Thanks to everyone who supported Kinipan!

Sep 8, 2024

The abrupt visit of the Minister of Environment and Forestry on September 7, 2024 to Kinipan, a small village in the heart of Borneo’s mountain forest, was an excellent opportunity to deliver the petition “Please help us save Kinipan forest!” with nearly a quarter million signatures from 195 countries.

A brief announcement was the only warning, and suddenly Siti Nurbaya Bakar, the Minister of Environment and Forestry, arrived by helicopter at the sports field in Kinipan early Saturday morning to the surprise of the villagers. Kinipan has been resisting the destruction of its rainforest by a palm oil company for years.

The minister arrived with a delegation that included Lord Zac Goldsmith, Senior Fellow of the Bezos Earth Fund, a foundation established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Kinipan welcomed the delegation with honors in a large tent set up for the ceremony. Village leader Willem Hengki presented the minister with our petition, “Please help us save Kinipan forest!”

A total of 247,023 people from 195 countries pledged their support for the preservation of the Kinipan forest. During the ceremony, the number of signatures increased to 248,344.

While the people of Kinipan had previously presented the petition in Jakarta, stood in the way of the palm oil company's bulldozers, and become an icon for the Indigenous struggle for rainforests through spectacular campaigns, there had been few encouraging signs until now. It has been nine years since they applied for official recognition as an Indigenous community, and six years since the first clear-cut in their forest in the mountains of Borneo.

Now, the Dayak Tomun people’s conflict with the palm oil industry and their fight for their forests is finally being heard in the political arena. The petition, as an expression of global solidarity, has been instrumental in this.

Willem Hengki and indigenous leader Effendi Buhing would like to thank everyone who signed on behalf of Kinipan!

The minister said that she has been following the Kinipan conflict for a long time. She explicitly thanked the environmentalists who stand by the Dayak Tomun. She believes that “this most difficult Indigenous forest problem (Kinipan) can be solved, and even more so other (forest problems).”

Village leader Willem Hengki has high expectations for this sudden visit: “We have a lot of difficulties to overcome. And now, for the first time, a minister is visiting us. Even provincial officials rarely come here. So we have great hopes,” he said.

Hengki could not hold back his tears. He wept in the presence of the minister and the international delegation.

Although Siti Nurbaya Bakar's term will end in about a month when President-elect Prabowo Subianto replaces current President Joko Widodo, her work to resolve the problems of the Indigenous forests will continue, according to Tempo magazine.

“The struggle of the Kinipan is not over yet,” says Habibi, director of our partner organization Save Our Borneo. The minister’s visit may bring new momentum, but the recognition of the Indigenous Dayak Tomun of Kinipan and the protection of their forest are not yet guaranteed.

We are closely monitoring the role of the Bezos Earth Fund in Kinipan and beyond. It is conceivable that the organization will promote carbon credit projects and other climate offset schemes in the region. These often violate the rights of local people and serve as greenwashing for Western corporations. We are also critical of the business practices through which Jeff Bezos has amassed his billions.

Lord Zac Goldsmith was a Minister of State in the UK governments of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. He is a member of the Conservative Party and sits in the British House of Lords.

In contrast to the Bezos Earth Fund, Save Our Borneo and Rainforest Rescue have been supporting the people of Kinipan for many years.

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