Muara Tae Indigenous Community Resists Palm Oil Expansion in Customary Forest

The Muara Tae Indigenous Community in Kutai Barat, East Kalimantan, has been resisting the expansion of palm oil plantations by PT Borneo Surya Mining Jaya (BSMJ) for years. Since the palm oil plantations encroached on this territory in 2012, the community's life has been unsettled. Tensions have reignited since June 2025, when the company began leveling the disputed land again. The company, using bulldozers, is destroying the customary forest of the Benuaq indigenous community in Muara Tae for palm oil cultivation. "They immediately started planting," said Masrani, a community leader in Muara Tae, to Mongabay. Since then, the company has been actively operating every day. The prohibition from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) against operating on disputed land in 2013 seems to have meant nothing. The agrarian conflict has yet to find a resolution, and the company is instead using various methods to expand. "The company always looks for loopholes, finds reasons to force land clearing, because its (the land's) status remains as if it has been freed (within the scope of a usufructuary right/HGU). Therefore, in June 2025, they resumed land clearing." Masrani mentioned that activities in 2025 were halted due to community resistance. In June 2026, the company acted again. The customary forest, which serves as a life support for the Muara Tae community, has been razed to the ground. "They are still carrying out forced land clearing in the field," said Masrani. The land clearing in the Muara Tae customary forest...