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.

A West Papuan doctoral candidate has warned that indigenous noken-weaving practices back in her homeland are under threat with the world’s biggest deforestation project.

About 60 people turned up for the opening of her “Noken/Men: String Bags of the Muyu Tribe of Southern West Papua” exhibition by Veronika T Kanem at Auckland University today and were treated to traditional songs and dances by a group of West Papuan students from Auckland and Hamilton.

The three-month exhibition focuses on the noken — known as “men” — of the Muyu tribe from southern West Papua and their weaving cultural practices.

• READ MORE: Other West Papua noken reports

It is based on Kanem’s research, which explores the socio-cultural significance of the noken/men among the Muyu people, her father’s tribe.

“Indigenous communities in southern Papua are facing the world’s biggest deforestation project underway in West Papua as Indonesia looks to establish 2 million hectares  of sugarcane and palm oil plantations in the Papua region,” she said.

West Papua has the third-largest intact rainforest on earth and indigenous communities are being forced off their land by this project and by military.

The ancient traditions of noken-weaving are under threat.

Natural fibres, tree bark
Noken — called bilum in neighbouring Papua New Guinea — are finely woven or knotted string bags made from various natural fibres of plants and tree bark.

“Noken contains social and cultural significance for West Papuans because this string bag is often used in cultural ceremonies, bride wealth payments, child initiation into adulthood, and gifts,” Kanem said.

“This string bag has different names depending on the region, language and dialect of local tribes. For the Muyu — my father’s tribe — in Southern West Papua, they call it ‘men’.

In West Papua, noken symbolises a woman’s womb or a source of life because this string bag is often used to load tubers, garden harvests, piglets, and babies.

“My research examines the Muyu people’s connection to their land, forest, and noken weaving,” said Kanem.

“Muyu women harvest the genemo (Gnetum gnemon) tree’s inner fibres to make noken, and gift-giving noken is a way to establish and maintain relationships from the Muyu to their family members, relatives and outsiders.

“Drawing on the Melanesian and Indigenous research approaches, this research formed noken weaving as a methodology, a research method, and a metaphor based on the Muyu tribe’s knowledge and ways of doing things.”

Hosting pride
Welcoming the guests, Associate Professor Gordon Nanau, head of Pacific Studies, congratulated Kanem on the exhibition and said the university was proud to be hosting such excellent Melanesian research.

Professor Yvonne Underhill-Sem, Kanem’s primary supervisor, was also among the many speakers, including Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai of Lagi Maama, and Daren Kamali of Creative New

The exhibition provides insights into the refined artistry, craft and making of noken/men string bags, personal stories, and their functions.

An 11 minute documentary on the weaving process and examples of noken from Waropko, Upkim, Merauke, Asmat, Wamena, Nabire and Paniai was also screened, and a booklet is expected to be launched soon.

• The exhibition is at the Pacific Collaborative Space, L1, Herenga Matauranga Whanui, General Library Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, until July 3.

Civil society groups wanting to see an end to destructive logging practices by foreign companies in Papua New Guinea, say these companies are being given forest clearance authorities and then misusing them.

The PNG advocacy group, Act Now!, and Jubilee Australia said the forest clearance authorities (FCAs) are intended to allow limited pockets of forest to be cleared for agricultural or other use.

Eddie Tanago of Act Now! said a case study they conducted into West Sepik’s Wammy Rural Development Project, which is run by Malaysian logging company Global Elite Ltd, was meant to result in the planting of palm oil and rubber trees.

• LISTEN TO RNZ PACIFIC WAVES: Large scale logging continues in PNG despite Govt opposition
• READ MORE: Other PNG illegal logging reports

“Instead, it used it as a front. And we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of round logs being exported. Now, this particular operation has been going on for almost 10 years, and this company has sold more than US$31 million worth of round logs,” he said.

Tanago said there was no sign of any attempt to rehabilitate the land for other use.

ACT Now! said the Wammy project was also breaking other laws because the land was subject to the SABL (Special Agricultural Business Leases) Commission of Inquiry in 2013 and it was evident then that the landowners’ free, prior and informed consent had never been given, so there should not have been any logging on it.

Tanago said Wammy was just one of about 24 logging operations making use of an FCA licence, resulting in huge quantities of logs being exported.

“Together this activity exploiting FCAs covers about 61,800 hectares of forest, and that’s equivalent to about 11,000 football fields. So that’s really, really massive,” he said.

Act Now is “calling on the Forest Board and the PNG Forest Authority to extend the current moratorium on the new FCAs”.

“There was one that was announced in the beginning of this year that says that they were not going to issue any new FCAs. We want that to extend. We want logging in all the existing FCAs to be also suspended. And there should be a comprehensive public review of these projects.”

The PNG government has previously stated it wanted to end round log exports by 2025, but Act Now! points out that in the first six months of the current year exports have totalled 1.1 million cubic metres.

“The export log volumes now are currently very high. And the PNG Forest Authority is really failing to meet the reduction targets as set down in the medium term plan,” he sid.

