Indonesia’s ‘Militarized Agriculture’ Raises Social, Environmental Red Flags
Observers and activists have raised concerns about the leading role the Indonesian government plans to give to the military and to big corporations in a program to establish vast crop plantations across the country.
The move appears to be part of a creeping rollback of Indonesia’s civilian democracy by the administration of President Joko Widodo, critics say, and could have major repercussions for Indigenous and community land rights, the conservation of the country’s rainforests, and efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The government has framed the program as a bid to secure food supplies domestically, and as such is treating it as a national security priority. To that end, Widodo has given the job of overseeing part of the program to his defense minister, Prabowo Subianto, a former Special Forces commander implicated in the disappearance of pro-democracy activists in the late 1990s.
Photo courtesy of Devi Puspita Amartha Yahya.
Source: Mongabay (link opens in a new window)
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