Land Conflict Solutions
Indigenous Bunong have a long history of defending their indigenous territories. And nowadays it has become necessary to legally protect the remaining land and forests but this is not an easy undertaking. The growth of economic land concessions and the intrusion of settlers put indigenous Bunong lands, forests and sacred places at risk.
Learn more about the indigenous Bunong.
What BIPA does
We know and experience the everyday life struggles of the Bunong communities.
We see what is needed and know the best way to provide help.
BIPA supports villagers’ capacity to reach sustainable solutions in peaceful negotiations for the many land conflicts. We fight for fair compensations from the rubber companies who established their plantations on lands on which Bunong were historically dwelling.
The lawsuit and negotiations with the companies are still going on. BIPA got involved in this case in 2009, we were there from the start and brought complaints of the suffering communities directly to the companies. BIPA supported Bu Sra’s villagers to engage in indigenous communal land titling and in negotiations with the companies.
Past activities
In order to address the land conflicts with the rubber companies more effectively, the villagers set up a tripartite committee to negotiate with SOCFIN (one of the companies present in Bu Sra) and local authorities to claim reparation for the negative impacts of the plantation and a fair share of revenues. Thanks to the sustained efforts of BIPA, in 2015 the company agreed to participate in tripartite negotiations also involving local government authorities. Among other solutions, the company agreed to compensate the villagers for some of the graveyards they had been desecrating while establishing their plantation. In 2016, BIPA found two lawyers from Global Diligence who provided pro-bono legal support of the tri-partite negotiations during several months. This effort got unfortunately interrupted by an alternative process that still has to bring proof of results. In the meantime, we focus on increasing awareness and protecting Bunong cultural landscape and sacred sites.