In the forests of Northern Sumatra, communities are fighting to protect their land. The Batak people of Aek Lung village are farmers, growing vegetables and coffee for their families to sell.
But for the last 30 years, a pulp and paper company has cleared the land owned and managed by the Indigenous Batak people. The pulp that is grown there becomes the paper and rayon and viscose fabrics that we use everyday.
The Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) took the communities' traditionally-owned land and cut down their forest for eucalyptus plantations. After TPL harvested the eucalyptus, community members returned to the land and reclaimed it, planting their own crops before TPL could replant it with another monocrop pulp plantation.
Now the community of Aek Lung is fighting to get legal rights to their traditionally-owned land, and to ensure that TPL can never again seize their land for their unsustainable plantations.
Take action now!
