location: Sulawesi

location: Sulawesi

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Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- The Moa Indigenous community live in a remote region of Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province, on the fringe of a national park established in the 1990s.
- The society’s customary rules and norms mandate matrilineal aspects, including that women in the community have responsibility for a type of subsistence farming known as pampa.
- Forestry economics professor Syukur Umar says a crucial boundary change made by the government has led to sudden shifts in the community’s forestry.

Activists slam ‘independent’ probe by Indonesian palm oil giant into violations
- A report commissioned by Indonesian palm oil giant Astra Agro Lestari into alleged violations allegedly by its subsidiaries on the island of Sulawesi failed to investigate key issues such as community rights, NGOs say.
- The investigation was triggered by multiple media and NGO reports on the long-running conflict between three AAL subsidiaries and local communities in Central Sulawesi province who allege the companies grabbed their land.
- The investigation failed to verify whether AAL’s subsidiaries had obtained the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of local and Indigenous communities before operating in the area, according to Walhi and Friends of the Earth US.
- Instead, the verification focused on proving whether the communities in the area had legal permits to their land that overlaps with AAL’s concessions, resulting in biased and inaccurate findings, the NGOs say.

Salty wells and lost land: Climate and erosion take their toll in Sulawesi
- Coastal erosion on the west coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island is so advanced that seawater has penetrated the groundwater supply that tens of thousands use for drinking water.
- The communities have yet to be served by utility water provision, so families are resorting to costly supplies of water from private distributors.
- Research shows that rising seas and more frequent and powerful storms will accelerate coastal abrasion, raising burdens shouldered by the world’s coastal communities.

Indonesian islanders draw line in sand as Dubai-style reclamation nears
- Residents of the island of Lae-Lae off the Makassar seafront in eastern Indonesia are stepping up their opposition to a major reclamation project conceived in 2009.
- The community has staged seven demonstrations this year to press their opposition to the ongoing development, which they warn will decimate their near-shore fisheries.
- The provincial government has previously said the island’s population will not be required to move, and that Lae-Lae will derive economic benefits from the development.

Kellogg’s latest to freeze Indonesian supplier over palm oil violations
- U.S. cereal giant Kellogg’s has become the latest major consumer goods brand to suspend business ties with Indonesian palm oil giant Astra Agro Lestari (AAL).
- It joins the likes of Hershey’s, PepsiCo and Nestlé, which all stopped buying palm oil from AAL following a 2022 report alleging land grabbing, environmental degradation, and the criminal persecution of environmental and human rights defenders.
- AAL has denied the allegations and launched an independent investigation, but has not yet taken steps to remedy the harm allegedly done.
- Activists say the investigation unfairly puts the onus on local communities to prove their allegations against AAL, and have called on other consumer goods companies and investors to stand up to AAL.

Activists slam coal pollution from Indonesia’s production of ‘clean’ batteries
- Indonesia’s electric vehicle ambitions have seen it ramp up refining of nickel, a key component in EV batteries, at industrial estates springing up across the country.
- However, these smelters are powered by purpose-built coal-fired plants, which environmental activists say are causing illness, killing crops and polluting fish farms.
- Among the coal plants that activists say are polluting local villages are those that power the nickel smelters owned by Chinese companies PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry (GNI), PT Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry (VDNI) and PT Obsidian Stainless Steel (OSS).
- While Indonesia has stated its commitment to transitioning away from coal in powering its grid, these industry-exclusive “captive” plants aren’t subject to any kind of phaseout, and are in fact encouraged by regulation.

Captive to coal: Indonesia to burn even more fossil fuel for green tech
- Indonesia is building several new coal-fired power plants for industrial users, despite its stated commitment to start phasing out coal and transition to clean energy, according to a new report.
- These so-called captive coal plants will have a combined capacity of 13 gigawatts, accounting for more than two-thirds of the 18.8 GW of new coal power in the pipeline.
- Most of the plants will feed the nickel, cobalt and aluminum smelters that the government is promoting in an effort to turn Indonesia into a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries.
- Critics say the building spree goes against both these green technology aspirations and Indonesia’s own climate commitments, but regulatory and funding loopholes mean the government can freely build more new captive coal plants.

