KL Kepong, withdraw from Collingwood Bay

FMT LETTER: From Upreshal Singh, via e-mail

Despite staunch protests, Malaysian palm oil giant Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) has illegally forced its way forward to try develop almost 40,000 hectares of customary land in the Collingwood Bay region of Papua New Guinea. The indigenous communities of Collingwood Bay have made themselves clear, they do not want their lands to be cleared for palm oil or anything else, but instead want KLK out of their lands with immediate effect.

The locals of Collingwood Bay are wholly dependent on the lowland forests, mangroves, hunting grounds and coral reefs for subsistence and survival. If KLKs plans go ahead, the Malaysian plantation group will cause severe environmental degradation and long lasting conflict with local communities. Unlike in Malaysia, indigenous peoples are the actual owners of most land and marine territories in the country.

Despite court orders prohibiting KLK from entering the villagers land, the company in November proceeded to land two barges with nursery material and land clearing machinery. In yet another illegal move, the company attempted to offload yet another barge on Dec 12 in Collingwood Bay, the day after the PNG court issued yet another injunction to stop the company from trespassing.

According to local contacts, KLK and its business partners have been forcing villagers to sign consent forms for the company to develop palm oil plantations.

The businesses leases that KLK claims to have legally obtained were cancelled by the courts in 2010, only to be illegally reissued on June 2012. At that time, the PNG government had in place a Moratorium on the issuance of such permits, pending an investigation into widespread irregularities, fraud and corruption associated with such permits.

During a Parliamentary session last September, PNGs Prime Minister Peter ONeil said: We will no longer watch on as foreign owned companies come in and con our landowners, chop down our forests and then take the proceeds offshore.

In Indonesia, child labour issues in KLKs estates attracted global media attention in 2010. This controversy may still not be resolved as of 2013. While PT Adei Plantation in Riau, a subsidiary of KLK is still under police investigation over illegal burning this year, though KLK has denied such allegations based on RSPOs investigations.

Elsewhere in Liberia KLK also faces scrutiny over violence, harassment and intimidation towards local communities through its majority shareholder, Equatorial Palm Oil. This does no favour to the reputation of the Malaysian palm oil industry, as KLK is Malaysian.

KLK recently had the opportunity to prove that it is sincerely committed to No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation, by signing a manifesto that Wilmar International launched on Dec 5 with the support of Unilever. Instead, KLK is soliciting to become the next target of affected local communities and environmental campaigners worldwide, who have demonstrated their capacity to systemically take apart the markets and capital sources of Big Oil Palm.

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KL Kepong, withdraw from Collingwood Bay