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January 22, 2021

LUMBERTON A local faith-based group of ministers has begun to include law enforcement in its mission to promote peace, and offer healing and justice for all people.

Members of the Ministers for Justice group met Tuesday with Lumberton police Chief Mike McNeill to offer resources to officers and to victims of crimes, said Brianna Goodwin, executive director of the Robeson County Church and Community Center, whose vision helped lead to the groups formation. The meeting also was used to discuss negative police perception by some members of the public across the nation and how it translates locally.

Chief McNeill said the police department has worked with local pastors before and welcomes the collaboration.

The meeting went real well, he said. I think its gonna benefit the community with support groups like that praying for the officers and the community here. I think its a good thing. Its a good thing for us.

The police chief said he looks forward to meeting again with members of the group.

I just want to be a part of the healing in our community when it comes to law enforcement and the perception of law enforcement and the way that people interact with them, and you know, that involves recognizing the good things they do and connecting them with resources so that they can do some of that, that other work, that community work, Goodwin said.

The group and RCCCC are willing to partner with officers to give items like clothing or comfort items to children in Child Protective Services situations when a social worker is not available immediately. Goodwin also said pastors will provide guidance, prayer and support to police officers when needed, especially in situations when force is used or trauma is involved.

Part of our mission is to actively pursue justice for all citizens of our county. We decided to start by building relationships with our city and county leaders. We chose to start with our law enforcement officers first since its the one area where injustice can result in deadly consequences. It is our desire to be proactive rather than reactive to potential tragedies, said Rev. Leslie Sessoms, minister of youth at Godwin Heights Baptist Church and group member.

The group advocates for all victims of injustice, including victims of police brutality and police officers on the receiving end of injustice in other situations, Goodwin said.

Rev. Derek McNair, pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Red Springs, described the meeting with Chief McNeill as wonderful, informative and inspiring.

It was our hope and goal to create a relationship with Chief McNeill and staff to let them know that they do not stand alone, McNair said.

It was encouraging to hear what he and his officers are doing in the city to build positive connections between his officers and the people they serve. Our hope is that this meeting will be the beginning of a relationship built on mutual respect, one in which we can celebrate the positive contributions made by our law enforcement officers and one in which we can work hand-in-hand to resolve any negative issues that currently exist or should arise, Sessoms said.

I think he has a wonderful philosophy on community policing, Goodwin said of the police chief.

The meeting is the first of many to come with law enforcement agencies across the county, she said. The group will also branch out to meet with and serve organizations like the countys public school system.

One of our goals is to meet with every police chief in Robeson County as well as our sheriff, Burnis Wilkins, Sessoms said.

The Ministers for Justice group began holding meetings at RCCCC in July 2020 to discuss racial issues and promote unity in the county. The pastors who attended were to take a better understanding from discussions with others of different races and spread the message of unity to decrease racial tension in the county, McNair told The Robesonian in October.

I believe we are called to be a voice for the voiceless, Sessoms said. If we remain silent in the face of injustice then we are complicit in it.

The group of ministers continues to meet every fourth Thursday of each month. The December meeting was held via Zoom video conference with 11 ministers in attendance, Goodwin said.

For information on how to get involved, contact Sessoms by email at lhsessoms@nc.rr.com.

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Construction work on Fayetteville Outer Loop to cause detours off I-95 - The Robesonian

Charles Winokoor|The Herald News

FALL RIVER The sight of his cancer-stricken mother-in-law sleeping on a floor in Vietnam motivatedDavid Nguyen to go into the bedding business.

That was three decades ago, and since then the owner of US Bedding in Fall River has positioned himself to be one of the major bedding manufacturers on the East Coast.

Nguyen was born in 1962 in Hanoi, capital city of the former North Vietnam.

Nearly 18 years later, in late 1979, after his mother had bribed local police officials to get him phony Chinese identification documents so that Nguyen could board a small boat bound for Hong Kong with 100 other people he had only one thought in mind: making his way to the United States.

It didnt matter that it was less than five years since the last remaining U.S. troops left what was then known as Saigon in South Vietnam after a decade-long military conflict that led to the deaths of 58,000 American soldiers and as many as an estimated 600,000 North and South Vietnamese civilians.

Nguyen, now 58, says he had just graduated high school and planned to go to college.

His father died when he was two years old leaving his mother, who ran a small market, to support him and his six siblings, all of whom helped her run the business after school.