“This is in breach of the targets that are set out by the government, plus, all the promises that we’ve seen, like the recent one bill made by Prime Minister [James] Marape when the French President was around.”

On the visit to PNG, President Emmanuel Macron and Marape visited a lookout in the Varirata National Park picnic area, renaming it the Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frederic Macron lookout point.

The Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) reports that the walk through the lush national park was underlined by the signing of a new environment initiative — backed by French and European Union financing — that will reward countries that preserve their rainforests.

Marape said the country’s rainforest was the third largest and undisturbed tropical rainforest in the world and preserving its integrity was of the utmost importance.

Act Now! would agree, saying PNG has to be looking to preserve the rainforest and reduce deforestation, but the current signs are not good.

RNZ Pacific contacted Global Elite Ltd for comment on this story but there was no response.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. The audio was first broadcast on Friday, 15 September 2023.

Greenpeace Indonesia’s forest campaigner Nico Wamafma says the West Papua region has lost 641,400 ha of its natural forests in the two decades between 2000-2020 in massive deforestation.

Greenpeace’s research shows this deforestation occurred mainly due to the increasingly widespread licensing of land-based extractive industries that damage the rights of indigenous peoples.

Wamafma said that the total forests loss consisted of 438,000 ha spread across Papua, Central Papua, Mountainous Papua and South Papua provinces.

• READ MORE: Other West Papua deforestation reports

The remaining 203,000 ha were lost in West Papua and Southwest Papua provinces.

“In the last two decades, we lost a lot of forests in Merauke, Boven Digoel, Mimika, Mappi, Nabire, Fakfak, Teluk Bintuni, Manokwari, Sorong and Kaimana,” Wamafma told Jubi in a telephone interview

Papua is losing natural forests due to the licensing of land-based extractive industries, such as mining, Industrial Plantation Forest (HTI), Forest Concession Rights (HPH), and oil palm plantations.

Wamafma said the formation of four new provinces resulting from the division of Papua had also accelerated the rate of deforestation in Papua.

He said that if the government continued to take a development approach like the last 20 years that relied on investment, the potential for natural forest loss would be even greater in Papua.

Wamafma said there were now 34.4 million ha of natural forests in Papua.

Republished from Tabloid Jubi with permission.

Prime Minister James Marape delivered a shock yesterday when he announced his full cabinet, with coffee, oil palm and livestock — three of PNG’s traditional cash crops — getting their own ministries.

The separate portfolios were created from what used to be the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry in the 32-man cabinet Marape appointed yesterday.

The line-up had several notable omissions, while a few raised eyebrows like the appointment of Richard Maru, leader of the People First Party, as International Trade Minister.

• READ MORE: Women – just two – back in PNG’s Parliament but more needs doing
• Other PNG election reports

It is too early to say whether the appointments have gone down well with everyone in the government ranks, however.

In the line-up yesterday, Pangu bagged much of the portfolios, followed by United Resources Party with five, while the United Labour Party and the PNG National Party were the obvious ones left out.

“We have broken up several ministries into smaller ministries to ensure accountability to deliver in relation to the budget.

“We have joined the transport sector with Civil Aviation, and police and CS are now part of one ministry,” Marape said.

Foreign affairs, trade separated
“Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Investment have been separated into two different ministries, now we have Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Ministry for International Trade and Investment.”

“We have carefully extracted international investment and trade and built emphasis around its importance by creating a separate ministry that is responsible for it. Investment and trade are the backbone of domestic production. One cannot exist without the other.

“The appointments specifically spotlight agriculture in a very significant way. It is the strongest emphasis yet, by any government, in agriculture growth in the country. It again shows that the government is willing to do what it takes to meet the full expectations of our people in agriculture.

“Agriculture is where the government can have the greatest impact in terms of the population of this country, because the bulk of our people are subsistence farmers. We have land, so we must encourage our people to go into agriculture production.

“In one swift action we now have a Minister for Livestock, Minister for Coffee, Minister for Palm Oil, and the main agriculture Minister.

“We are placing very strong emphasis on the subsectors that will have the greatest impact for our people. We are going to set targets and these specific ministers will be required to take specific action to ensure that their subsectors meet their targets. There is no mistaking what our focus is on this government.”

Marape said his cabinet fairly reflected experience, continuity, and regional balance.

He has chosen carefully from a pool of talented and capable leaders in government, and the appointments reflect competence and ability.

All four regions are represented in cabinet with 10 MPs — including Marape — from the Highlands region, 10 MPs from Mamose, six from New Guinea Islands and six from the Southern region.

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

The Indonesian government has filed a K105.6 million (US$30 million) writ against Papua New Guinea, naming two senior officials as persons of interest toward the illegal shipments of hazardous materials.

The two officials named are acting managing director for Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) Gunther Joku and State Solicitor Daniel Rolpagarea.

Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry-Basel Protocol’s Department’s Chief Compliance Officer Siti Muhammad told the Post-Courier they had been given the cold shoulder by the PNG government over the issue.

• READ MORE: Other PNG environmental reports

Last week the Indonesian government, in a letter addressed to the CEPA’s’s acting managing director Gunther Joku demanded that the PNG government pay a fine of K105.6 million (US$30 million) in 14 days for the management and storage of six illegal oil shipments.

