Land Claims Resolution

APRIL is committed to resolve all land claims in a socially responsible manner. The company's land claim resolution system offers a fair, peaceful and transparent process that respects the rights of involved stakeholders.

Transforming Land Disputes into Community Partnerships  

It is inherent in the forestry industry to face land rights conflicts from time to time, even though the forestry concession is legally granted by the government. Especially in Indonesia, conflict over land tenure usually arises between indigenous communities and the state, as state-created property and land-use rights overlap with customary (adat) rights. Despite state land-use development plans, indigenous communities claim adat rights over their ancestral lands. Similar conflicts can also arise between protected forest areas and land designated for development.

APRIL strictly operates only on concessions designated and licensed by the Indonesian government for plantation development, and where no prior and legitimate overlapping community land-rights exist. Where disputes arise, it is APRIL's mission to develop company-community partnerships which are robust and mutually beneficial.

To this end, the Company has established a Land Dispute Resolution Protocol based on the principles of Free, Informed and Prior Consent. This protocol relies on third-party mediated negotiations with villages and participatory community mapping, and is being developed in partnership with leading social NGOs. Throughout 2007, the village of Lubuk Jering, Riau province, Indonesia has been the development site for establishing this effective land-dispute resolution protocol.

Case study : Lubuk Jering Village 

Lubuk Jering village is one of several communities in the vicinity of Mandau Fibre Estate in Riau province. The Mandau Fibre estate is an APRIL-owned concession, with a gross area of over 23,000 hectares. Of this, approximately 60% is allocated for plantations with 13% reserved as natural forest conservation areas. 

Since 1993 various land-dispute issues have been raised by the community, with progressive settlement over 3,500 hectares between 1997 and 2006. In 2006 a new case of dispute was raised over a land area of 2,000 hectares.

Through involvement of third-party mediators (led by the NGO Scale Up and social anthropologists from the University of Indonesia), a Free Prior and Informed Consent resolution process was initiated. Over 18 months an intensive dialogue between company and community was implemented - involving participatory mapping of land-holdings and claims, and progressive negotiation towards final settlement. 

The consensus outcome included the establishment of an oil palm plantation consisting of 264 hectares (two hectares for every household, total of 132 households) under communal ownership by the village, and profit sharing from Acacia plantations on the remaining land. Other contributions from the company have been agreed, including the phased implementation of infrastructural improvements - roads, school, village administrative office and mosque. Finally, the company and community have established a training programme for equipping villagers with the expertise for improved management over their land-holdings - including both administrative skills and agricultural best practices.

The basis for resolution was one of "changing conflict to partnership", resulting in enhanced trust and collaboration between Company and community, and strengthened leadership through improved village governance. The relationship itself is a point of considerable pride within the community itself. This case study has been widely recognised as a leading example of social conflict resolution.

Implementation of Free Prior and Informed Consent Principles

The conflict resolution process in Lubuk Jering has fulfilled - to a large extent - the principles of FPIC (Free, Prior and Informed Consent) concept, as follows:

The process has applied a participatory mapping process where the community and the company work together to map the area being claimed by the community.  Representatives from both parties were involved in all stages of the map development process until the map is fully agreed by all concerned.

Representation in the process has been very carefully considered and decided.  The community formed the ‘Tim Sebelas' (Team of Eleven) as their legitimate representatives to work with the Company. However, in several stages which needed broader participation, the community conduct village meetings involving the participation of the majority of the villagers.

An independent and reliable third party was also involved in this process, such as the social anthropology experts from the University of Indonesia.

A mediator was engaged in the process which prevented deadlocks. The mediators here were the NGOS from Riau.