His college plans were dashed after he got word that he would have to serve in the Vietnamese army either in Cambodia where Vietnamese troops were fighting to oust Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime -- or on the northern border where Chinese and Vietnamese troops were clashing in what is known as the last Sino-Vietnamese War.

Nguyen says he didnt hesitate to leave Vietnam, despite the fact that he was leaving behind his mother and siblings.

I didnt like the government, he said. It was too dangerous for me to stay there, and anywhere is better than living in the communist country.

Nguyen says that he and his future wife survived their 43-day sea journey to Hong Kong, which at the time was under British control, from the capital city of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam where he had grown up.

It would only take 45 minutes to fly there, he said. But we couldnt go on the open sea. We had to stay close to shore. And we hit the rocks two times.

After living for more than a year in two refugee camps, the young couple, who were allowed to live together and had plans to marry, qualified to travel to the United States.

Nguyen said they had earlier been offered safe passage to other Western nations such as Britain, Australia and Holland. But he said they waited until it became possible to travel by ship to America.

During his time in Hong Kong, Nguyen says he searched for his older brother who had also planned to escape from Hanoi. But he says his sibling was grabbed by police before he could leave and ended up spending a year in a Vietnamese prison.

Nguyen says his two brothers and four sisters all survived and went on to lead what is be considered normal lives in Vietnam.

He attributes the improvement in the quality of life to the communist government adopting a more lenient attitude in regard to free-market capitalism.

After a total of two weeks of English language classes in the second of two Hong Kong refugee camps, Nguyen and his now-pregnant wife arrived in Boston where they were sponsored by an organization affiliated with a Catholic church.

Nguyen says their first residency was a one-bedroom apartment on Main Street in Charlestown where the couple shared space with six other Vietnamese refugees, all of whom were single men.

He said they all slept on pieces of foam mattress. After two months Nguyen and his wife and another couple moved into a two-bedroom multi-family house in Everett.

It was while living there that his wife gave birth to a daughter, the first of five children.

While his wife stayed at home with the baby, Nguyen found a job cleaning a wholesale marketplace where other workers had spent the day cleaning vegetables.

I spoke no English, but I did a great job, he said. The owner offered me another job, so now I have two jobs, and Im working 16, 17 hours a day, six days a week.

After two years, Nguyen says he began renting a three-family house in a Dorchester neighborhood with a sizable Vietnamese population.

He began learning how to do construction work and repairs and became adept at installing hardwood floors.

Within two years Nguyen had started his own construction company. By then his wife had given birth to her second child.

One day while working a job on Beacon Hill Nguyen says he spotted a full-service laundry business for sale complete with dry cleaning services and clothing alterations.

Not long after buying the business from the elderly female owner who wanted to retire, Nguyen sold his construction firm to a friend and eventually opened five more laundry and dry cleaning locations. He called his new business American Dry Cleaning.

Nguyen says he was able to buy a piece of land in West Roxbury where he built a house for his growing family.

The trajectory of his business life, however, took a detour after he made a return visit to Vietnam in 1989.

Nguyen says it was the first time he had met his mother-in-law, who by then was dying of cancer.

She was a very skinny lady, he said. And she slept on the wooden floor without a mattress like a lot of Vietnamese.

I felt terrible, Nguyen said. I tried to get her a mattress, but I cannot find it anywhere. People dont even know what it is.

He said he finally found a piece of foam in a store.

Nguyen said he paid the equivalent of $150 American dollars for that item, which struck him as absurd: My sister was a doctor, and she made $17 a month. No wonder no one had anything like that, he said.

Returning to Boston, Nguyen says he couldnt stop thinking about that beautiful mattress.

In my spare time I would ask around, Where do they make mattresses in Boston?

One day Nguyen walked into a mattress manufacturing company in Chelsea and asked the general manager for a tour.

I just showed up at the front desk and said, I want to learn how to make the mattresses, because I want to make them in Vietnam, Nguyen said.

The manager declined his request and suggested that Nguyen pick up a copy of Bed Times Magazine.

One of the ads he spotted in the trade magazine was for a Webster company called Jeffco Fibres, Inc. Nguyen said he asked for the founder and owner Alfred Lonstein, who referred him to his son Jeffrey.

Jeff shows me around so I can see fabric panel and quilting. Step by step the whole process, Nguyen said.

During a recent interview in his US Bedding office in Fall River, Nguyen answered a phone call from Jeffrey Lonsteins son Eric, who now works in hisfamily business and sells bedding material to Nguyen.

