Land, environmental and Indigenous defenders

Impact story: Indonesia

Indonesia is the world’s largest palm oil exporter. Between 2001 and 2017 commercial ventures destroyed more than 24 million hectares of the country’s tree cover - an area nearly the size of the United Kingdom. Alumni of Peace Brigades International’s pioneering courses for Indonesian human rights defenders are now leading the fight to protect the Indigenous communities who call these forests home.

Peace Brigades International has worked with Indonesian communities for over 25 years. From the outset, PBI’s aim was to connect and strengthen those people across Indonesia who were passionate about building a movement for change in a country embroiled in conflict, and where human rights abuses were endemic.

PBI works alongside national human rights organisations and defenders to strengthen their ability to document human rights abuses, advocate to the Indonesian government and internationally, and build protection networks.

Between 2014 and 2019, PBI ran a pioneering Basic Course for Human Rights Defenders from Indonesia. It was the first of its kind, and 49 people went through the intensive four-month training programme in Jakarta, learning about human rights theory, holistic security, advocacy, conducting field research, dealing with trauma and stress, and non-violent communication.

The course was hugely successful and helped lay the groundwork for the growing civil society we now see today. Three years after the course finished, 90% of the alumni were still actively promoting and protecting human rights. A decade on from the first training, alumni from the course are established in senior positions across civil society, as leaders in Indigenous Councils and Church networks, prominent human rights lawyers, journalists, film makers, and founders of national human rights organisations.

Now, many of these alumni are leading the fight for Indigenous communities against the threats to their livelihoods, culture and even lives, from the global corporations extracting lucrative resources from the world’s third largest tropical forests.

An investigation by PBI’s partner organisation, Pusaka, revealed the presence of at least 10,472 villages in the region, largely inhabited by Indigenous Peoples who depend on the forest. The burning of millions of hectares of forest for palm oil and mining concessions not only threatens the wellbeing and culture of Indigenous Peoples, but it also makes Indonesia one of the world’s largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. But community activists face intimidation, death threats and imprisonment for attempting to protect these forests.

Feki Mobalen, who sadly passed away in February 2025, was an alumni of PBI’s Basic Course, and became the Coordinator of the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago (AMAN). He was a courageous activist for Indigenous Peoples, and PBI worked alongside him to bring their voices to a national and international stage.

In 2021, Feki helped to secure a landmark victory for the Indigenous Moi People, who had spent more than a decade opposing the palm oil companies that were destroying their customary land. In a press statement, they explained their connection to the land:

 “The forest, swamps, rivers, old villages, ancestral graves, and everything within our customary territory is our life. Yet now all of this is threatened by extractive industries and large projects. The forest will be gone, and we will be extinct.”

Feki organised the Moi communities to campaign for the head of the local government to cancel the palm oil companies’ business permits, on the basis that the Moi had never consented to the conversion of their ancestral lands to palm oil concessions. After consultations with affected communities, the Sorong Regency revoked the company's permits in February 2021.

For three of these companies, this meant ceasing operations across over 90,000 hectares of land - an area larger than New York City. The palm oil companies turned to the courts, filing a series of lawsuits and appeals to regain their permits. But once again, Feki and his organisation successfully fought in court to uphold Indigenous land rights, and the appeals were dismissed.

In their decisions, the judges emphasised the importance of the Moi claims to their land rights, and affirmed that they should ultimately decide how their customary land is used. It was a groundbreaking ruling in a country where Indigenous Peoples are threatened, harassed and abused for trying to protect their ancestral forest homes.

As the Indigenous Peoples of Indonesia brace themselves for more mining mega-projects, sugar cane plantations, and massive oil palm expansion, PBI continues to support human rights defenders who are taking a stand and making real change. PBI is connecting defenders across the country who are resisting land grabs and resource extraction, so they can share successful advocacy and risk-reduction strategies. And given PBI’s status as one of the world’s expert organisations in holistic security, its security training for human rights defenders is helping keep activists safe as they fight to protect their forests and our planet.