Members of the Dayak Ngaju tribe in Central Kalimantan say they have lost their ancestors’ land to the government, oil palm plantations and mining companies.

Representatives from four villages claimed that they have been barred from their ancestors’ lands since the government’s One Million Hectare Peatland Project (PLG) started in 1996.

Local residents, who lack ownership documents, said the lands were customary forests passed on from generation to generation.

“All of the programs, as well as corporate oil palm plantations and mining, have violated our rights to the land, which we inherited from previous generations,” Ketunjung village resident Abdul Hamid told reporters at a press conference at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment’s (Walhi) headquarters in Jakarta.

Abdul also said that the villages had lost their forests to carbon emission ...