Muhammad said that by 1 August 2022 PNG would be required to seek written approval from Indonesia Environment prior to the loading of any oil-related products, including but not limited to HS 1511 – Palm Oil HS 2710 – Crude Oil.

“We have advised Sime Darby (Malaysia) of the new process required effective August 1 2022 toward any oil palm shipments which transit through our waters and Indonesia Customs is advising PNG customs as such,” she said.

“It is my intent to ensure that any shipments coming from Papua New Guinea are monitored and checked for correct information due to the ongoing mislabeling issues.

Filed a writ
“We have filed a writ against the State of Papua New Guinea, naming Mr Gunther Joku and Mr Daniel Rolpagarea as persons of interest toward the illegal shipments of Hazardous Materials from Papua New Guinea and they will be advised in due course and requested to attend the hearing in Jakarta.”

Muhammad said they were currently planning a ban on any oil shipments through Indonesian waters either to or from PNG until such a time they had assurance that the products which were being claimed, were indeed what were being shipped.

This includes oil palm and crude oil.

“The waters of Indonesia are critical to the Asia-Pacific region and we acknowledge that on the previous instance of PNG causing a spill from an illegal shipment, no recognition or rectification was provided,” Muhammad said.

“Our waters provide transit for fuel to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Closing our waters due to an issue from Papua New Guinea will see the entire Indo-Pacific shut down and provide an unthinkable security risk to the region.

“Many countries will suffer if our waterways are blocked due to this occurrence. Indonesia will not take such risks purely because Papua New Guinea lacks the interest to implement programs which she has signed to.”

Melisha Yafoi is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Amnesty International Indonesia is urging the government — and the police in particular — to tighten supervision of the palm oil industry following the finding of a human cage with at least 27 people living there at the home of non-active Langkat Regent Terbit Rencana Perangin Angin, reports CNN Indonesia.

Amnesty International executive director Usman Hamid said that greater supervision of the palm oil industry was needed because the business sector was prone to exploitation of workers, traditional communities and the environment.

“Moreover this is not the first time that the exploitation of workers has occurred in Indonesia’s palm oil industry. In 2016, Amnesty International found serious human rights violations at several palm oil plantations in Indonesia,” he said in a media release.

• READ MORE: Other Indonesian human rights reports

“The findings included forced labour, the use of child labour, gender discrimination and labour practices which were exploitative and endangered workers.”

Amnesty said that the human cage found at the Langkat regent’s house was of great concern.

Hamid said that he could not imagine how the practice of human slavery could have gone on for years.

“Law enforcement officials must fully investigate this case and ensure that all of the people involved are brought before the courts in hearings which meet international standards on justice and not end with the application of the death penalty,” said Hamid.

UN convention against torture
Amnesty also reminded the state about the United Nations convention against torture, which Indonesia had ratified.

“The UN Convention on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishments also prohibits all forms of torture and inhuman treatment,” Hamid said.

In addition to this, he noted that Article 8 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) — which has been ratified by Indonesia — stated that no person could be treated as a slave or enslaved.

“All forms of torture are explicitly prohibited in a number of instruments on the protection of human rights, such as under Article 7 of the ICCPR for example,” Hamid said.

The finding of the human cage came to the fore after Migrant Care reported it to the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) on January 24. In its report, Migrant Care reported that there were seven alleged cases of slavery.

The human cage was found when a Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) team arrived at the Langkat regent’s house during a sting operation on January 18. At the time, the KPK team, which was backed by the police, found at least 27 people inhabiting a cage when it was conducting the raid.

Based on the results of a preliminary examination, the North Sumatra regional police said that it was claimed that the cage was used for narcotics rehabilitation and had been there since 2012 or around 10 years.

Dwelling had no licence
The dwelling referred to as a rehabilitation facility had no licence even though it had been known about by the Langkat National Narcotics Agency (BNN) since 2017.

National police spokesperson Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan said that the dozens of people occupying the cage at the regent’s house were also employed as palm oil factory workers, although they were not paid.

He said that they had recorded at least 48 people occupying the cage on the pretext of narcotics rehabilitation.

“Some were employed at the palm oil factory owned by the Langkat regent. [But] they were not paid a wage like [ordinary] workers,” Ramadhan told journalists.

Translated by James Balowski of IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Kerangkeng Manusia, Amnesty Minta Polisi Ketat Awasi Industri Sawit”.

West Papua indigenous independence leaders today launched  “Green State Vision” at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, pledging to take decisive action to address the climate emergency and the impact of natural resource extraction in an independent West Papua.

The Green State Vision was drafted with the assistance of international lawyers, including UK-based barrister Jennifer Robinson of Doughty Street Chambers, reports the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

It sets out commitments from West Papua’s “government-in-waiting”, including:

• Making ecocide a serious criminal offence;
• Restoring guardianship of natural resources to indigenous authorities, combining Western democratic norms with local Papuan systems; and
• ‘Serving notice’ on all extraction companies, including oil, gas, mining, logging and palm oil, requiring them to adhere to international environmental standards or cease operations.