Returning to his story, Nguyen said, I bought a machine and material and put it in a container and shipped it to Vietnam.

The year was 1994, and he enlisted a brother in Vietnam to help him open what would not only be Nguyens first bedding business, but also what he says was probably the first bedding manufacturing business in the country.

But I got into the market too early, he said.

Three years later, after his wife underwent open heart surgery, and with five kids in high school, Nguyen said he sold his share of the business to his brother in Vietnam.

Nguyen said by the time his brother sold it in 2005 the business had proven to be very successful.

It was amazing to people, he said, adding that there are many others now. If I had hung around I could be a billionaire.

Nguyen said the first mattress made in the Hanoi factory went to his mother, who has since passed away.

She was sleeping on that mattress when she died, he said.

Nguyen, meanwhile, in 2000 sold all six of his dry cleaning stores to his employees in order to open US Bedding.

He began by buying a 25,000-square-foot warehouse in Canton. Five years later Nguyen relocated after purchasing an old mill building on Quarry Street in Fall River.

He recently paid Walmart $5.25 million for the former Sams Club building less than a mile from his Quarry Street site.

Nguyen says the relocation move will allow his business to grow by leaps and bounds and eventually will result in his hiring an additional 100 workers.

He and his wife also plan to move from West Roxbury to Tiverton where Nguyen says he'll build a house on farm land he bought.

Nguyen says despite the recent political turmoil in the country he has no intention of altering the name of his company.

America is the best country in the world, hesaid.

I always tell my friends and kids that if they work hard and are honest they basically can do whatever they want, Nguyensaid.

Originally posted here:
How this Fall River business owner went from Vietnamese refugee to successful entrepreneur - Fall River Herald News

CNA Staff, Jan 24, 2021 / 06:01 am MT (CNA).- A group of Christian leaders who advocate for the Holy Land this week reiterated a call for Israeli and Palestinian authorities to negotiate directly for the sake of peace in the region. They also encouraged Israel to make COVID-19 vaccines accessible to Palestinians.

The Holy Land Coordination group, which was founded by the Catholic BishopsConference of England and Wales, is comprised of bishops from the U.S. and Europe, as well as a bishop of the Church of England. Since 2000, the group has taken an annual trip to the Holy Land, and promotes awareness, action, and prayer for the region.

During the bishops January 2020 trip, they visited Christians in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and Ramallah. The bishops met virtually in January 2021 with Christians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel.

Due to the pandemic, this year is the first since the groups founding that the bishops have not been able to meet in the Holy Land.

The Christian community, though small, is an important guarantor of social cohesion and a bearer of hope for a better future. We eagerly await a time when Christians from across the world can once again make pilgrimages to the Holy Land to witness and support this first-hand. Until that point, we encourage our communities to provide any assistance that may be possible and hold all the regions peoples in our prayers, the group wrote in a Jan. 22 communiqu.

The delegation included Bishop David Malloy of Rockford, chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace.

The delegation noted that the absence of pilgrims to the Holy Land in the past year has exacerbated unemployment and poverty.

The bishops concluded that these factors, along with continuing political conflict, culminate to mean, there is today less cause for optimism than at any time in recent history.

Security borders have impaired Palestinians ability to work and travel, including travel to Muslim and Christian holy places, while Jewish settlements in the West Bank are a continuing source of tension.

Israel suspended the annexation of some parts of the West Bank during August 2020 as part of its normalization of relations with the United Arab Emirates, but tensions remain.

The lack of political progress, along with relentless expansion of illegal settlements and the impact of Israels Nation-State law, continues to erode any prospect of a peaceful two-state solution, the bishops wrote.

The nation-state law refers to a 2018 measure which defined Israel as the historic homeland of the Jewish people who have a singular right to national self-determination within it. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has criticized the law as discriminatory against Israels Christians.

The bishops also encouraged Israel to make COVID-19 vaccines accessible for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has one of the highest per-capita rates of COVID-19 vaccination in the world, but until this week was not allowing vaccines into Gaza or the West Bank.

The Vatican recognized the state of Palestine during May 2015. During May 2020, the Holy See reaffirmed its support of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and respect for the borders internationally recognized before 1967.

In a July 2020 statement, released in response to possible Israeli action to annex Palestinian territories, the Holy See reiterated that Israel and the State of Palestine have the right to exist and to live in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders.

