribute to a climate change solution based on the traditional knowledge we have from many generations past. If this initiative becomes the primary solution, then the countries of the world and the global regime won't have to promote dreams of millions of dollars. It would be enough to give enduring acknowledgement and protection to the welfare of humanity and of the earth.

*the traditional system for irrigating the peatlands by creating small ditches and canals diverting water from the rivers known as tatah and handil.

Note: feedback welcome on translation to sydney@foe.org.au

Download the statement in Indonesian SURAT UNTUK RIO+20

Siaran Perss

Surat Untuk Rio+20

Rumah Kami Bukan Toilet Karbon

Dari Industri Kotor Negara Maju

Bahwa sesungguhnya  sumberdaya gambut mengalir darah kami dan generasi sejak berabad-abad sebagai proses menciptakan teknologi dan pengetahuan, ketrampilan dan kemampuan untuk pengelola sumberdaya gambut dalam bentuk kebun karet, kebun rotan, kebun purun, kebun pantung, hutan adat, sungai, tatah, handil, beje, danau yang memberikan manfaat bagi pendidikan, kesehatan, kebudayaan yang miliki batas-batas yang melindungi kedaulatan dan kemerdekaan hak-hak kami menjaga wilayah gambut tetap lestari.

Perubahan iklim begitu cepat, sesuai dengan pertumbuhan industry pertambangan, minyak dan gas bumi, otomotif, perkebunan kelapa sawit, industry elektronik, transportasi, teknologi pertanian yang tidak ramah lingkungan diciptakan Negara maju menuai kegagalan semakin parah kondisi planet bumi.

Saat ini, bahkan sudah lama secara turun temurun, jutaan rakyat diseluruh penjuru bumi sedang menanam-memelihara pohon, menahan pengrusakan alam dari investasi, menyediakan bahan pangan keluarga, menerima dampak krisis ekonomi yang tidak selesai.

Di Kalimantan Tengah, masyarakat korban pembangunan proyek gambut terus berusaha untuk memulihkan gambut sejak 1999 – 2012, dengan cara rehabilitasi kebun rotan, kebun karet dan reforestasi – perlindungan hutan adat mencapai lebih dari 300.000 hektar, menahan laju ekspansi perkebunan kelapa sawit dan pertambangan di lahan gambut. Kemudian, saudara-saudara kami satu daratan pulau Borneo, Sumatera, Sulawesi, Papua dan daratan Jawa. Saudaraku di Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Philipina, Brazilia, dan Negaa berkembang lainnya melakukan hal yang sama dan manjadi kekuatan baru Negara berkembang dalam solusi iklim global.

Namun demikian, inisiatif ini tidak menjadi pertimbangan penting bagi solusi iklim global.  Inisiatif rakyat seluruh penjuru dunia merupakan model pengelolaan alam untuk menyelamatkan keluarga dan penduduk bumi. Tetapi, kenyataannya di abaikan oleh kepentingan global yang saat ini sedang menggunakan istilah ”ekonomi hijau”, dalam perundingan Konferensi PBB mengenai Pembangunan Berkelanjutan (Rio+20) di Brasil, 20-22 Juni 2012.

Situasi ini membuat kami semakin yakin, bahwa sesungguhnya, solusi iklim melalui mekanisme pasar karbon dan gagasan ekonomi hijau, memberikan janji dan mimpi keuntungan bagi Negara-negara berkembang, justru sebaliknya hanya omong kosong, karena gagasan ini merupakan wajah baru ekonomi kapitalisme berwatak imprialisme ekologis. Sehingga, membulatkan  pandangan kami atas solusi iklim Negara maju melalui skema REDD, hanya menjadikan rumah kami sebagai toilet karbon.

Ketika negara maju tidak mau menghentikan produksi emisinya, maka, rakyat tidak berdosa harus menanggung beban semua ini. Misalnya Negara Australia tidak mampu mengatasi kesulitan dalam negerinya, melalui proyek KFCP (Kalimantan Forest Climate Partnership) REDD (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation Forest) seluas  +120.000 hektar, di Kalimantan Tengah, memberikan beban berat bagi 10.000 penduduk yang tersebar di 14 Desa/Dusun akan menjadi korban solusi iklim yang sesat.

Bila kita melihat kenyataan di lapangan, tentunya tidak sebanding dengan upaya solusi iklim proyek KFCP lakukan, banyak perusahaan pertambangan Australia yang beroperasi di Kalimantan Tengah mencapai 500.000 hektar.

Sebaiknya Perdana Menteri Australia, untuk segera menghentikan ujicoba proyek REDD KFCP di Kalimantan Tengah, karena proyek ini justru membawa banyak masalah, mulai dari pembodohan rakyat atas pemahaman isu iklim, konflik sosial, pelanggaran hak-hak social budaya dan ekonomi atas sumberdaya gambut.

Langkah yang harus di tempuh oleh Presiden Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono segera mencabut dan meghentikan perijinan perkebunan kelapa sawit, pertambangan, pabrik-pabrik pencemar, teknologi kotor dari Negara maju – bila solusi iklim yang di upayakan akan berjalan baik dan tidak mengusir rakyat dari tanahnya.

Kami menghimbau kepada saudaraku penduduk bumi di Negara berkembang, mari kita satukan langkah dan perjuangan untuk memberikan sumbangan solusi iklim berdasarkan tradisi dan kearifan yang kita miliki sejak turun temurun. Ketika inisiatif ini menjadi satu solusi terbaik, maka, Negara dan regime global tidak harus memberikan mimpi keuntungan berupa dollar, tetapi cukup dengan pengakuan dan perlindungan yang abadi bagi kesejahteraan umat manusia dan keselamatan bumi.

Kuala Kapuas, 19 Juni 2012

Petak Danum Kalimantan Tengah