West Papuans in Merauke claim the Indonesian government is stealing land to build its global “food barn” and feed its population of 280 million.

Indonesia denies this and says all transactions are lawful.

President Prabowo Subianto’s administration wants Indonesia to be able to feed its population without imports as early as 2028, with the greater goal of exporting food.

• READ MORE: Other West Papua reports

To get there, Indonesia plans to convert millions of hectares into farmland.

Wensi Fatubun, from Merauke in Indonesian-occupied Papua close to Papua New Guinea’s border, said forests where he grew up were being cleared.

“[The] Indonesian government took the land for the [food] security project, it was not consulted with or consented to by Indigenous Papuans,” Fatubun said.

Prabowo’s goal is a continuation of his predecessors.

National food estate project
In 2020, President Joko Widodo announced the establishment of a national food estate project which aimed at opening up new areas of farmland outside the Java main island,

It is similar to the failed Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate, spearheaded by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2010.

About 1.3 million hectares were set aside in Merauke for it — half for food crops, 30 percent sugar cane, and 20 percent for palm.

A report from the US Department of Agriculture said it encountered resistance from locals and legal challenges.

“Approximately 90 percent of the targeted areas were forest, which provided a source of livelihood for many locals. Accordingly, the development plans became a flashpoint for local activists concerned about environmental and biodiversity impacts,” the report said.

Probowo’s government has a more ambitious goal of opening up 3 million ha of agricultural land in Merauke — two million for rice and one million for sugarcane.

Human Rights Watch Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono said President Prabowo had elevated the “so-called food security issue”.

“[The President] wants Merauke in West Papua to be the so-called national food barn. This deforestation land grabbing is much more deeper in Merauke than in the past.”

Conflict has escalated
Harsono said conflict had escalated in West Papua and was now on par with some of the most violent periods in the past 60 years, but he was not sure if it was connected to the President’s focus on food security.

BenarNews reported that about 2000 troops had been deployed late last year in Merauke to provide security at a 2 million ha food plantation.

Rosa Moiwend, from Merauke, said the soldiers worked alongside farmers.

“They are expected to teach local farmers how to use mechanical agriculture equipment,” Moiwend said.

“But as West Papuan people, the presence of the military in the middle of the community, watching communities activities, people’s movement when they travel from one place to another, actually creates fear among the people in Merauke.”

Like Harsono and Fatubun, Moiwend said “land grabs” were happening.

However, she said it still involved a land broker, which created a facade of a fair procedure.

‘We do not sell land’
“Indigenous Merauke, indigenous Marind people like myself and my people, we do not sell land because land belongs to the community. It is communal land.”

However, a spokesperson for Indonesia’s Embassy in Wellington said all processes and steps involving land sales had been lawful, “always respecting the inclinations of local tribes”.

“Its development always involving local authorities, especially chief tribes for the consent of their ulayat (traditional land),” they said.

“There is no land grab without consent, and the government also working on the biodiversity conservation and forestry production to create space harmonisation model with Conservation International, Medco Group, and couple of other independent organisations.”

‘They are stripping communities’ – campaigner
West Papua Action Aotearoa spokesperson Catherine Delahunty, formerly a Green Party MP, said the region was part of the lungs of the Pacific, which was now being destroyed.

“The plan has been around for a long time but it seems to have escalated under Prabowo,” Delahunty said.

“They are stripping those lands and stripping those communities who live there from their traditional foods such as the sago palm to turn the whole of Merauke into sugar cane, rice and palm plantations.

“The effects have been massive and they’re just getting worse.”

She said New Zealand and Australia — the two “most powerful” governments in the South Pacific — were failing in their obligations to the citizens of West Papua.

“You could almost justify, because it’s a long way away from other parts of the world, that Europe and the northern hemisphere don’t really understand West Papua but there’s no excuse for us.

“These people are in our region but they’re not white people. I think there’s a huge element of racism towards Papuans and towards Pacific nations who aren’t perceived as important in the Western worldview.”

She said there was willingness to trade with Indonesia as a regional powerhouse, and New Zealand did not want to rock the boat.

That coupled with a media blackout made it easy for Indonesia to act with impunity, Delahunty said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Extensive damage to food crops across South Pacific atolls has followed three days of high spring tides in the region.

Reports into The Pacific Newsroom show the tides have afflicted Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and the archipelago islands of Papua New Guinea.

Videos show extensive damage in villages as the tides sweep in.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific climate change reports

Tide charts predict there will be another night of it tonight.

The phenomena is not directly related to global warming and sea level rise, but is an ominous pointer to what could happen.

Known as a perigean spring tide, it is influenced by the new Moon. The one underway now is the 11th and last for this year.

Why this one has proven so damaging in the Pacific is likely to be a result of the developing La Niña. Sea level rise could also be a factor. In places like the Marshall Islands winds were also helping create big swells.

Impact on Carteret Islands
One place dramatically affected this week are the Carteret Islands, part of PNG’s autonomous Bougainville region. Home to 2600 people, and already sinking due to a combination of seismic and global warming effects, it appears to have suffered extensive sea water contamination of its gardens.

Low lying areas around Malaita’s main town of Auki, in the Solomon Islands, suggest serious problems there.

Flooding in Auki, Malaita, Solomon Islands. Image: Tim Saki Misimake

Video shows extensive damage occurring on the islands in Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia.

The Pacific Island Times quotes FSM President David W. Panuelo saying they are aware of what is happening.

“We are watching what’s happening,” he said in a statement. “I would ask our citizens to feel assured that their government is aware of what’s happening, and is ready to take action.”

Giff Johnson in the Marshall Islands said there was not so much damage but a big clean up was needed. They were expecting more tonight.

Majuro airport road flooded
Writing for the Mariana Variety he said at Majuro roads by Amata Kabua International Airport in Majuro were down to single lane traffic Monday afternoon as heavy equipment operators moved up and down the long roadway clearing rocks and debris that blocked the road from inrushing tidal water.

Waves washing over boulder barriers caused flooding on the roads half a meter deep before receding.

Aotearoa climate researcher Dr Murray Ford of Auckland University told Johnson he believed sea level rise was a major factor in this week’s events.

“An event like this would have been relatively innocuous in the 1990s, but sea level is notably higher today then back then. Sea level rise is increasing the frequency and magnitude of these sorts of events.”

Dr Ford said Monday’s inundation came during “the highest tide of the month at 2.14 metres.”

From Nauru, Formosa Emiu, wrote of being spooked by the ocean creeping up the backyard: “No sand or reef or rocky pinnacles seen, no noise or crashing waves, very calm, but very high sea level”.

• Pacific tide charts are available here

Asia Pacific Report is a partner of The Pacific Newsroom. Republished with permission.

Climate change and the Carterets yesterday. Video: Bougainville Today