Published by
Mongabay
Mongabay
BESITANG, Indonesia — Suwardi, a 51-year-old from Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, used to work as a laborer for a landlord who managed oil palm and rubber plantations in his home village of Harapan Maju, near Gunung Leuser National Park. He also cultivated a dream: to own his own farmland. One day, about four years ago, Suwardi thought he had an opportunity to get closer to his dream. A man who claimed to control a nearby plot of land, already cleared of vegetation and ready for planting, offered to let Suwardi manage it for a fair price. The land lay inside the national park, but Suwardi …