In June 2021, a panel of international legal experts, co-chaired by Professor Philippe Sands QC, drafted a definition of ecocide intended for adoption by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

• READ MORE: The Green State Vision document
• Other West Papua articles

West Papua is half of the island of New Guinea, home to the world’s third largest rainforest after the Amazon and the Congo. West Papua is rich in natural resources, including one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines — the Freeport Indonesia mine at Grasberg —  and extensive sources of natural gas, minerals, timber and palm oil.

West Papua was a Dutch colony until 1961. The Indonesian military seized control in 1963.

The people indigenous to the provinces are Melanesian, ethnically distinct from the people of Indonesia. West Papua continues to be unlawfully occupied by Indonesia. Indonesia is currently the world’s largest exporter of palm oil.

West Papuans have contested Indonesia’s occupation for more than half a century, with Indonesian forces repeatedly accused of human rights violations and violent suppression of the independence movement.

According to recent reports, thousands of Indonesian soldiers have been deployed to West Papua in a crackdown, with civilians forced to flee and journalists and activists targeted.

In 2020, the ULMWP announced the formation of its Temporary Constitution and Provisional Government, with exiled leader Benny Wenda as interim president.

He will be a keynote speaker at the COP26 Coalition’s Global Day for Climate Justice rally tomorrow.

A “March Against Climate Colonialism” will be held on Sunday, November 7, starting at 1:30pm at 83 Argyle Street, Glasgow.

Benny Wenda, interim president of the ULMWP and provisional government, said: ‘We are fighting for stewardship of one of the planet’s largest rainforests, a lung of the world.

“The international climate movement and all governments serious about stopping climate change must help end Indonesia’s genocide of the first defenders in West Papua. If you want to save the world, you must save West Papua.”

Joe Corré, founder of Agent Provocateur, said: “This is a critical step towards protecting one of the world’s largest rainforests from catastrophic destruction caused by the illegal Indonesian occupation.

“The Indonesian government and military, supported by BP, are using violence, intimidation and murder to silence the indigenous inhabitants.”

Jennifer Robinson of Doughty Street Chambers said: “The unlawful occupation of West Papua by Indonesia is facilitating the destruction of one of the world’s most important rainforests.

“Ensuring West Papua’s right to self-determination will also ensure the protection of the environment and the climate by allowing the Indigenous custodians of the land to take back control, protection and management of their resources.’

Illegal palm oil plantations are destroying protected Indonesian rainforests and other habitats — and New Zealand’s industrial dairy sector is a major beneficiary, says a new environmental report.

The daming report, released yesterday by Greenpeace Indonesia, “Deceased Estate: Illegal palm oil wiping out Indonesia’s national forest”, finds palm oil plantation expansion in national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and even UNESCO sites, across Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua.

Palm oil expansion is the largest single cause of destruction of critical Indonesian rainforests over the past two decades.

• READ MORE: Fifth of Indonesia’s palm oil sites lie in protected forests, says Greenpeace
• The full Deceased Estate report
• Other Indonesian environmental reports

The Deceased Estate has report found that there are four palm oil producers with at least 50,000ha of oil palm plantations illegally established inside the protected forest estate.

These producers include Wilmar International which imports palm kernel expeller (PKE) to New Zealand.

PKE is a product of the palm oil industry used as supplementary feed in New Zealand’s industrial dairying.

“Back in 2020, when Fonterra handed control of its PKE imports to Wilmar International, Greenpeace warned of trouble to come,” Greenpeace Aotearoa agriculture campaigner Christine Rose said last night.

‘Illegal deforestation’
“Sadly we’re now seeing evidence of New Zealand agriculture benefiting from illegal deforestation for palm oil and PKE.”

New Zealand is the world’s largest importer of PKE, importing an estimated two million tonnes a year which is used to feed the dairy herd because there are too many cows for grass growth alone to sustain.

“New Zealand’s industrial dairying is cashing in on the destruction of endangered species, critical rainforest habitat and indigenous livelihoods in Indonesia,” said Rose.

“New Zealand’s intensive dairying benefits from ecological destruction in Indonesia while polluting rivers, the climate and drinking water at home.

“The New Zealand dairy sector’s use of PKE to support herd intensification and expansion, effectively outsources environmental costs onto some of the most diverse remaining forests and species in the world, and it has to stop.

“It’s unconscionable that New Zealand is complicit in the illegal expansion of palm oil plantations that undermine indigenous community land use and destroy the habitat of rare and endangered species such as Sumatran orangutans, tigers and elephants.”

‘Highly polluting’
Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling for an end to the importation of supplementary feed like PKE, “because it drives highly polluting dairy intensification in Aotearoa, contributes to rainforest destruction and increases climate emissions both here and in Indonesia.”

Clearance of Indonesian rainforest for palm oil released an estimated 104 Tg (million metric tons) of primary forest carbon from Indonesia’s forest estate between 2001-2019. This is equal to 60 percent of the annual emissions of international aviation.

