For centuries, the indigenous Dayak people of Indonesian Borneo lived from the abundant forests and rivers that blanketed the region. They depend on the forest for food, medicinal plants, non-timber forest products and water.  Now, BHP Billiton is planning to build a series of massive coal mines that would destroy primary rainforest, deprive indigenous peoples of their customary land and pollute water sources relied on by one million people. The project will directly impact ten villages surrounding the concession areas, affecting an estimated 10,000 people. 

The IndoMet Project is located deep in Central Kalimantan in an area known as the Heart of Borneo. Covering an area the size of England and Scotland combined and spanning three countries, the Heart of Borneo is one of the largest transboundary rainforests remaining in the world. According to WWF, which has been closely involved in managing the Heart of Borneo initiative, the area is home to six percent of the world's biodiversity, contains the headwaters for 14 of Kalimantan's 20 major rivers and provides food, water and livelihoods to 11 million people.    

The seven concessions granted to BHP Billiton contain an estimated 75,000 hectares of primary forest in central Borneo, forests recognised globally for their biodiversity. The area provides habitat for orangutans, pygmy elephants, clouded leopards, rhinoceros, proboscis monkeys and numerous other rare and endangered species. Such is the biological richness of these vast remote forests that new animal and plant species are discovered every year.

The secondary forests inside the concession areas provide a refuge for large numbers of orangutans who are already critically endangered and have already been displaced by rampant land-clearing in the more accessible lowland regions. If IndoMet goes ahead, their habitat will be threatened and they will face displacement once more. The area is also the headwaters for the Barito River, one of the main arteries of Central and South Kalimantan, providing water, transport and sustenance for millions.

The project has already led to conflict in Maruwei, a village of 700 people near the Haju mine, the first of BHP Billiton’s mining operations in the area. Global Justice Now has documented how Maruwei residents were forced to accept token payments of 100 rupiah, the equivalent of half a UK penny, per square metre for an area of their customary forest in 2006.

The local community did not possess formal deeds to the land. BHP Billiton was able to claim that the paltry amounts given to local people were goodwill payments rather than compensation. BHP Billiton could take possession of the land without the informed consent of the community. This runs contrary to BHP Billiton's commitments to obtaining the free prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples. As a member of the International Council on Metals and Mining, BHP Billiton has committed to obtaining the consent of indigenous peoples for mining operations affecting their land, including for "customary owners or occupants of land or resources."  

Said Yesmaida, wife of the head of the village of Maruwei: "we signed the agreement about the land with BHP but honestly did not understand. The compensation was one million rupiah (about GBP50) per hectare of land. The communities did not agree this price and there was no process of negotiation. They just came and asked us to sign the form and then gave us the cash. Someone who had three hectares of land got three million, two hectares got two million...we do not want BHP to operate along the Beriwit."  

For the construction of the railway, which would be done in a private-public partnership, another 27,000 hectare of land need to be acquired. Yet so far no attempt to consult communities in the rail corridor has been made.