This story is related to the landscape initiative “The Mosaik Initiative”, and originally published on SourceUp.
Land, Rights, and Resolve: Seruyan’s Path to Inclusive Sustainability
Seruyan is leading a district-wide effort to address social challenges in commodity production. Through the Mosaik Initiative, the district is developing Jurisdictional Social Indicators—tools to measure progress in achieving social sustainability. These indicators guide actions on conflict resolution, recognition of indigenous land rights, Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), protection of human rights defenders, workers’ rights, gender equality, and the elimination of child labour. Together, these efforts reflect Seruyan’s commitment to shaping a palm oil landscape grounded in justice and inclusivity, and to advancing a broader transformation toward district-level sustainability.
At the heart of this progress are village paralegals. These trained community members serve as bridges to justice at the grassroots level, combining conflict data collection with resolution capacity. They provide legal aid, support access to legal services, and raise awareness of rights. With their presence, disputes can be addressed earlier, fairer, and closer to the people affected.
This article presents Seruyan’s progress in addressing social issues, organized into key themes based on the Jurisdictional Social Indicators. It highlights achievements, challenges, and lessons from the ground, showing how these issues are being addressed in practice. It explores conflict data collection, monitoring, and resolution; the role of paralegals as bridges to justice; recognition of Indigenous land rights; the implementation of FPIC; and efforts to strengthen labour rights, gender equality, and child protection. In this way, Seruyan is working to shape a district-wide sustainability model that places justice and inclusion at its core.
The article can be downloaded here: https://kaleka.id/publication/land-rights-and-resolve-seruyans-path-to-incl