Topic: Corporate accountability

Investigating the methods corporations use to evade accountability for deforestation, driving climate change, rights abuses and violating laws.

Main Stories

Brands drop First Resources following investigation by The Gecko Project

Other companies pledge to investigate as pressure mounts over shadow companies

How secrecy jurisdictions enable the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests

As transparency efforts stall, Indonesia's leading deforesters remain able to hide their beneficial owners.

Read more reporting on "Chasing Shadows" from international media

Coverage builds on findings of The Gecko Project investigation

Success of Indonesian peatland restoration in doubt as fire season sets in

Government data suggests large areas of the country’s peatlands may be vulnerable to burning

Major brands bought palm oil from plantation rife with modern slavery and torture

Tricked into captivity in a “drug rehabilitation” facility, victims faced forced labour and death

New player starts clearing rainforest in world’s biggest oil palm project

The Digoel Agri Group has begun operating in an Indonesia megaproject being fought over by investors from around the world

Analysis: Can Papuan politicians protect forests without protecting the rule of law?

Our recent investigation reveals tensions between policies to protect Indonesian rainforest and a desire for investment at any cost.

Follow the permits

How to identify corruption red flags in Indonesian land deals

Indonesia reboots effort to end corporate secrecy as anonymous firms destroy Papuan rainforest

Indonesian companies were given until March this year to disclose their “beneficial owners” under a 2018 presidential regulation, but less than 1 percent have complied.

Related Articles

Analysis: How do oil palm companies get away with disregarding Indonesian law?

Tania Li, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto, argues that companies can act with impunity because of corporate-state collusion and a lack of organised resistance

Rainforests fall for Indonesia’s food estate programme

Politically-connected firm seeks to profit from stripped back regulations

The Consultant

Why did a palm oil conglomerate pay $22m to an unnamed ‘expert’ in Papua?

Saving Aru

The epic battle to save the islands that inspired the theory of evolution

What we learned from two years of investigating corrupt land deals in Indonesia

And what it says about how to fix the nation’s deforestation and land rights crisis.

A carbon bomb in Papua: 7 takeaways from our investigation

What you need to know from our groundbreaking investigation, The secret deal to destroy paradise

Does Indonesia’s storied anti-graft agency have a blind spot for corrupt land deals?

The KPK may yet have a chilling effect on companies' ability to operate with impunity across vast areas of unexploited rainforest.

How corrupt elections fuel the sell-off of Indonesia’s natural resources

There is every indication that permit selling in the agribusiness and extractive sectors is rife across Indonesia, even if the true extent remains hidden.

Ghosts in the Machine

The land deals behind the downfall of Indonesia’s top judge

It's time to confront Indonesian politicians' collusion with the palm oil industry

Our investigation reveals the deep connections between the palm oil industry and the corruption of Indonesian democracy.

The making of a palm oil fiefdom

The story of money, power and politics behind the devastation of a forest-rich district in Indonesian Borneo.