Oil Palm Plantation

We’ve been in Mensubang for four days, and the biggest story here is the oil palm company. When we arrived we learned that villagers were protesting against the company because it had bulldozed their lands without compensation. The oil palm company’s perspective is that the lands bulldozed were not being used (which is true), but the community’s perspective is that these areas belong to the community because in the past the community has cleared the areas. We are treading carefully with this issue, because we want to develop a working relationship both with the oil palm company and with the villagers.

The oil palm plantation is shocking -- the company is in the clearing and landscaping phase (only about 60 ha of 4,000 ha are currently planted with oil palm trees), and the plantation area looks like a moonscape, with no living things except a bit of grass here and there.