Communication with the deforestACTION team continues, and it isn’t leaving me a with a lot of hope for the rights of indigenous communities in West Kalimantan. With all the cash going into 3D movie cameras and international plane tickets, you might think these people who are billing themselves as “conservationists” might reserve some cash and time for the people most affected by their project.
Since my last blog post, I have spoken with Cathy Henkel, the director of the deforestACTION 3D film, and I have emailed with Willie Smits, the celebrity scientist behind deforestACTION. Although they say that they are committed to indigenous rights, their actions tell another story. Communities are not being allowed their right to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in the management of their lands and livelihoods. This is in violation of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, which was ratified in 2007. (Check out the declaration here, specifically article 18, article 23, article 26, article 27, article 32).
For more background on the details of deforestACTION, check out the blog post I wrote last week.
Here are the parts that concern me most:
How were communities consulted?
After asking this question repeatedly, it has become clear that there have been *no* formal consultations of communities in and around the village of Mengerat, where the deforestACTION project planned. According to Willie Smits, a meeting was held in Sintang (a nearby city), where some leaders came to learn about the project. The film team visited the site once, to prepare for filming. Instead of talking with the affected community, there have been conversations with the local government. According to Cathy and Willie, the community has never even been gathered, all together, to hear about deforestACTION’s plans.
This is shocking. Willie Smits is talking about coming in and changing local agricultural land into a sugar palm plantation. This may be a great things for folks; I don’t claim to be an expert on sugar palm. But communities do have the right (check out the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) to be fully informed about the choice (like, for instance, the fact that there is *no existing market* for sugar palm). The deforestACTION team is choosing to deal with powerful elites rather than stand up for the rights of the indigenous people.
What is the time frame for consultation?
Even if they wanted to, the deforestACTION team has left no time for community consultations! They are planning on starting filming in the villages in September and have no plans to hold community consultations before that. They say they cannot consult with the community before they know what benefits they can offer, and they don’t have funds, so they can’t know what they can offer. Sounds like deforestACTION needs to put their project on hold until they find themselves some funding and take the time to really talk to communities (maybe sell some of those fancy 3D cameras?).
What are communities being offered?
Until they get more funding, the communities are being offered sugar palm saplings, advice on growing sugar palms, and access to the cash economy. Sounds a whole lot like what palm oil companies offer their smallholders. There are – apparently– grand plans for an “eco-village” some time in the future, but there are no funds for it right now. And, lets not forget, no market of any reasonable size for sugar palm currently exists. Communities are being sold a new type of plantation, and a new promise of a cash crop that will, once more, force them to give up their traditional farming and become dependent on the international market.
How much control are communities really going to have? Will they have land rights?
Legally, communities will not have rights to their land, and deforestACTION is not supporting them in getting rights to their land. Even worse than that, communities will not be allowed to plant rice in their traditional fields (that will be “illegal”), which has the potential to threaten their food security.
What will happen if communities don’t want sugar palm and deforestACTION?
The only answer to this is, so far, that communities would never say no to sugar palm plantations. And of course they won’t; they aren’t being fully informed about them and they aren’t being given an opportunity to say no.
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The Borneo Project has reached out to deforestACTION in good faith and has offered to work together to develop a plan for community consultation that would ensure that communities could give their free, prior, and informed consent. If this project is as amazing as deforestACTION claims it is, then that should not be a problem. Our offer has been rejected outright.
I don’t doubt that the deforestACTION team really wants to leave the world a better place. As part of that, they need to understand that the people who are affected need to lead that process of improvement, and they don’t have the right to come in from abroad and tell indigenous people how to live their lives, even if their ideas are revolutionary.
(We have invited the DeforestACTION team to respond to this post; I’ll let you know and when if they do).