Sulawesi sea nomads who inspired Avatar movie chart new course saving forests
- Umar Pasandre, a member of the seafaring Bajo people, has spent more than two decades protecting mangroves in Indonesia’s Gorontalo province.
- The Bajo people were first recorded by 16th-century explorers and inspired James Cameron’s sequel to “Avatar.”
- Umar leads local mangrove-replanting initiatives and has confronted those seeking to convert the forests for aquaculture production.

Indonesia’s No. 2 palm oil firm faces global backlash over community conflict
- A growing list of global household brands, from PepsiCo to L’Oréal to Hershey’s, have suspended their purchases from Astra Agro Lestari (AAL), Indonesia’s second- largest palm oil producer.
- The move comes in the wake of reports of land grabbing, environmental degradation and criminal persecution of human rights defenders by AAL and its subsidiaries operating in Central Sulawesi province.
- AAL has launched an independent investigation into the matter, but NGOs say the process is unnecessary as the evidence of violations is plain.
- They say the company should instead focus on returning the land it claims to the farmers and communities who were there first.

Indonesia to expand ‘smart fisheries’ program aimed at empowering communities
- Indonesia will expand its smart fisheries village program, aiming to empower fishing communities to boost their productivity, achieve sustainability standards, and improve their overall economic welfare.
- Twenty-two fishing communities are enrolled in the initial batch of the program, which will focus primarily on fisheries, but also look to improve community welfare through tourism, public health interventions, financial literacy, and other initiatives.
- The participating communities are involved in catching or farming a wide range of seafood and other products, from octopus and tilapia to shrimp and organic salt.
- The fisheries sector employs about 12 million Indonesians, with most of the fleet today, about 650,000 vessels, operated by small-scale and traditional fishers.

Red floods near giant Indonesia nickel mine blight farms and fishing grounds
- Farming communities in the shadow of Sulawesi’s giant Pomalaa nickel mining area say their fields have been flooded with red water, possibly laterite waste from the mining operations.
- Local farmers blame flooding from the mine for longer harvest cycles and reduced productivity.
- Indonesia’s biggest environmental NGO says the government should review mining permits to safeguard rice fields.

In Indonesia, companies defy government’s decision to revoke their permits
- Logging, plantation and mining companies have continued to operate and have been mired in conflicts with communities since their permits were targeted for revocation by the Indonesian government, a new report says.
- In Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua alone, four palm oil companies cleared 943.3 hectares (2,331 acres) of forests in the first four months of 2023 — an area three times the size of New York’s Central Park.
- Civil groups have been calling on the government to redistribute the revoked concessions to local and Indigenous communities, but they say their calls haven’t been heard.

Community conservation benefits Sulawesi flying foxes, but more is needed, experts say
- Flying foxes play a vital role in maintaining forest health. As pollinators and seed dispersers they are also invaluable to the economic and social well-being of communities.
- In Indonesia’s Sulawesi, conservation groups are working to protect flying foxes, which face threats including hunting for food and habitat loss.
- Community-led approaches are showing success, but conservationists say greater protection and an expansion of projects is needed to protect more bat roosts.

Study: Women, youths can be more effective at driving sustainable farming changes
- A study in a farming community on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island shows that women and younger farmers can be more influential than older men in persuading peers to adopt new technologies and practices.
- The findings could have significant implications for conservation organizations trying to implement sustainable agriculture programs within communities.
- The study looked at two groups — one made up of older men perceived as “opinion leaders,” and the other of mostly women and younger men — and how effective they were at convincing fellow farmers to try out a new pair of cacao pruning scissors.
- Experts say the findings don’t mean older men no longer carry any weight when it comes to influencing community members, and that they should still be consulted and engaged with when introducing development initiatives.

