About the project
For over two decades, palm oil company PT. Hardaya Inti Plantations (PT. HIP) has been at the center of ongoing human rights and environmental abuses in Buol District, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Operating across more than 22,000 hectares of land, the company has seized at least 4,600 hectares from indigenous peoples in 21 villages across five sub-districts—well beyond its legal mandate. Under the guise of the government’s “plasma scheme,” which was meant to provide farmers with income and equitable partnerships, PT. HIP instead trapped communities in a cycle of debt amounting to hundreds of billions of rupiah, withheld promised profits, and even used farmers’ land certificates as collateral without consent. Farmers remain excluded from decisions about their own lands and livelihoods.
The impacts extend beyond livelihoods to health and the environment: mountains, forests, and farmlands have been destroyed; rivers and ecosystems polluted; and food insecurity worsened. PT. HIP has failed to carry out legally required environmental assessments and neglected its responsibility to allocate part of its concession for the benefit of affected communities. In 2024, the Indonesian Business Competition Supervisory Commission found the company guilty of multiple legal violations, ordering restitution and reforms, yet the ruling has gone largely unenforced.
Communities, farmers, and civil society organizations who resist PT. HIP’s exploitative practices face systematic retaliation. Peaceful protests have been met with violence, intimidation, surveillance, sexual harassment, and militarization of plantation areas. At least 25 land rights defenders—including women and a minor—have been summoned by police under criminal and plantation laws, while others face Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs). Women defenders report constant spying, harassment, and sexual violence, highlighting the acute risks borne by those who speak out.
About the community-led struggle
Despite escalating threats, farmers and grassroots organizations like Forum Petani Plasma Buol (FPPB) continue to demand justice and mobilize the local community. FPPB has been engaging, consulting and training local farmers, women groups, plantation workers, local land owners and youth groups. These activities helped raised awareness about the problems related to the palm oil plantation, develop networks and partnerships, and build new alliances nationally and internationally to strengthen their struggle.
In April 2025. FPPB also engaged with the National Human Rights Commission, which issued a « Letter of Recommendation » calling for an end to human rights violations against farmers who are fighting for their land and their rights.
Additionally, the CRE linked the FPPB with the international organization Inclusive Development International (IDI), to support with financial research, and with the regional network Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), which issued a public statement expressing concerns for the serious human rights violations linked to the project.
As a result of FPPB’s mobilization and advocacy efforts, company workers have started to file claims and demand recognition of their rights, more people have started to raise concerns, and local authorities have also started to respond to the concerns raised by the farmers and local community.
Further resources
- « Indonesia: End corporate impunity, protect farmers deceived by Buol palm oil plantations » (FORUM-ASIA statement, June 2025)
- « Indonesian palm oil firm clashes with villagers it allegedly shortchanged » (Mongabay, June 2024)