The arrival of the J7Explorer ship, owned by coal magnate Haji Isam, has sparked renewed concerns in the Aru Islands about plans to convert forests into a 60,000-hectare (150,000-acre) cattle ranch.Haji Isam, a well-known tycoon with extensive family ties to the Indonesian government, is understood to have arrived to conduct a survey.Previously, the Aru Islands faced a similar threat when former district leader Theddy Tengko signed over land for a sugar plantation. Tengko, later convicted of embezzling nearly $5 million, had removed the conservation status of the rainforests without consulting the Indigenous population.Activists, including those behind the internationally known #SaveAru campaign, successfully protested the sugar plantation, leveraging social media and international support to highlight illegalities and public outcry. However, renewed efforts are now focused on preventing the subsequent deforestation plans, with local communities and activists rallying against any moves to clear forests.
ARU ISLANDS, Indonesia — When the ship with “J7Explorer” embossed across its hull approached the shoreline on May 13, some on the Aru Islands assumed the greenish hulk was an Indonesian warship from a nearby naval base.
As the boat docked, it towered more than four times higher than the waiting SUVs parked below. A yellow go-faster stripe streaked from stern to bow.
“Whose ship is this?” asked Theo Pekpekay, an Aru youth activist who watched the ship dock at Serwatu harbor.
“This is definitely a warning that a new threat is coming,” he added.
Anxieties remain in the Aru Islands district that much of this small eastern archipelago could soon be cleared of its rich rainforest and converted to a vast 60,000-hectare (150,000-acre) cattle ranch. The power behind that plan is a well-known tycoon from Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island.
The boat’s owner, boy racer and coal magnate Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad, is a familiar name to many around the Aru archipelago. Most know the Kalimantan-born tycoon and founder of the Jhonlin Group of companies as Haji Isam.
An aide held an umbrella over Isam as the oligarch quickened his stride through light rain toward a waiting helicopter, which was painted yellow and flecked with black tiger stripes.
Haji Isam is a coal magnate with extended family ties to high levels of Indonesia’s government. His cousin is Indonesia’s agriculture minister and his uncle the governor of South Kalimantan province. Isam is a well-known business associate of Bambang Soesatyo, a gun-loving former parliamentary speaker who wants to abolish direct elections for Indonesia’s presidency.
The Aru archipelago, consisting of nearly 100 small islands in eastern Indonesia, is about the size of Puerto Rico. It was connected to the Australian landmass until rising sea levels caused a separation 8,000 years ago. Currently, the islands are home to approximately 100,000 people and are located more than 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Jakarta.
Haji Isam and his entourage upon arrival at Rar Gwamar Airport. Image by Johan.
Sugar rush
In the late 2000s, the elected leader of the Aru Islands, retired army colonel Theddy Tengko, signed over most of the archipelago’s land to be converted into a chain of sugar plantations. Prior to this, prosecutors had charged him with corruption, alleging he embezzled nearly $5 million from the district’s annual budget.
Theddy was convicted in 2012, but his legal team kept him out of prison until 2013, when he was forcibly detained upon arriving in Aru. Police officers bundled him onto a plane, and he died of a heart attack in prison after a tennis match the following year. While in office, Theddy had quietly removed the conservation status of Aru’s rainforests without consulting the affected Indigenous population.
When the Aruese first learned of the sugarcane project, they protested in the island district’s main town of Dobo, but gained little outside attention until a team of activists in the provincial capital, Ambon, led by Pastor Jacky Manuputty, joined their cause. They created a campaign called #SaveAru, leveraging social media despite connectivity challenges to spread their message and gather international support.
To combat the project, activists conducted their own investigations, uncovering illegal permit processes and dubious corporate practices by the firm behind the project, the Menara Group.
They engaged influential institutions like Pattimura University and the Protestant Church of Maluku, which helped debunk the project’s pseudoscientific claims and rallied against the destruction of local livelihoods and the environment.
The grassroots movement, driven by the Aruese people and supported by national and international allies, highlighted the widespread opposition to the sugarcane project.
Women played a crucial role, both in protests and cultural resistance, reinforcing the community’s deep connection to their land and resources, ultimately making it impossible for officials to ignore the illegalities and public outcry, leading to the project’s cancellation.
Since then, attention has switched to plans to convert a smaller chunk of the archipelago into a livestock hub.
Read more: Saving Aru: The epic battle to save the islands that inspired the theory of evolution
The youth of Aru protesting large-scale cattle farms. Image by Johan.
Local beef
Renewed concern for the fate of these islands emerged after Haji Isam welcomed president-elect Prabowo Subianto on the tarmac of an airport in South Kalimantan, just weeks after Prabowo was elected president for a five-year term beginning in October this year.
The arrival of Isam to the Aru Islands this year has compounded local anxieties that the cattle ranch development may be reactivated.
“It is reasonable to pose the question, what does it mean when a yacht suddenly docks at a port where ferries usually dock?” said Beni Alatubir, a spokesperson for a youth organization in Aru.
The elected head of Aru Islands district, Johan Gonga, then met with Isam in his office. When confronted two days later by the youth group, Gonga initially denied knowing anything about the yacht’s arrival. He later conceded that the visitors had told him they were in the region to carry out a survey on Trangan, one of the islands in the Aru archipelago, according to Beni, who was among those grilling the district chief.
Dozens of students gathered to protest the cattle plans on Trangan on May 22. The students said the arrival of industrial farming would damage traditional agriculture and squeeze the customary land used by the Popjetur Indigenous community.
“We reject the cultivation and farming of cattle in Popjetur village,” the students exclaimed during a demonstration outside the Aru district council building.
Natural forest landscape in Popjetur, southern Aru. Image courtesy of Forest Watch Indonesia.
The people of Aru carrying out the tradition of hunting according to custom in the savanna. Image courtesy of Forest Watch Indonesia.
Dace Faturey, a youth activist from the Fanan traditional community on Aru’s Kobror Island, said the savanna land in Trangan wasn’t an appropriate location for cattle.
In late 2022, Mongabay Indonesia reported that four companies belonging to Isam’s Jhonlin Group had received early-stage location permits from Gonga, with the head of the Maluku Forestry Service saying they still needed approval from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry before they could proceed and the head of Aru’s Agricultural Service saying there was “no certainty” as to whether the project would go forward. Requests for comment to multiple ministry officials were not answered at the time
Mufti Fathul Barri, executive director of Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI), an NGO, said Isam’s visit to Aru may have been to explore potential ventures beyond the 60,000-hectare cattle ranch.
“Apart from targeting potential natural resources,” Mufti said, “I suspect it is also to secure land for which permits have been issued for other investments.”
Banner image: Youth activists rejecting cattle farming on Trangan Island. Image by Johan.
This story was reported by Mongabay’s Indonesia team and first published here on our Indonesian site on May 31, 2024.
In Indonesia’s Aru Islands, a popular eco-defender climbs the political ladder
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