FOIA lawsuit suggests Indonesian nickel miners lack environmental licenses
- A freedom-of-information ruling in Indonesia has indicated that two nickel miners suspected of polluting a river on the island of Sulawesi may not have all the required permits.
- The ruling, in a case filed by environmental journalists, ordered authorities in East Luwu district to publish the licensing documents for the two companies, but the authorities said some of the papers were still being processed.
- A lawyer for the environmental journalists points out that the companies should have already secured the licenses prior to operating, and that this revelation strongly points to them not having the licenses.
- The Indonesian government is pushing a massive expansion of the nickel mining and processing industries to feed the demand for electric vehicle batteries, but nickel mining in the country has long been associated with pollution and community conflicts.

From bombs to seasonal closure, Indonesian fishers move toward sustainability
- Kahu-Kahu village on Sulawesi’s Selayar Island is implementing its first season- and location-based fishery closure.
- The three-month closure of a 6-hectare (15-acre) stretch of coastal water is intended to replenish local octopus populations by reducing fishing pressure.
- Local fishers will install and plant artificial reefs in the area during the closure.

Sulawesi hydropower dam could flood important archaeological sites
- A Jakarta-based hydropower company aims to dam the Karama River in western Sulawesi as part of a clean energy project to help wean the country off of coal.
- An inundation map shows that the dam could raise the river’s water level to 62 meters (203 feet) above sea level, potentially damaging important archaeological sites in the Karama valley.
- In 2020, archaeologists announced they had found Indonesia’s oldest-known rice strain in the Karama valley, an important region in the Austronesian expansion, thought to be one of the most expansive prehistoric human migrations.

Fishers in Flores Sea opt to limit harvest of overexploited sea cucumbers
- Fishers on Indonesia’s Sapuka island have decided to regulate their sea cucumber harvests.
- Since the 1960s, sea cucumber has been an important commodity for the island, but heavy harvest pressure has pushed the fishery to overexploited status.
- Sea cucumbers play a crucial role in the marine ecosystem by providing food to other species and adding nutrients and pH balance in waters around coral reefs and other shallow-water ecosystems.

Sulawesi nickel plant coats nearby homes in toxic dust
- The Bantaeng Industrial Estate is a 3,000-hectare ore processing zone in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province.
- President Joko Widodo has banned exports of raw mineral ores to compel companies to construct smelters to produce value-added nickel.
- But South Sulawesi communities living alongside the smelters report health impacts from pollution generated on site. Relocation plans have yet to be enacted.

Here come the sunbirds: New species from Indonesia’s Wakatobi Islands
- A group of researchers have identified several new species of sunbirds whose range spans from Africa to Australia and the tropical Wakatobi Islands in central Indonesia.
- They also found evidence that could divide the more widespread species of the olive-backed and black sunbirds, Cinnyris jugularis and Leptocoma aspasia.
- The researchers said their findings reiterated recommendations to protect the Wakatobi Islands as an endemic bird area, especially as so much remains unknown to the scientific community.
- The tiny archipelago is also part of the Wallacea region that many scientists consider “a living laboratory” for the study of evolution with endemic species being newly identified to science in recent years.

Indonesian program pays fishers to collect plastic trash at sea
- The Indonesian fisheries ministry has launched a four-week program to pay fishers to collect plastic trash from the sea.
- The initiative is part of wider efforts to reduce Indonesia’s marine plastic pollution by 70% by 2025.
- The country is a top contributor to the plastic trash crisis in the ocean.
- Each of the 1,721 participating fishers will receive the equivalent of $10 a week for collecting up to 4 kg (9 lbs) of plastic waste from the sea daily.

Sulawesi islanders grieve land lost to nickel mine
- The Harita Group holds a nickel mining concession covering about 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) on Wawonii Island.
- The arrival of the mine has divided the community between those who support the development and farmers hoping to retain their fruit and nut trees.
- One man described his grief as the grave of his son was exhumed and moved as a result of the mine.

Faced with grouper, snapper decline, Indonesia adopts harvest strategy
- Indonesia is adopting a harvest strategy for grouper and snapper in the east of the country, where catch volume and average fish landed are down.
- The areas targeted are a major global supplier of the fish, given that Indonesia is responsible for 45% of global snapper and grouper sales.
- The new regulations on gear and total boats targets restoration of fish stocks for seven species.

