Indonesia produces millions of tonnes of palm oil each year, much of it destined for supermarket shelves in Europe and the U.S., where it goes into everything from frozen pizza to laundry detergent.

When the industry began to take off in Indonesia in the 1970s, communities were supposed to benefit by getting a share of large-scale plantations, a portion known as “plasma.” Initially the government encouraged and incentivized this through policies and subsidised financing. From 2007, it became a legal requirement for companies to share a fifth of any new plantation with communities.

Together with BBC News and Mongabay, we investigated problems within Indonesia's plasma scheme. Our first investigation found villagers are losing millions of dollars every year because plantation firms are failing to comply with the law and discontent over the plasma scheme is driving protests across the country. Our second investigation found that after giving up their land to enter plasma "partnerships" managed by companies, people were left with incomes below the international poverty line, with some struggling to pay-off multi-million dollar debts.