Then-US president Donald Trump and Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu in January 2020 proposed a two-state peace plan for Israel and Palestine, which included an independent Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.

Trump insisted that Jerusalem would also remain Israels undivided very important undivided capital. The United States moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2017.

Under the plan, none of Jerusalems Old City or territory within the current security wall would be ceded to the Palestinian state. The agreement also preserves the status quo policy regarding control of various religious sites, including the site of the Temple Mount and Al Aqsa Mosque, and, under the proposal, Muslims would still have access to the site.

Trump's proposal for peace called for the creation of a Palestinian state, but gave Israel sovereignty over 30% of the West Bank. The Palestinians reject this.

Palestinian leaders, the United Nations, and European and Arab countries oppose unilateral action from Israel and consider Israeli settlements on land captured in 1967 to be illegal, Reuters reports. Israelis who back annexation cite biblical, historical, and political roots in the West Bank territory.

The plan also proposes the construction of a West Bank-Gaza Tunnel to connect the two halves of Palestine, and that a third of the Gaza Strip be designated as a high-tech manufacturing industrial zone.

As part of the plan, Trump also pledged money to the Palestinian state for job creation and poverty reduction. Trump said that if Abbas and the Palestinian Authority choose the path to peace, that the United States and other countries will be there, we will be there to help you in so many different ways.

Newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden is likely to reverse some of Trumps policies in the Middle East, pledging as a candidate to restore humanitarian aid to Palestinians and opposing Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, NPR reports.

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Bishops reiterate need for direct Israel-Palestine negotiations if there is to be peace - Catholic News Agency

New years bring new opportunities in life and in the life of your garden. What will you do this year? Plant a vegetable garden? Add fruit trees? You can create the landscape of your dreams.

When theres rain, be sure your irrigation system is on pause. Theres no need to water when the soil is already saturated. Leave the water off until the soil is dry at least to your second knuckle when you stick your finger into the soil.

Treat newly planted water-wise gardens the same way. For established water-wise gardens, wait until the soil is dry about 4 inches deep.

If theres been no rain, continue irrigating on a reduced winter schedule.

In January, the new crop of bare root fruit trees, vines and shrubs arrives in the nursery. They look like scraggly sticks with a wad of roots at the base, but they are the best way to buy deciduous fruiting plants (the ones that drop their leaves for winter).

This is the best time to shop for:

Now is the ideal time to buy stone fruit trees, such as plum trees.

(Getty Images)

How to select the best fruiting plant for your garden:

How to plant a bare root plant:

Prune and spray established fruit trees:

Harvest citrus:

All native and non-native drought-tolerant plants are best planted now in the cool (and maybe wet) weather.

Add beautiful flowering shrubs to your garden: Grevillea from Australia, conebush from South Africa, native Ceanothus (California lilac), native lemonade berry.

A honeybee collects pollen from blue Ceanothus flowers (California lilac).

(Getty Images)

Heating houses dries out the air, and thats hard on many houseplants. So give your plants a spa day in the bathroom. Fill the tub with a few inches of water. Prop your houseplants on top of empty plant pots (upside down) or other props set in the tub. Allow the houseplants to enjoy the humidity but not sit in water. Leave them for a day or so.

Have your pothos vines grown very long and leggy? Encourage side branches by cutting back long stems to a branching point.

Check houseplants for aphids, mealy bugs or scale. Use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to kill the critters.

Nan Sterman is a water-wise garden designer and writer and the host of A Growing Passion on KPBS television. More information is at AGrowingPassion.com and waterwisegardener.com.

Link:
Start turning garden dreams into reality with these January tasks - La Jolla Light

Beautiful Botanicals by Joanne Howdle

Early to blossom, blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is a deciduous shrub or small tree which has clouds of snowy-white flowers in early spring.

Blackthorn belongs to the same genus (Prunus) as almond, cherry and plum trees. The specific epithetspinosarefers to the sharp spines or thorns that are characteristic of this botanical, which is best known for its rich, inky, dark and waxy berries that are used to make a favourite winter tipple sloe gin.

Blackthorn is widespread across temperate Europe and also occurs in the Near East and Northern Africa. It is also naturalised in New Zealand, and eastern North America. Blackthorn often grows in hedgerows or thickets. Mature blackthorn shrubs can grow to a height of around 6-7m and live for up to 100 years.