Indonesia to update conservation efforts for aquarium favorite cardinalfish
- Indonesia’s fisheries ministry says it is working on a new conservation road map for Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni), a popular species in the aquarium trade globally that is found only in the waters around the country’s Banggai Archipelago.
- The fish is caught in large numbers — an estimated 500,000 to 900,000 individuals annually — and is exported mainly to the United States and Europe.
- The updated conservation plan will evaluate the previous five-year plan for the cardinalfish, and use this to inform the national strategy for the next five years, the ministry said.
- The cardinalfish’s habitat, the Banggai Archipelago, is considered to be in the heart of the Pacific Coral Triangle, which is home to the highest diversity of corals and reef fishes anywhere on the planet.

Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- Ermi Mauke, 73, has spent the past 40 years planting a mix of trees on the fringe of Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park in eastern Indonesia’s Gorontalo province.
- Small farmers here have produced palm sugar for centuries using traditional techniques, but their labor-intensive methods face challenges.
- Ermi’s self-taught agroforestry system yields varied food commodities that help meet her family’s daily needs while safeguarding the landscape.

Scientists develop AI that can listen to the pulse of a reef being restored
- Scientists have developed a machine-learning algorithm that can distinguish healthy coral reefs from less healthy ones by the soundscape in the ecosystem.
- Previous studies had established that the sounds of life in a successfully recovered reef are similar to those from a healthy reef, but parsing all the acoustic data was slow and labor-intensive.
- The new algorithm has been hailed as “an important milestone” for efficiently processing acoustic data to answer the basic question of how to determine the progress of a reef restoration program.
- Researchers say follow-up work is still needed, including to check whether the algorithm, tested in the Pacific Coral Triangle, also works in reefs in other parts of the world.

Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- Aziil Anwar, a civil servant turned award-winning mangrove restorer, has died from diabetes-related complications.
- Aziil gained prominence in the 1990s by pioneering a way to boost the success of mangrove planting in coral damaged by blast fishing on the island of Baluno in Indonesia’s West Sulawesi province.
- With the help of local children, he managed to plant some 100 hectares (nearly 250 acres), fully covering the island and extending the mangrove forest out toward the mainland.

Amid rising pressure, Indonesia’s sea-based communities adapt to change
- A growing population, destruction of coral reefs, and the loss of traditional fishing methods all threaten the way of life of traditional communities in Indonesia whose livelihoods have for generations depended on the sea.
- Among them are the seafaring Bajo people, nomads of the waters between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, who say their resources “are declining day by day.”
- In the Sangihe Islands in the archipelago’s northeast, modern nets and outboard motors have replaced the bamboo gear and sampan boats used by local fishing communities.

To win island-wide conservation, Indonesia’s Talaud bear cuscus needs to win hearts
- The Talaud bear cuscus is a secretive species believed to inhabit only four islands in Indonesia.
- Listed as critically endangered, the animal has been driven to the brink of extinction by overhunting and habitat loss.
- Conservationists are working with local youths, traditional and religious leaders, and community members on Salibabu Island to change the perception of the species.

Indonesia’s Sangihe islanders score legal victory over mining company
- Residents of Sangihe Island in Indonesia have won a lawsuit against a Canadian-backed company planning to mine gold on their island.
- In its ruling, the court in the city of Manado declared the environmental permit issued to miner PT Tambang Mas Sangihe (TMS) and ordered the local government to revoke it.
- The judges found that the permit was issued without following the proper procedures, and that the environmental impact analysis was inadequate.
- The victory comes a month after another court, in Jakarta, rejected a separate lawsuit by the villagers seeking to have TMS’s mining contract revoked; the court said the case was outside its jurisdiction.

Court setback doesn’t sway Indonesian villagers fighting a mining firm
- Residents of remote Sangihe Island in Indonesia will mount an appeal after their lawsuit against a company planning to mine gold on their island was thrown out by a court on a technicality.
- Their case centered on concerns that the operations of PT Tambang Mas Sangihe (TMS), linked to Canada-based Baru Gold Corp., would cause widespread destruction on their island home.
- They alleged in their lawsuit that there were several administrative violations that should have nullified the contract issued to TMS by the government, but the court said the matter was out of its jurisdiction.
- The same court issued a similar dismissal in a previous case involving a coal-mining company, but an appeal by the plaintiffs in that instance led to the company’s permit being revoked; given that precedent, the Sangihe islanders say they still have a fighting chance.