Greenhouse gas emissions from NZ’s intensive dairy sector, supported by this illegal PKE, are 48 percent of this country’s total.

“With industrial agriculture being New Zealand’s biggest climate polluter, we need an urgent shift away from this high-input, industrial agribusiness model towards regenerative organic farming that works within the limits of nature,” said Rose.

The United Liberation Movement of West Papua has blamed the Indonesian military over the attack at a hospital in Kiwirok, near the Papua New Guinean border, in which a nurse was killed.

Interim president Benny Wenda of the ULMWP has issued a statement in response to accusations by the Indonesian authorities against the West Papuan army, saying that the upsurge in violence is because of the militarisation of the region to protect business and a “destroy them” policy directive from Jakarta against West Papuan resistance.

Indonesia has accused the West Papuan army of attacking the hospital and killing nurse Gabriella Meliani in Kiwirok.

• READ MORE: TPNPB allegedly attacks health center in Papua’s Kiwirok District, murders a nurse
• Other West Papua reports

But Wenda claimed, according to sources he has spoken to, the clash was started by an Indonesian migrant doctor threatening people with a pistol.

“This triggered a West Papua Army investigation. A nurse fled from the scene and fell down a slope, fatally injuring herself,” said Wenda.

Indonesia had deployed more than 21,000 new troops since December 2018, displacing tens of thousands of civilians from Nduga, Intan Jaya, Puncak Jaya and Sorong.

Not keeping Papuans safe
“These troops are not there to defend Indonesia’s ‘sovereignty’ or keep my people safe; they are there to protect illegal mining operations, to defend the palm oil plantations that are destroying our rainforest, and to help build the Trans-Papua Highway that will be used for Indonesian business – not for the people of West Papua,” Wenda said.

“The Indonesian government is creating violence and chaos to feed these troops. As the head of the Indonesian Parliament, Bambang Soesatyo, ordered, ‘destroy them first. We will discuss human rights matters later’.

“He reiterated this statement [on Monday], and was backed by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Mahfud Md.”

The killing of Pastor Yeremia Zanambani and his two brothers in April last year was an example of how this policy worked.

“Indonesian soldiers murdered the two brothers in April last year. Months later troops tortured and killed the pastor,” Wenda said.

Indonesian soldiers to blame
“In both cases, the military blamed the West Papua Army for the attacks – but Indonesia’s own human rights commission and military courts found that Indonesian soldiers were to blame. A similar pattern will unfold with the events in Kiwirok.”

Wenda said Indonesia must allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua to investigate this violence and produce an independent, fact-based report, in line with the call of 84 international states.

“Indonesia’s ban on media, human rights groups and aid agencies from entering West Papua must be immediately lifted. If Indonesia is telling the truth about these events, why continue to hide West Papua from the world?,” he said.

“This war will never end until President Widodo sits down with me to solve this issue. This is not about ‘development’, about how many bridges and roads are built.

“This is about our sovereignty, our right to self-determination — our survival.”

The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) claims that an attack on a military post in Maybrat regency earlier this month is being used as a pretext to “force the KNPB into a corner” and to criminalise them, reports Suara Papua.

The September 2 attack on Kisor sub-district military post in Maybrat regency, West Papua province, killed four soldiers.

“There are vested interests and a plot by certain parties behind the killing for four TNI [Indonesian military] members at Kisor, Maybrat,” claimed KNPB spokesperson Ones Suhuniap in a statement sent to Suara Papua newspaper.

• READ MORE: Other West Papuan resistance articles

“First multinational palm oil companies, which are currently challenging [the cancellation of] permits in the western Birds Head region,” he said.

“Second, the construction of [new] Koramil [sub-district military commands] in several districts in South Sorong and Maybrat regencies.

“Third, the additional deployment of troops on the grounds of securing the PON XX Papua [20th Papua National Games].”

Suhuniap said the incident was a plot and a trap which had been arranged to distract public attention from a challenge by four palm oil companies with the Jayapura State Administrative Court (PTUN) against Sorong Regent Jhony Kamuru’s decision to revoke their permits.

Legalising Trans-Papua Highway posts
The “plot” was also to legalise and accelerate the construction of sub-district military posts and TNI and Indonesian police posts on the Trans-Papua highway connecting Manokwari and Sorong.

Suhuniap said that for the KNPB such a plot was nothing new and these methods were often used in Papua, especially against the KNPB.

As has been reported, the police claimed that a member of the civil society KNPB was involved in the attack, namely the movement’s chairperson in the Kisor sector.

However, what their alleged motive was and why they were involved, along with who the mastermind was behind the 19 people declared responsible for the attack had not been cited by the police.

Suhuniap said that if there were KNPB Maybrat members involved then there was a third party which provoked or trapped them into it and so it was necessary to discover the mastermind and what their interests were.

The KNPB did not kill or act in a hostile way towards other people, including the TNI and police, Suhuniap said.

“There is no agenda of murder directed against the authorities or special organisational instruction to attack members of the TNI and Indonesian police,” he said.

Investigation needed
“So the police must delve into and investigate this case further. Who was the mastermind behind the attack? Don’t criminalise the KNPB.” he said.

