3 June 2020

Community representatives in Indonesia have filed a complaint against the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank, for its indirect financing of a potentially devastating HeidelbergCement limestone mine and cement factory on their territory in Central Java. According to the complaint, which was filed on the eve of the company's annual shareholders meeting in Heidelberg, if the project goes ahead it will contribute to the destruction of local livelihoods, water resources vital to agriculture, the local ecosystem, and sites sacred to indigenous Samin communities.

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If developed, the project is expected to destroy the Kendeng karst mountain area, which is sacred to the local Samin communities. The Samin are an Indigenous People who have firmly rejected the project and refused to give their free, prior and informed consent to mining on their territory. They are concerned that the development would wreak havoc on local water resources and threaten the livelihoods of thousands of families across Kendeng.

"The water from the Kendeng mountains feeds our farms, which feed our families,” stated the complainants. “Mining, whether big or small, will greatly threaten this water source, which will in turn threaten our very survival. Companies that come to our land must not just think about their benefit, but about the people who will die because of their investment. This is why we do not give our consent to the cement project.”

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