It is an important plant for wildlife, its spring flowers providing nectar for early emerging insects. The foliage of this botanical is a food plant for the caterpillars of many moths, while birds nest among its dense, thorny thickets, eating caterpillars and other insects from the leaves, and feasting on its fruit in the autumn.

In the past, Highlanders believed that blackthorn was associated with evil spirits. It is said that witches' wands and staffs were made using blackthorn wood and children stolen by the faerie folk were said to have been left under blackthorn shrubs and would grow up to become changelings.

Pricking oneself on a thorn of this botanical was thought to be able to bestow a curse.

Blackthorn wood is very hard and in the past was often used to make the teeth of agricultural implements. Suitable branches were used for making walking sticks and were highly valued for this purpose because of their twisted and interesting shapes.

The bark, leaves and fruits were often used in the Highlands to make dye for clothes and food. The juice from blackthorn bark was used to produce a bright red dye, while the leaves of the shrub produced a green dye. With the addition of vitriol or copperas, the juice from the bark and fruit was used to make blue and black dyes and an excellent ink.

Traditionally, blackthorn flowers and fruit were used in a wealth of remedies including tonics and syrups that cleansed the blood, aided digestive complaints and eased rheumatism.

Blackthorn fruits, known as sloe berries or sloes, made into a jelly was a popular treatment in Scotland for throat problems, while blackthorn flowers were used as a laxative or infused and then applied to the skin to kill off scabies. Today, the pulp of ripened sloe berries is combined with other ingredients to make commercially available face masks said to maintain skin elasticity for younger looking skin.

Sloe berries are astringent when fresh and are therefore not eaten in the same way as those of many otherPrunusspecies (such as cherries and plums). The archaeological remains of sloes have been found on Neolithic dwelling sites and traditionally in Scotland sloe berries were used to make jellies and preserves and as a flavouring for gin, whisky and other drinks.

In the 1820s, sloe berries were often used to adulterate port wine and when tea was a very expensive product, the young leaves of blackthorn were dried and used as a replacement for, or addition to, the more expensive tea.

In modern gin manufacture, sloes are best picked after a frost, as this reduces the tannin content of the fruit. When distilled, sloe berries add a complexity to the gin, imparting a sweet yet tart taste with earthy undertones.

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Witches and faeries give blackthorn a prickly name in the north - JohnOGroat Journal

New York, Jan. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global market for smart irrigation has been foreseen to rise with a 17.1% CAGR, touching a valuation of USD 3,147.29 Million in the year 2027. These systems aid in monitoring soil conditions, weather, water used for plants, and evaporation to adjust the schedule of watering automatically to the actual sites conditions. The market is witnessing a steadfast growth, owing to the farmers and agriculturalists demand towards automating the agricultural process for reducing the water usage. Rapid emergence of renowned institutional farms and the rising popularity of gardens with irrigating landscape are the two major factors fueling the industrys growth.

Conventional methods of watering lead to the waste of 50% of water used because of the inefficiencies in evaporation, irrigation, and overwatering. Moreover, they operate on the basis of a timer, not responding to different weather conditions or the water amount required for a plant. All these factors have elevated the need for smart irrigation, sensors for historical or real-time data for informing routines of watering along with modifying watering schedules in order to enhance efficiency. However, less technical knowledge and the high cost of sensors and controllers of smart irrigation systems are hindering the markets growth. Several farmers in various developing countries are deficient in the skills required for operating these smart systems. Get FREE Sample Copy with TOC of the Report to understand the structure of the complete report@ https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/2359

Further key findings from the report suggest

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For the purpose of this report, Reports and Data has segmented the smart irrigation market on the basis of type, component, application, and region:

Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 20172027)

Component Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 20172027)

Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 20172027)

Click on the link to read key highlights of the report and look at projected trends for years to come: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/smart-irrigation-market

Regional Outlook (Revenue in USD Million; 20172027)

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Smart Irrigation Market To Reach USD 3147.29 Million By 2027 | Rise in Awareness about Conservation of Water and an Increase in Investment for R&D...

[EDITORS NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written by a verified resident. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The B-Town Blog, nor its staff:]

There have been several letters to The B-Town Blog recently expressing outrage at the tree removal in Burien (on SW 156th near Three Tree Point). I would like to add my thoughts.

For those of us who live in Burien, any tree removal has special concerns. The clear-cutting of a forest that stabilized the hillside endangers us all. Is there a plan for drainage when we get deluged? This is a potential catastrophe; flooding and slides.