Iwan Dento, ‘hero’ of South Sulawesi’s karst mountains
- For more than a decade, environmental activist Iwan Dento has opposed the mining of the limestone karst formations in his homeland of Maros, Indonesia.
- Until 2013, the karst mountain area of Rammang-rammang was mined for marble and limestone, but local resistance led to protective regulations and the establishment of an ecotourism area.
- For his dedication to defending the karst and establishing ecotourism, Iwan Dento has been nominated for several top honors for environmental preservation by both the government and the private sector, and is seen as the “hero” of Rammang-rammang.

Field school teaches young Indigenous Indonesians how to care for their forests
- The Marena Indigenous group on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are among a handful of communities who have obtained title to their ancestral forest following a landmark 2013 ruling by the nation’s Constitutional Court.
- For years the forest was managed by outside companies, but now Indigenous advocacy groups are training the community’s youths about the traditional ways of sustainably exploiting the forest and its resources.
- Organizers say the main goal of this field school program is to train the community’s young generation to be able to understand the forest and its potential.
- The community has used its power to terminate a contract with a sap production company that was originally brought in by the central government, striking a new deal with the company on more favorable terms.

In Indonesia, a ‘devious’ policy silences opposition to mining, activists say
- Activists in Indonesia have highlighted what they say is an increase in arrests of people protesting against mining activity since the passage of a controversial mining law in 2020.
- They’ve singled out the law’s Article 162 as “a devious policy” that’s meant to quash all opposition to mining activity, even at the expense of communities and the environment.
- Of the 53 people subjected to criminal charges for opposing mining companies in 2021, at least 10 were charged with violating Article 162, according to one group.
- Groups have filed a legal challenge against the law, seeking to strike down Article 162 and eight other contentious provisions on constitutional grounds.

With ‘sustainable’ cocoa, Mars pushes climate, market risks onto farmers
- Corporate strategies that force cocoa farmers to stay in place to increase productivity amid the impacts of climate change are putting smallholders at greater risk to economic and environmental impacts, a new study says.
- The study analyzed efforts supported or carried out by Mars Inc., one of the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers and cocoa buyers, in Indonesia, which produces a tenth of the world’s cocoa.
- “Many agricultural intensification initiatives assume that by boosting productivity, smallholder incomes will increase, and therefore vulnerability to climate shocks will decrease. Yet, the reality is much more complicated,” says study author Sean Kennedy.
- “When some entity is saying, ‘Here’s a climate-adaptation program intended to keep people in place,’ often staying in place is not the best way to adapt to climate change,” he adds.

Indonesia’s Womangrove collective reclaims the coast from shrimp farms
- A women’s collective in Indonesia’s Tanakeke Islands has restored dozens of hectares of mangroves since its founding six years ago.
- The Womangrove collective focuses on replanting abandoned shrimp and fish farms that were originally established in cleared mangrove areas, and have to date planted more than 110,000 seedlings.
- Indonesia has more mangrove area than any other country in the world, but has lost half of it in the past 30 years, mostly to shrimp and fish farms.

In Indonesia’s Sulawesi, a community works to defuse blast-fishing crisis
- Decades of blast fishing have destroyed much of the coral reefs off Indonesia’s Lora village, reducing fish catches.
- Increased law enforcement and advocacy by NGOs has helped roll back these destructive practices, but other threats loom, including increasingly unpredictable weather and competition from large trawlers.
- A community organization is seeking to have the region zoned as a conservation area.

New shrews just dropped: Sulawesi yields up 14 freshly described species
- A new study has described 14 new species of shrew endemic to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
- The shrews, all from the genus Crocidura, were identified from 1,368 specimens collected from 2010-2018 on 12 mountains and in two lowland areas across Sulawesi.
- This gives the island a much richer diversity of Crocidura shrew life than others in the Indonesian archipelago, which the researchers attribute to the varied landscape.
- They add it’s likely that even more species have yet to be described, and say there needs to be more research into Sulawesi’s biodiversity.

