CLIMATE JUSTICE 4 KALIMANTAN 

In October 2020, the Indonesian Government started to open land in the Pulang Pisau dan Kapuas Regency in Central Kalimantan for paddy farming on a Food Estate Project. Citing the food crisis resulting from the pandemic, the government plans to clear 900,000 hectares of peatlands to create what they deem an integrated agricultural center, a plan that resembles the one million hectare Mega Rice Project (MRP) during Soeharto’s era. 

The New Food Estate will be history repeating itself, with no transparent project management plan, environmental impact assessment, or local and indigenous community involvement. Therefore, we, young people of Kalimantan, are joining hands in the Kalimantan Climate Strike movement to raise awareness about the issue through webinars, social media campaigns, online petitions, and essay writing competitions. Our petition ‘Stop the food estate Project In Kalimantan #climatejustice4Kalimantan has been signed by 29,564 people around the world as of December 22nd. The webinar ‘Borneo Under Threat, which included a Kalimantan landscape expert, an Indigenous leader, and a youth activist, brought attention to the ecological threats and dangers to the local people and reached more than 400 viewers. We also employed a social media campaign that reached 3,000 youth through Instagram and an essay competition to provide a platform for young people to share their opinions regarding the project.