Palm oil expansion reignites decade-old Indigenous land conflict in Indonesia
JAKARTA — Two palm oil companies embroiled in a long-running land dispute with an Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo have resumed the clearing of rainforest and other land to expand their plantations for the first time in more than a decade. In June 2025, the Indigenous Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae reported that the […]
Jakarta — A long-standing Indigenous land dispute in Indonesian Borneo has resurfaced, with palm oil companies PT Borneo Surya Mining Jaya and PT Munte Waniq Jaya Perkasa resuming deforestation and evictions in June 2025. The companies, owned by First Resources and TSH Resources respectively, are expanding their plantations within the ancestral territory of the Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae, a village in West Kutai district, East Kalimantan province.
The conflict stems from the 2011-2012 bulldozing of rainforest by the companies, which Muara Tae claims was facilitated by fraudulent land transfers orchestrated by Muara Ponaq villagers. The district government allegedly aided these transactions by altering the Tae-Ponaq border, expanding Muara Tae's territory at the expense of Muara Ponaq's.
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