Indonesia: NO to the wholesale deforestation of the Mentawai islands!
Indonesia has granted a permit to a company for large-scale logging on Sipora in the Mentawai islands. Over the next 30 years, it will be allowed to clear 20,706 hectares of forests and Indigenous lands. This will make locals more vulnerable to floods, water shortages and impacts of climate change. Help us get the permit canceled!
White sand beaches, turquoise water, coconut trees, lush forests. Sipora island looks like paradise, but for the Mentawai Indigenous people it is simply home. They have been the stewards of the island for centuries.
In July 2023, the Mentawai people learned that a large-scale logging permit had been granted to a company to clear 20,706 hectares of forest. It is their land, their forests, their gardens and their sources of food and water that could disappear without their consent –
How could land the #IndonesianGovernment classifies as “state forests” be chosen for a logging permit? Indonesia has ambitious climate commitments pertaining to #deforestation, so why permit the clearing of a small island that is vulnerable to erosion, climate change impacts and floods?
Indigenous communities, NGOs and local authorities have spoken out against this man-made disaster-in-the-making.
Rifai Lubis, director of local NGO YCMM/Mentawai ORCID said “The forests and natural resources of the Mentawai islands are a continuous target for #exploitation and deforestation by the government of Indonesia, despite such permits violating the government’s #ClimateCommitments, as well as its own laws on protecting small islands from natural resource exploitation. Deforestation on a third of the surface of such a small island would be a disaster in terms of climate mitigation,
A ray of hope: The logging company PT.SPS needs to submit an environmental impact assessment (#EIA) by September 4 to get the final green light. If the EIA is rejected, the logging project will be cancelled or put on hold. The decision is now in the hands of the Ministry of Forestry.
Please speak out for the Indigenous people of Sipora in their struggle to save their livelihoods and survival on their small island by signing our petition.
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