If the investigation found that KNPB members were proven to have been involved in the attack then their actions were taken as individuals, not the organisation.

“We as an organisation [the KNPB] have never carried out sabotage or urban guerrilla actions,” he said.

Suhuniap also said the attack was part of an Indonesian effort to counter public demands from within Papua and internationally for the release of KNPB international spokesperson Victor Yeimo.

“The state is shaping public opinion to distract the Papuan people’s attention from Victor Yeimo’s release and creating a sense of fear,” he said.

“Indonesian colonialism through its intelligence [services] are shaping public opinion and distracting the Papuan people’s attention by accusing the KNPB of being involved in the attack on the soldiers in Kisor.

“We believe that this effort to distract public attention is a cheap sort of intelligence propaganda to destroy and criminalise the KNPB.”

Suhuniap called on colleagues from West Papua’s 112 resistance movement organisations and all Papuan people to remain solid and not be influenced by the manipulation of public opinion.

“The Papuan people must be consistent in rejecting the extension of special autonomy, the unconditional release of Victor Yeimo and demanding the right to self-determination,” he said.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “KNPB Sebut Empat Skenario Pembunuhan Empat Anggota TNI di Kisor”.

Mama Elisabeth Ndiwaen, one of the Papuan landowners who has been strongly critical of highlighting oil palm investment in Merauke regency in Papua province has urged the Archdiocese of Merauke to stop collaborating with PT Tunas Sawa Erma (Korindo Group).

She has condemned the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) aid in the form of funds worth Rp2.4 billion (NZ$240,000) given in stages by the company to the diocese.

“Frankly, I have just got this information. How did it come to that, Merauke Archdiocese has collaborated with the limited company of Tunas Sawa Erma (PT TSE) which is actually investing in palm oil?” she told Jubi.

• READ MORE: In early push into Papua, palm oil firms set stage for massive forest plunder

“And where the forests of indigenous peoples are destroyed only for the benefit of investors.”

Ndiwaen said her party was very disappointed with the action of the Merauke archdiocese.

“The Archbishop of Merauke, Monsignor Petrus Canisius Mandagi, MSC, does not know what happened to the Marind-Papuan people who have destroyed the forests here,” she said.

Ndiwaen said that as a “lost sheep”, so far, her party had continued to consult and ask for assistance to the Merauke Archdiocese’s Secretariat of Justice and Peace to speak out against the damage done to the forests of the Marind-Papuan people that have been ransacked by palm oil plantation companies.

When church speaks
“At this rate, where do we sheep lean back? We know that when the Catholic Church speaks, it is certain to be heard. But if [the reality] is like this, who else can we hope for?” she asked.

With this kind of game played by companies, she said, it was certain that the Merauke archdiocese was no longer independent.

“Father. Bishop, I just want to convey that those who experience and feel how painful it is when forests are evicted for palm oil investment for us, the Marind people, as the [indigenous] owners of the country,” she said.

Ndiwaen asked the diocese to cancel the cooperation as well as return the money that had been handed over by the company a few days ago.

“Why do I ask for the cooperation to be canceled? It is because the company will instead take advantage of the opportunity and that is where when the palm oil plantation opening activity is carried out again. It is certain that the diocese will remain silent,” she said.

Separately, the Archbishop of Merauke, Monsignor Petrus Canisius Mandagi, MSC, expressed his gratitude for the assistance provided by PT TSE.

In fact, the assistance was intended for the people in South Papua, he said.

Distribution originally for education
However, the distribution through the diocese was originally used for the education of prospective priests. Later the priest (pastor) would also work for the community.

“We Merauke archdiocese is not rich, so we need funds. If a region wants to advance, it certainly needs investment. Many people are anti investing, but they also eat from the investment invested here,” he said.

Monsignor Mandagi said the Merauke Archdiocese supported the company, but that did not mean “turning a blind eye” if there was environmental damage or no benefit was felt by the community.

“If there is such a thing, it is certain that the company will be criticised.

Tabloid Jubi articles are republished with permission.

A top Indonesian official has declared a halt to new oil palm plantations in the country’s heavily forested West Papua region in favour of other – “greener” – crops, apparently contradicting his vigorous earlier defences of the industry.

The remarks by Luhut Pandjaitan, the chief minister in charge of investments, including in the palm oil industry, come in the wake of a court verdict ordering the government to publish maps and concession-holder details for plantations in Papua.

“We agree that [we] no longer want palm oil development here [in Papua],” Luhut said on February 27 as quoted by CNN Indonesia. “We’ve announced a moratorium on [new] palm oil [plantations] but now we’re strengthening it.”

READ MORE: Activists sceptical of win as court orders Papua plantation maps published

Luhut, speaking during a visit to the district of Sorong in West Papua province, said the companies investing in the palm oil industry in Papua were predominantly foreign ones or those controlled by wealthy Indonesian businesses, and that their investments “don’t necessarily benefit local people.”

“Don’t [let] only rich people cut down the forests and destroy us all,” he added.