As a resident to the south of the property, I saw no visible sign posted that would have allowed public comment before this damage. It is my understanding that this is a City requirement prior to any tree removal.

Quoted from the Citys Trees, Urban Forrest Management:

All significant trees on an undeveloped lot shall be retained. Tree removal or land clearing on an undeveloped lot for the purpose of future development is prohibited unless a land use permit is approved by the City. (19.25.120)

Was such a plan submitted and approved by the City?

There is not only the danger in the removal of Significant Trees, there is also the environmental factor that needs weighing in; tree value. The clean air we breathe, the canopy for shade in summer, and as a habitat for wildlife. These are critical for our quality of life. We, as a city, must adhere to a strict environmental impact plan. Do we?

I believe most of the people who live in Burien were drawn to the area by forested beauty, shelter, and the wildlife that brings the magic. We need forested areas. Plant Trees

The City Council must give serious thought to the impact that the clearcutting has on the environment and on the people who live in Burien and mitigate/enforce future slides/flooding in the area.

Plant Trees

Sincerely,Susan & Dave Woltz

EDITORS NOTE: Do you have something youd like to share with our highly engaged local Readers? If so, please email your Letter to the Editor to [emailprotected] and, pending review andverification that youre a real human being, we may publish it. Letter writers must use their full names and cite sources as well as provide an address and phone number (NOT for publication but for verification purposes).

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LETTER: The clear-cutting of a forest that stabilized the hillside endangers us all - The B-Town Blog

JAKARTA Indigenous people in Indonesias easternmost Papua province are protesting against a company thats preparing to raze their ancestral forest for a plantation megaproject plagued by allegations of irregularities and wrongdoing.

Members of the Auyu tribe are demanding the government freeze the operations of PT Indo Asiana Lestari (IAL), whose 39,190-hectare (96,840-acre) concession forms one chunk of the larger Tanah Merah project that has been fought over by competing groups of investors over the past decade.

If developed in full, the Tanah Merah project would result in the clearance of 280,000 hectares (692,000 acres) of the third-largest stretch of rainforest on the planet, to be replaced with several contiguous oil palm estates run by various companies some of which are owned by unknown investors hiding behind anonymously held firms in the Middle East.

Palm oil, used in everything from snack foods and cosmetics to biofuels, is one of Indonesias leading export commodities. But its production is associated with a range of problems, from climate change and wildfires to labor rights abuses and land grabbing.

Besides problems with corporate secrecy, the Tanah Merah project has also highlighted the often chaotic licensing processes underpinning the industry. Some of the permits for the project were signed by a politician who was serving out a prison sentence for corruption. Others were allegedly falsified, with a signature of a high-ranking official said to have been forged on key documents.

While the identities of some of the investors with a stake in the project remain unclear, data from Indonesias corporate registry shows that IAL is 95%-owned by Mandala Resources, a shell company registered in Kota Kinabalu, a city in Malaysian Borneo.

The rest of the company is owned by PT Rimbunan Hijau Plantations Indonesia, which in turn is owned by a businessman from Indonesias South Sulawesi province, Muhammad Yakub Abbas, who is also IALs director.

While IAL has yet to start clearing land, it recently informed local communities it would begin building supporting infrastructure for the project, with villagers catching sight of heavy equipment on site.

In a phone interview, Egedius Pius Suam, a leader of the Auyu tribe, said the villagers were alarmed by the presence of the heavy equipment, as the tribe hadnt given its consent for the project.

The company, he added, had yet to demonstrate it had obtained the required permits.

Thats why were demanding the government and the local council to summon the company and check their permits, Egedius said. If they cant find clear permits, then Im asking for sanctions [to be applied] and for the company to leave.

According to Frengky Hendrikus Woro, another member of the Auyu tribe, the problems with IAL began when it started approaching local communities in 2017.

The process was led by Fabianus Senfahagi, at the time the head of a local Indigenous peoples association. Fabianus had played a role in shepherding earlier investors in the Tanah Merah project, but by 2017 he appeared to be working on behalf of IAL. Pictures posted to Facebook in mid-2016 appear to show Fabianus and Yakub, the IAL director, in Boven Digoel together.

Frengky said that Fabianus had secured signatures from communities apparently expressing support for the project through a combination of coercion and manipulation. He said the signers did not understand what they were consenting to.

During a meeting attended by Frengky on Aug. 19, 2017, in Ampera village, Fabianus explained to the Auyu people that the company would set aside a part of its concession for the tribe, and that locals would receive monthly payments and enjoy access to clean water and proper housing.

