Jakarta – Several Indonesian farmers' associations and activists on Tuesday submitted to the Constitutional Court a motion for a judicial review of the country's 2014 Plantations on Law, claiming it violates the rights of smallholders and indigenous people over those of plantation companies.
The group is challenging 11 articles in the law, which it claims has failed to improve the welfare of smallholders and independent farmers, despite being amended, ostensibly for that very end, by the previous House of Representatives last year, a day before its term ended.
"The revised law doesn't truly bring a mission for improvement compared to the old one," said Gunawan, a lawyer from the Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice (IHCS), representing the plaintiffs.
He cited Article 57 of the law, which regulates the partnership between landowners and plantation companies, and which the plaintiffs argue overlooks farmers' participation in forming schemes within the partnership between the two stakeholders. "The farmers' hands are tied from the start," Gunawan said at a discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The group also argues that Article 42 allows plantation companies to either hold an operation permit (IUP) and/or a right of cultivation permit (HGU) to start working the land, including clearing farmland and growing crops.
Indonesian law states that companies can get an IUP from district authorities and an HGU from the Agriculture Ministry in Jakarta.
"But in reality, most companies only have an IUP. This makes it hard for the government to punish them when they are found to conduct unsustainable practices, such as burning land," said Mario Saputra, an expert from the environmental group Sawit Watch.
The group says its research shows that only 25 percent of the estimated 200 palm oil companies in Central Kalimantan have an HGU, and that those without the permit are typically involved in slash-and-burn forest-clearing practices.
The Indonesian government is also losing revenue from companies that only operate without an HGU, which would oblige them to pay taxes to the government, Mario said.
Gunawan said that the plaintiffs, including the Indonesian Farmers Union (SPI) and the Farmers Initiatives for Ecological Livelihood and Democracy (Field), expected to be granted a preliminary hearing by the Constitutional Court before the end of the year.
Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/farmers-coalition-seeks-challenge-unfair-plantations-law/