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Greenpeace Hands Over Protest Camp to Locals
Budi Otmansyah | November 30, 2009

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A camp set up two months ago by the environmental group Greenpeace as a base for protests has been turned over to the local people to manage.

The Climate Defenders Camp was established in October in Teluk Meranti village, Pelalawan district on the Kampar peninsula, which environmental groups say is threatened by massive exploitation of peatland forests.

At least 1,000 people from three villages, Meranti Bay, Binjai Bay and Muda Island, attended the ceremony together with around 30 Greenpeace activists.

Von Hernandez, executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said that though they were leaving the camp, they would not stop campaigning to preserve the forests of Kampar peninsula.

“We are very grateful for the support from the villagers in this campaign and we will continue our campaign, especially at the international level, to save Kampar’s forests,” Hernandez said.

Zulhami, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said the camp would be managed by local people with the help of the Forest Rescue Network Riau (Jikalahari), a local green group.

During their stay at the camp, Greenpeace staged two controversial protests, which led to the deportation of their foreign members and the arrest of Indonesian activists.

On Nov. 12, at least 30 activists managed to sneak into a freshly cleared region of the forest and unfurl a banner that read, “Obama, You Can Stop This.” Some chained themselves to excavators owned by the Singapore-based Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Ltd., the world’s largest pulp and paper producer, who has been granted a huge concession covering most of Kampar’s 400,000 hectares.

Eleven foreign nationals were deported and 21 Indonesians charged.

The following week, nine foreigners were deported and five nationals charged after they chained themselves to cranes at Perawang Port in Siak district. The port is owned by PT Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper, a subsidiary of the Sinar Mas Group.