The joint resesrch with The Institute for Economic, Social and Cultural rights was done in the Indonesian provinces of Central Kalimantan, Bengkulu and Central Sulawesi. The Research was comparing areas primarily cultivating oil palms, with communities not living of cultivating this crop.
Amongst the findings were a hight level of land conflicts. While incomes were higher in some of the villages cultivating oil palms, the access to food, water and health was better in villages not (primarily) cultivating thIs crop.
The next will be to discuss the findings with the respondent communities – this serves a double function: to check the findings for mistakes, but also, to ‘return the research to its sources’, to provide knowledge and to facilitate for discussions and mobilization locally.
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In separate but related events,
- On september 17, the research group Food, Human Rights and Cooperations, in cooperation with FIAN Norway, arranged a seminar on: corporate responsibility, land conflicts and economic rights – experiences from Indonesia.
- Aksel Tømte from NCHR's International Departement wrote an article on “The human cost of palm oil development” in The Conversation.