According to Frengky, most community members opposed the company because they didnt want to surrender their ancestral lands and forests. During the meeting, however, they felt pressured into signing the letter, due in part to the presence of nine police officers.

Its a pity that there are people who agree [to sign the letter] because they didnt understand, Frengky said. Many of us who live in the villages still cant read or write so in my view the company tricked them.

Fabianus, Yakub and IAL did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Local activists opposing the project have received a series of threats Pusaka, an Indonesian NGO supporting Indigenous peoples rights, in November.

Egedius himself has reported receiving death threats over his resistance to IALs plans. Now, he says, the companys presence has divided the Auyu, with some people continuing to oppose the company and others supporting it.

Such social malaise is common in Indigenous communities where plantation firms have gained a foothold in Indonesia, research has shown.

Before the company came, we lived a peaceful life, Egedius said. But because of its presence in our ancestral territory, we have become enemies with our own brothers and sisters.

Though IAL has yet to start knocking down the forest, the communitys recent protests were provoked by the companys announcement that it was ready to build log ponds, which serve to store logs before they can be processed at a sawmill. Egedius characterized the log ponds as an entry point for deforestation to begin.

In September, some 50 Auyu gathered in protest in front of government offices in Boven Digoel district, where the Tanah Merah project is located. Clad in traditional dress, they sang and danced, and held up banners demanding the government respect their rights over their tribal lands.

[Were asking the] Boven Digoel district head and the legislative council to stop and check the activity and the permits of PT Indo Asiana Lestari, the Auyu people said in a letter submitted to the government.

The letter accused IAL of failing to obtain the required permits and get approval from the Auyu tribe for its operations.

IAL has already obtained a location permit, among the first in a series of approvals that plantation companies need in order to operate legally, according to Djukmarian, the head of the Boven Digoel investment agency.

The next step is for the provincial government to approve an environmental impact assessment produced by the company. After that, the district government must sign off on an environmental permit.

Despite the recent passage of a sweeping deregulation law that overhauls the permit process for development projects, making it unnecessary in some cases to carry out the environmental impact assessment, Djukmarian said IAL would still have to do one. That process, he said, was ongoing.

Im now waiting for recommendation [for the environmental permit] from the provincial [government], Djukmarian said by phone.

Responding to the Auyu peoples demand for the local government to review the companys permits, Djukmarian said the agency had been evaluating the permits of companies operating in Boven Digoel, including IAL, since mid-2017.

A permit review is one of the key components of Jakartas freeze on new permits for oil palm plantations. President Joko Widodo signed the policy in 2018 as part of an effort to improve governance and sustainability in the countrys palm oil sector.

A 2019 government audit found that 81% of Indonesias oil palm plantations are in breach of a range of regulations, including by not holding the required permits and encroaching into areas designated as protected.

The moratorium policy also requires government agencies to review existing oil palm concessions for any irregularities. A similar initiative in the mining sector, concluded several years ago, resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of mining concessions. No oil palm licenses have been revoked under the current initiative, which expires this year.

Environmentalists say the permit review is especially important to be carried out in Papua as many plantation companies are already eyeing the region as the next frontier for oil palm and logging industries after much of the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo had been cleared to make way for plantations.

According to data from environmental NGO Madani, in 2015, there were only five plantation permits in the region of Papua, which consists of Papua and West Papua provinces. In 2017, there were 114.

Much of the areas earmarked for plantations are still forested. Madani data show there were still 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of rainforests within existing oil palm concessions in the Papua region that have yet to be torn down. Revoking the permits could prevent the forests from being cleared.

Banner image: Auyu Indigenous peoples gather in protest in front of government offices in Boven Digoel district, Papua, Indonesia, where the Tanah Merah project is located. Image courtesy of Pusaka.

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Papua tribe moves to block clearing of its ancestral forest for palm oil - Mongabay.com

Community Content| Wicked Local

D.H. Smith and Sons, a company that provides wood waste cycling, land clearing, mulch manufacturing, power equipment and retail landscape supplies and serves both the wholesale and retail markets, has further expanded its operations with the relocation of its headquarters to 887 Plain St., Route 139, Marshfield.

Dan Smith Jr., who founded the company in 1997, said that the Marshfield location, the site of the former Copeland Lumber Company on Route 139, seemed the perfect solution for their needs when it became clear that they had outgrown the space at their Pembroke location. They first used the site for several years to manufacture mulch and then made the decision to build their new company headquarters there.