‘Not being consistent’
Edi Sutrisno, the executive director of TuK Indonesia, an NGO that advocates for social justice in the agribusiness sector, questioned the about face by Luhut, widely seen as the Indonesian government’s most vocal defender of the palm oil industry.

“We’re confused because he’s not being consistent,” Edi told Mongabay. “So far, he’s been the main supporter of palm oil. So why did he issue such a statement?”

Luhut has led Indonesia’s diplomatic battle against European Union’s plans to end recognition of palm oil as a biofuel by 2030, even threatening to withdraw Indonesia from the Paris climate agreement in retaliation.

He also owns, through his family-run conglomerate, a string of palm oil companies. Last year, he declared palm oil a key commodity for Indonesia, which is the world’s top producer, and credited the industry with helping to alleviate poverty. (An estimated 20 million Indonesians are engaged in the palm oil industry.)

“We’ll fight whoever hampers the development of the palm oil industry in Indonesia,” Luhut said last April as quoted by local media. “The palm oil industry has played a significant role in reducing the poverty rate and creating jobs.”

Papua is home to a large variety of indigenous communities and Indonesia’s last great expanse of tropical rainforest. It’s an area increasingly targeted by the plantation and logging companies that have depleted much of the tropical rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo.

The combined area of oil palm concessions in the Papua region, comprised of the provinces of West Papua and Papua, is 18,099 sq km, according to the latest figure from Papua Atlas. Papua Atlas is a real-time interactive map showing the spread of plantations and roads in Papua region developed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

A fifth of that figure, or 3,914 km2 (1,510 mi2), was controlled by just seven conglomerates as of 2017, according to a report by TuK Indonesia. That figure includes both developed (cleared) and undeveloped land.

“These figures show that palm oil plantation development in … Papua is almost exclusively in the hands of tycoon-controlled groups,” TuK Indonesia said in its report.

‘There’s no point’
Luhut said there were other crops better suited for the Papua region than oil palm, such as nutmeg, coffee, cacao and seaweed, which he presented to potential investors during his visit to Sorong in a “green investment” pitch.

“With green investment, people will start economic activities,” Luhut said as reported by CNN Indonesia. “The nature-based economy [will] grow and people can reap social benefits from it.”

He added the concept of green investment would contribute to protecting the forests of Papua, home to the third-largest expanse of tropical forest in the world, after the Amazon and the Congo Basin, and maintain the region as an important carbon sink in the fight against climate change.

The plan calls for $200 million in investments, said to directly benefit 60,000 households in the Papua region. He said Starbucks had agreed to invest there.

But activists are skeptical about the proposed switch, raising concerns that large-scale deforestation for palm plantations will simply be replaced by large-scale deforestation for other crops.

Franky Samperante, the director of Pusaka, an NGO that works with indigenous communities across Indonesia, said the problem with industrial-scale agriculture in Papua was not the commodity, but the development model. The top-down model as it works now, he said, fails to prioritize the needs of the local and indigenous communities, and fails to recognize their rights.

He cited the example of nutmeg, now being grown on land from which indigenous tribes were evicted in the district of Fakfak in West Papua province.

“So Luhut’s statement needs to be clarified,” Franky told Mongabay. “Green investment doesn’t only mean sustainable but we also need to ask who does it side with? If it’s only green but doesn’t side with the people, then there’s no point.”

The governor of West Papua, Dominggus Madacan, also advised residents against selling out their land to investors. He said history had shown that those who did so were inevitably impacted by deforestation and environmental degradation, including landslides.

“If you sell the land, the trees all around will be cut down and you’ll be left with bare land,” Dominggus said in Manokwari district on Feb. 25. “Then when disaster strikes, who will you blame?”

‘Textbook land grab’
Edi said the plan to invest in crops other than palm oil was similar to the government’s Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) programme, launched in 2011 to turn Papua’s Merauke district into the “future breadbasket of Indonesia.” That project, pitched by the government as the answer to Indonesia’s food security needs, has become a “textbook land grab”, activists say.

Only two of the 10 proposed blocks in the MIFEE project are supposed to include oil palm, but Greenpeace has noted that “significantly” more oil palm concessions will be included.

“They said that MIFEE was aimed to develop rice fields, but instead it’s oil palm plantations that are being developed,” Edi said. “Don’t let the statement [by Luhut] be a manipulation to make it seem like other commodities will be developed to make the public open to the idea, when in the end it’s all about palm oil.”

He said that despite the talk of prioritizing other crops deemed to be “green,” the fact remains that palm oil continues to be the most privileged in terms of incentives and other favorable policies offered by the government.

“The tendency is for the government to give incentives only for palm oil, not for other commodities,” Edi said. “So if civil society is sceptical, it’s normal because we don’t see incentives for other crops, such as cacao. Are there any factories to process cacao in Papua?”

Franky said he was concerned the voices of indigenous Papuans would be silenced, as they have been during the palm oil rush, under the plan to attract “green investments” to the region.

“In the meeting [on green investment in Sorong], I didn’t see representatives from local communities,” he said. “I only saw representatives from the local government. So I don’t know what the people think about it. The voices so far continue to be those of the central [government] and the investors there.”

