On 20 January, two months after a rare tropical cyclone left more than 1,000 people dead and over 175,000 houses destroyed, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto declared that the giant pulp company Toba Pulp Lestari, along with other logging, mining and hydropower companies, would no longer be allowed to operate in the country. HKBP and other churches have been leading protests in recent months, calling for an end to the activities which have been affecting local people and their environment for decades.
“In the early 1990s, after Toba Pulp began its activities, there was strong opposition from our community,” Sinaga recalled. “During that first period, some of our pastors were even arrested and put in prison during the protests. More than 35 years later, a few of them are still serving in the church and they are so happy to see this historic decision,” he said. Over the past year, HKPB, supported by other Christians and other faith groups, had stepped up their demands, intensifying pressure on the government to take action.
Monoculture planting of eucalyptus trees
“The majority of people affected by the pulp company around Lake Toba are HKBP members,” noted Sinaga. “There has been a lot of research into the environmental impact, but one of the most visible and devastating effects has been the monoculture planting of hundreds of thousands of hectares of eucalyptus trees, degrading the soil and causing damage to the land for a long time to come,” he explained.
Sinaga pointed to other disasters, including flash flooding and landslides around Lake Toba in late 2023 which left a dozen people dead. “Trees and plants can no longer take root because of the soil erosion, so mud and rocks the size of cars came down the mountainside into the lake destroying houses and killing people in their path,” he said. “When we visited the families affected, they were broken by the tragedy, but the company denied that it had anything to do with them,” he added.
Source:
europeantimes.news