Smith and his team oversaw the design and construction of two buildings totaling 25,000 square feet, sited on the 16 acre parcel of land. In the last few years, the company has expanded its offerings and now provides services to both the wholesale and retail markets.

One of the companys endeavors is its wood waste recycling, which began in 2015 but has expanded in the last year. D.H. Smith and Sons takes in stumps, logs, brush, wood chips and other material from the forest, from contractors, and then processes the materials through grinding, seasoning and color enhancing. Some of the logs which are brought in are sold to saw mills. The wood chips and grindings are made into premium mulch products, loam and wood chips. D.H. Smith and Sons has the onsite equipment to process all of the wood products right at their Marshfield location. Smith sees their location as ideal for contractors, landscapers and residential tree service companies who are in need of a convenient location to dispose of and recycle their wood waste and compost.

In addition to taking in materials from contractors, the company also offers full land clearing and forestry services.

While the initial focus of D.H. Smith and Sons was the wholesale market, the company has added a retail component to their business with its power equipment sales and service division. The company is a full-service Husqvarna Power and Construction Equipment Dealer and Service Center. Additionally, D.H. Smith and Sons sells firewood and landscape supplies to the public.

We continue to look for additional ways to serve the public, said Smith. We have always done a brisk business with our wood waste recycling, and its great to see these products repurposed to their highest and best uses. As we have expanded our work with contractors and wholesale customers, we have also seen the benefit of offering the products and services to the public. We are pleased to add this retail component to the services and products that we offer.

Smith said that the company hopes to host an open house later this year.

We look forward to inviting friends, neighbors, customers and the community to come and see our operation, said Smith. We are proud of how it has turned out and are eager to show it off!

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D.H. Smith and Sons opens headquarters in Marshfield - Wicked Local

Authorities prepare to put out a fire in a forest in Mondulkiri province. Wildlife Alliance Cambodia

The public has been urged to stop using fires to collect bees, catch animals or clear land in forests.

In a letter dated January 20, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said burning grasses and other unsanctioned activities like harvesting forests or clearing them for agriculture or settlements increase risks of wildfires which endangers communities, especially during the dry season.

The ministry notes that forest fires every year result in major losses of forest resources and mangroves and spread to rice paddies and villages. They cause environmental destruction which also damages rural economies and the national economy and wastes natural resources, it said.

The ministry has demanded the cessation of logging, clearing and burning in forests and mangroves to exploit land for crops or for other purposes.

Agriculture departments throughout the country are authorised to take legal action against anyone found burning mangrove or forest land or settling on burned lands in contravention of the law.

Oddar Meanchey provincial agriculture department director Soth Sisokheang noted that people had traditionally burnt rice stubble after harvest every year. But this year, burning activities had declined significantly after people had learnt that burning the stubble was not as productive as ploughing it into the soil.

After being instructed, some farmers have stopped burning rice stubble and instead plough it under the soil. It proves beneficial as it becomes fertilizer, he said.

Sisokheang explained that most forest fires were not caused by farmers but by people who endeavoured to burn the forests to exploit the cleared land. The participation of all stakeholders is needed to ensure the work of protecting these lands is carried out strictly and efficiently, he said.

Concerning the forest burning, more participation and collaboration are needed. I cannot do it alone, he said.

Sisokheang added that arresting arsonists is difficult. When fires start, specialists are immediately deployed to extinguish them, but perpetrators will have already escaped.

Koh Kong provincial agriculture department director E Meng Leang said the problems of forest fires in the province were often small scale, making it easier to intervene and extinguish them. The public had also responded cooperatively after specialists had done so and instructed them to protect the environment.

In general, specialists must follow people bee-collectors, vine-collectors, resin-harvesters and others into the forest to ensure that they will be careful. The dry season is so dry that a wild fire can be started by a cigarette butt thrown or from fires used to collect bees. We must be careful. We need to instruct people on site in the forest, he said.

According to forestry and fishery laws, the public, armed forces and authorities at all levels are obliged to maintain and protect forests and prevent fires. All residents are responsible for protecting the habitats of animals and fish and preserving natural environments in their respective localities.

Under the law, anyone who intentionally causes a fire in a forest or mangrove is punishable by a prison term of three to five years or five to 10 years, respectively.

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Public warned against igniting forest fires - The Phnom Penh Post