For Indonesian farmers used to ‘instant’ results, going organic is a tough sell
- Encouraging greater take-up of composting and other natural farming techniques in South Sulawesi province is challenging due to a long-standing reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
- But farmers are increasingly looking to new methods owing to the scarcity and rising cost of agrochemical products.
- The South Sulawesi parliament is drafting new rules to nurture composting in the province’s agricultural production.
- Fieldworkers say farmers need government support as they adopt alternative methods.

Study shows how sustainable livelihood programs for Indonesian fishers can succeed
- Projects offering alternative livelihoods to fishers in Indonesia tend to succeed when they work closely with local NGOs and link participants to markets where they can sell what they produce.
- That’s the finding of a new study that looks at what makes successful sustainable livelihoods interventions tick, including partnership with local people to develop their skills and leverage traditional resource-management knowledge.
- Projects that failed tended not to understand the social context in which they were situated, including gender dynamics, resource and land-tenure systems, and the desires of local fishers.
- The study authors say the findings highlight best practices for alternative-livelihoods projects and are important given that communities with negative past experiences of such projects are less likely to engage with them again in the future.

Climate change threatens to squeeze out Indonesia’s medicinal plants
- More than half of medicinal plant species in Indonesia won’t be able to grow in most of their current range by 2050 due to climate change, a new study says.
- Researchers say medicinal plant species on the islands of New Guinea, Java and Sulawesi will see the largest reduction in distribution area, in part due to sea level rise in these regions.
- The economic value of medicinal plants in Indonesia, coupled with other threats and a lack of resources for their conservation, makes it urgent that active conservation programs be put in place, the researchers say.
- Medicinal plants are valuable species not only for personal health but also for their economic value as they are traded by local and Indigenous communities.

Indonesian farmers refuse to budge for train line through karst landscape
- Farmers in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province have rejected government offers to buy their land for a railway project, saying they depend on it for their livelihood.
- The residents of Salenrang village say protecting their lands and farms will be more beneficial than selling them for the railway line, which the government is touting as a boost for the economy.
- The farmers also say the government is shortchanging them with its offers, arguing that the market rate for the land is more than five times higher.
- The land conflict in Salenrang village is one of hundreds that have popped up across Sulawesi as the government splurges on infrastructure projects.

In Indonesia, an unassuming brown bird is proof of turbo-charged evolution
- Scientists are proposing to add two new subspecies to four existing ones within the Sulawesi babbler (Pellorneum celebense) species.
- The team identified the new subspecies based on differences in DNA, body measurements and song recordings from dozens of babblers.
- Taxonomic implications aside, the study also sheds light on the phenomenon of rapid evolution, as the babblers’ genetic divergence occurred over just tens of thousands of years, rather than millions.
- But the nickel-rich soils believed to have given rise to the birds’ divergence could be hastening its demise, with mining companies eyeing their habitats for resource extraction.

Maleos bounce back in Sulawesi after villagers resolve to protect their eggs
- The maleo (Macrocephalon maleo), an endangered bird endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia, lays a single gigantic egg in a hole that is then incubated solely by the geothermal heat in the sand or soil.
- Maleo eggs are prized as a high-status delicacy and are frequently dug up to be eaten or sold illegally online, consequently pushing maleo populations into rapid decline.
- Two community-led projects that protect maleo nesting grounds from poaching and ensure maleos can nest naturally have reported the first sustained increases in maleo numbers due to conservation efforts.
- The projects have quadrupled and tripled local maleo numbers over a 14-year and five-year period, respectively, and experts are calling for other maleo conservation projects across Sulawesi to adopt this community-led, low-intervention method.

Indonesia’s Gorontalo road runs into forest, swerves environmental checks
- Designated a national strategic project, the Gorontalo Outer Ring Road will connect the main air and seaports in Sulawesi Island’s Gorontalo province.
- Divided into three segments, the 45-kilometer (28-mile) road cuts through steep karst features, agricultural fields, informal settlements, and areas of protected forest.
- The project has already been plagued by graft linked to land acquisition, and construction remains unfinished.
- Now officials say that the project has not complied with legally mandated environmental checks.

