My early flight and long journey back to the airport necessitated my awakening prior to sunrise, which I was able to enjoy on the drive to the airport. Palm oil plantations lie on either side of the massive highway, and I could see the trees silhouetted in front of the emerging, orange-coloured sun. Oil palm is one of Malaysia’s biggest exports. In fact, more than 80 percent of this rapidly-growing commodity comes from Indonesia and this country. I’ve been involved with companies developing sustainable palm oil plantations, and have visited plantations in Borneo. So am quite familiar with the sight of these short and fat trees which extend beyond the horizon.
I flew from Kuala Lumpur across the Maluccan Straights directly to Pekanbaru, which is the capital of the Sumatran province of Riau, where I visit regularly. It’s a very short 40-minute hop from one of the most modern cities in Asia to rather backward place that’s growing out of the surround jungle. In fact, Pekanbaru has grown enormously since I first visited 10 years ago.
I was met by a young driver called Jeki who works for my client company, the large pulp and paper company, Asia Pacific Resources Limited (APRIL). My goal was to reach an isolated village called Teluk Meranti ahead of a group that I was due to meet up with there. They had left an hour before me, but due the bad quality of roads, which are quite unsuitable for buses, they had to complete their journey by speedboat. It had been estimated that their total journey time would be around five hours, which I could do it in a four-wheel drive jeep with Jeki in just four.
It certainly was a bumpy journey. There had been recent flooding so the mud road towards the conclusion of my journey required extremely skillful driving. But I am happy to report that my faithful driver, who spoke limited English, got me there just minutes before the speedboat arrived. Incredible.
This was a field trip of representatives from various human rights NGOs from around the world, brought together under the auspices of The Forests Dialogue, which is an initiative supported by Yale University. Our purpose was to meet with villagers to understand the complexity of ongoing land disputes caused by a lack of parity between Indonesia’s modern laws and ancient customary rights of indigenous forest people. APRIL has been granted to the right to develop a significant tranche of surrounding land into acacia plantations. The project will bring thousands of jobs to an impoverished area. But some of the villagers are concerned that it subjugates their ‘customary’ rights to the land.
These are lovely people. Genuinely warm and incredibly friendly, with adorable smiles. We participated in two public meeting in a rather basic so-called hostel. Most of the locals were women, who were especially impressed by my size. Some had brought their children and wanted me to hold them in the hope that they would grow to my proportions. I have photos of me with grown women whose heads come up only to the level of my waist.
My journey back to where I was to stay overnight was a real adventure. Having packed off the NGO representative back on their speedboat, one of the forest managers had decide to accompany back by road. However, our drive had not anticipated the incoming tide which resulted in our car being marooned. It would be six hours before the water would recede. Happily, Brad, the forest manager who now lives in Indonesia but originates from the US, was able to call the company helicopter. We proceeded to take a speedboat to a suitably open piece of land where we were met by the helicopter and flown out. Our journey, which would have taken four hours by road, was completed in around 20 minutes.
It was a dramatic end to a very long day. Needless to say, I will surely sleep well tonight at the Unigraha Hotel, close to APRIL’s production facility which is, in point of fact, the single largest pulp and paper mill in the world. It’s located in a township which the company built less than 20 years ago. Quite a place. But time for bed.
Grandpa Jonathan
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Kerinci, Indonesia
