Presentation long abstract

Climate crisis has put pressures on national governments to adopt energy transition policies. Indonesian government decides to focus on biofuel development, whose input among others rely on palm oil. Critics to such national agenda emphasizes a just transition perspective, which considers the voices of not only workers, but also affected communities, including women and marginal groups. Palm oil development in Indonesia has been accused for its adverse social and environmental effects, and, thus, energy transition agenda will intensify such impacts. In this effort of re-imagining a just transition, this paper invites a reconsideration in which monoculture oil palm plantation is viewed as waste. This in particular implies a theoretical examination on how the plantation system produces labour-gender-nature nexus of wasted bodies and wasted nature. Drawing insights from ecofeminist political economy, this paper examines labour struggles of casual women workers on oil palm plantations for secured employment. While women are mainly employed with casual employment status on oil palm plantations, plantation companies may agree to the demand of women workers for secured employment after they work for a lengthy period of time. Drawing on a case study on oil palm plantations in Sambas, West Kalimantan, this paper argues that the success story of women workers in demanding permanent employment must also be understood within the context of the production of wasted bodies and wasted nature through monoculture oil palm plantation.