A road project in Indonesia’s Gorontalo carves a path of graft and grief
- More than 1,000 families were entitled to payments for land needed to construct the Gorontalo Outer Ring Road, a national priority infrastructure project on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island.
- The road will connect Djalaluddin Airport in the capital of Gorontalo province with the province’s main ferry port.
- Spending on the project reached almost 1 trillion rupiah ($69 million) between 2014 and 2017.
- A senior provincial official and two surveyors have been jailed in connections with corruption in the land acquisition process, while another top official is also standing trial.

Illegal loggers use pandemic as cover to ramp up activity in Sulawesi
- Illegal logging on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island has intensified by more than two-thirds during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a local NGO.
- It attributes this increase to monitoring by law enforcers having to be scaled back as part of wider mobility restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic.
- At the same time, the legal logging industry has taken a hit due to sluggish demand and being undercut by the illegal trade.
- Police have charged a senior local politician with involvement in illegal logging.

Getting hands-on with pollination can boost cocoa yields, study shows
- Less than 10% of flowers in a cocoa tree are pollinated in natural conditions. Efforts to bolster the yields traditionally involved breeding programs or the use of fertilizers and other chemicals.
- A new study on Indonesian cocoa farms took a different approach: pollinating by hand. Researchers compared cocoa yields using their hands-on process versus traditional farming practices.
- Hand pollination increased cocoa fruit yields by 51% to 161%. Even considering the cost of hand-pollination efforts, small-scale farmers had markedly higher incomes from the hands-on approach.

Indonesian governor’s arrest in road project points to more tainted contracts
- Indonesian anti-graft investigators last week arrested Nurdin Abdullah, the governor of South Sulawesi province, for alleged corruption in an upcoming road project in the province.
- They have charged him with taking at least 2 billion rupiah ($140,000) in bribes to grant the contract to a local developer, and another 3.4 billion rupiah ($238,000) from other companies awarded other contracts.
- Environmental activists are calling on the agency to expand the investigation to include other infrastructure projects approved by Nurdin.
- Corruption in infrastructure projects is common in Indonesia, with local leaders like governors and district chiefs channeling the money back to their parties or using it to fund their re-election campaigns.

Southeast Asian wild pigs confront deadly African swine fever epidemic
- A recent study in the journal Conservation Letters warns that African swine fever, responsible for millions of pig deaths in mainland Asia since 2018, now endangers 11 wild pig species living in Southeast Asia.
- These pig species generally have low populations naturally, and their numbers have dwindled further due to hunting and loss of habitat.
- The authors of the study contend that losing these species could hurt local economies and food security.
- Southeast Asia’s wild pigs are also important ecosystem engineers that till the soil and encourage plant life, and they are prey for critically endangered predators such as the Sumatran tiger and the Javan leopard.

Rescue of rare white tarsier raises fears of habitat loss, illegal pet trade
- Conservation authorities in Indonesia have rescued a baby tarsier from a fruit garden in the island of Sulawesi.
- The Gursky’s spectral tarsier has been diagnosed with leucism, a condition similar to albinism, which gives it bright white fur.
- The discovery has prompted mounting calls from conservationists for the protection of the rescued tarsier against wildlife traffickers and its habitat against degradation.

Whale shark stranding points to silting of Indonesia’s Kendari Bay
- Volunteers and officials successfully pushed a whale shark back out to sea after it got stranded in shallow water in Indonesia’s Kendari Bay.
- The incident, which one rescuer said was a first, has highlighted the consequences of the rapid silting of the bay amid a spate of development projects in the area.
- The clearing of land allows dirt to run into waterways, with the accumulated sediment halving the depth of Kendari Bay and making flood prevention more difficult.
- Amid the silting, fishing catches have declined and there are indications of heavy-metal contamination of the water.

Agribusiness giants ADM, Bunge trading in ‘conflict’ palm oil, report says
- A report by Global Witness has found that more than 100 Indonesian palm oil mills supplying agribusiness giants ADM and Bunge have been accused of land and human rights violations and environmental destruction.
- Global Witness found that neither company is addressing the majority of these allegations through their formal grievance processes, and effectively passing on this “conflict” palm oil to major consumer brands such as Nestlé, Unilever and PepsiCo.
- ADM and Bunge have denied any failure to police their suppliers, but have also pledged to look into the allegations.

‘Turning fear into strength’: One woman’s struggle for justice and land rights in Sulawesi
- Across Indonesia, hundreds of communities are in conflict with companies seeking control of their resources. In some cases, the resistance has been led by women.
- Journalist Febriana Firdaus travelled across the country to meet grassroots female activists and delve into the stories behind their struggles.
- This article is part three of a series about her journey, which has also been made into a film, Our Mothers’ Land.
- Photos by Leo Plunkett, illustrations by Nadiyah Rizki.

Deforestation threatens to wipe out a primate melting pot in Indonesia
- Unique primate habitats on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are under threat from rising deforestation, according to a new study.
- The island’s isolation has allowed macaques and tarsiers there to evolve in unique ways, leading to an “explosion” of biodiversity found nowhere else across Southeast Asia.
- But logging, expansion of farmland, and infrastructure projects are driving a growing rate of forest loss, including in the “hybridization zones” that are a key factor in the island’s rich variety of primate life.
- While protected areas exist on Sulawesi, they’re concentrated located at higher elevations, while most of the primates occur in lowland forests that can be more easily cleared and farmed.

In Indonesia’s coastal villages, the plastic crisis is both homegrown and invasive
- Proper management of plastic waste is lacking in Indonesia’s coastal communities, where the use of plastics is outpacing mitigation efforts, according to a newly published study.
- The paper found that nearly 6,700 households in the Selayar and Wakatobi island chains had relatively low knowledge about plastic and how to manage it properly, while their use of it, particularly, single-use plastic packaging, was growing.
- The researchers have called for producers to take greater responsibility for managing the waste generated by their products, and for a transition to a circular economy.
- Indonesia is the second-biggest contributor of the plastic waste in the world’s oceans, behind only China.

Indonesian fishers opposed to dredging project hit by ‘criminalization’ bid
- Police have arrested four fishermen and charged them with defacing the Indonesian currency, following their protests against dredging for a new port in Makassar, eastern Indonesia.
- Environmental activists and supporters of the fishing community say the charge, for which the fishermen could face up to five years in prison, is a spurious one meant to silence opposition to the $6.2 billion project.
- The fishing community says the dredging activity has disrupted their traditional fishing areas, leading to catches dropping by up to two-thirds since dredging began in February this year.
- The four fishermen arrested on Aug. 14 were charged after one of them, out of protest, tore a money-filled envelope given to them by the dredging company.

Indonesian fishers face livelihood threat from ‘beautiful’ tourism project
- The coastal district of Majene on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is being developed to attract tourists.
- Local fishers, however, have opposed the Waterfront City development project, saying it will damage the ecosystem that they depend on as their main source of livelihood.
- Environmentalists also allege maladministration by the district government in allowing the project based on an environmental impact analysis that doesn’t square with the real impact on the ground.
- The Majene government says it will continue with the project, calling the opposition one-sided.

Indonesian miners eyeing EV nickel boom seek to dump waste into the sea
- Nickel-mining companies in Indonesia have pitched the government to allow them to dump their waste, or tailings, into the sea.
- The country is the world’s biggest producer of nickel, one of the key elements in the rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
- Indonesia already has a copper and gold mine that practices deep-sea tailings disposal, or DSTD, with devastating impacts on the local ecosystem, activists say.
- Indonesia and neighboring Papua New Guinea are home to four of the 16 mines around the world that practice DSTD, but account for 91% of the estimated 227 million tons of tailings dumped into the ocean.

Indonesian anti-graft enforcers set their sights on a new target: corporations
- Indonesia’s anti-graft agency, the KPK, is widely recognized for its prowess at catching corrupt government officials.
- The agency has been less successful, however, at prosecuting companies on the other side of that corruption.
- Recently, the KPK has begun to rethink its approach, with potential implications for natural resource firms that pay bribes in exchange for permits.

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