Enforcing the moratorium
Franky said that if Luhut was serious, he should follow up his latest stance with concrete action.

“There needs to be a strong policy to support Luhut’s statement,” he said. “We can’t just accept a statement from an official who’s a politician and has investments there.”

He said there needed to be stronger enforcement of a prevailing moratorium on issuing new plantation permits, as well as greater scrutiny of existing permits. President Joko Widodo imposed the moratorium in September 2018 in response to fires in 2015 that razed large swaths of forest, including inside oil palm concessions. The moratorium is expected to end no later than September 2021.

But enforcement of the moratorium has been patchy, according to a report by Pusaka. It shows that the agrarian ministry, in charge of approving the plantation permits known as HGU, issued one to the company PT Permata Nusa Mandiri for a concession Papua’s Jayapura district in November 2018 — two months after the moratorium was enacted.

The report also identified continued instances of deforestation in areas earmarked for plantations, with 2,285 sq km of forest cleared last year.

Given how much land has already been allocated for oil palm plantations, the government must conduct a sweeping review of the issued permits and do more to recognise indigenous claims to disputed land, Franky said.

Short of that, he said, Luhut’s statement will ring hollow.

The government’s lack of recognition indigenous land rights is the missing key to the development of Papua, Franky said. Indonesia is home to hundreds of indigenous groups, but for decades their land rights were trumped by state control over all public land in the country.

In 2013, a historic Constitutional Court ruling removed customary forests from under state control. Since then, President Widodo has vowed to grant customary forest ownership titles to indigenous groups.

The Papua region, covering the western half of the island of New Guinea, is home to the greatest number of indigenous groups in Indonesia, but none have been granted titles to their ancestral forests.

In Papua province alone, an estimated 6,400 sq km of forest qualifies as customary land.

Republished from Mongabay under a Creative Commons licence.

A journalist has been taken in for police questioning while documenting the land struggles of Temiar Orang Asli, an indigenous community in Kampung Sungai Papan, Malaysia, reports the Malay Mail.

Alexandra Radu from Romania said she was taken to the Gerik district police station yesterday morning after talking to the indigenous villagers about the blockade they had set up to prevent loggers from felling trees on their customary land.

“First the police told me that they are arresting me, but later they said that they only took me to the police station for documentation purposes,” she said.

READ MORE: Precarious politics pose threats to world’s three biggest rainforests

“I’m still here at the police station,” she told Malay Mail when contacted yesterday.

A journalist for Japanese news organisation The Diplomat, Radu said she went to Temiar village on her own and not at the invitation of anyone.

“I went there to cover the life of the Orang Asli there and their blockade issue,” she said.

According to online news site Malaysiakini, loggers and forestry officials destroyed the blockade yesterday which was blocking access to 42 hectares of Orang Asli customary land.

Speaking about the incident, the Organisation for the Preservation of Natural Heritage Malaysia (Peka Malaysia) said: “We regret that the state authorities and loggers are adamant and continuously encroaching upon their (Temiar) customary lands, despite numerous police reports and complaints being lodged with the relevant authorities and ongoing investigations.

“We hope there should not be any attempt to curb any media’s right of information and the public’s right to know any matters pertaining to Orang Asli in this regard.”

Alexandra Radu has since been released. Police have told media that she was not arrested, only brought in to record her statement as a witness to the demolition of the blockade.

While the local government approved logging in the area last year, it has been met with dogged resistance with three Orang Asli villages arrested in mid-July for impeding logging activity.

The Orang Asli are the indigenous people and the oldest inhabitants of peninsula Malaysia and have a powerful connection with the land.

According to Al Jazeera, much of their customary land and its biodiversity is being lost to palm oil plantations which are expanding rapidly throughout Malaysia.

]]> https://asiapacificreport.nz/2018/11/20/six-activists-detained-for-staging-palm-oil-shipboard-rally-says-greenpeace/ https://asiapacificreport.nz/2018/11/20/six-activists-detained-for-staging-palm-oil-shipboard-rally-says-greenpeace/#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2018 20:33:20 +0000 https://asiapacificreport.nz/?p=34218 By Ivany Atina Arbi in Jakarta

Six Greenpeace activists have reportedly been detained by the captain of the tanker Stolt Tenacity for staging a rally against global forests destruction, particularly in Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of palm oil, and in Papua New Guinea.

The ship was transporting crude palm oil, owned by the world’s biggest palm oil trader Wilmar International, from a refinery in Dumai in Riau to Europe.

According to a statement released by Greenpeace Indonesia at the weekend, six Greenpeace activists from Indonesia, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and the United States staged the peaceful rally in the Cadiz Bay near Spain.

READ AND WATCH MORE: Greenpeace protesters detained after boarding palm oil tanker off Spain + video

They managed to unfurl banners that read “Save Our Rainforest” and “Drop Dirty Palm Oil” on board the tanker before being detained by its captain.

“We have informed the tanker’s captain through VHF marine radio channels about the peaceful and antiviolence action […] and asked him to free the activists and let them continue the peaceful rally,” said Greenpeace campaigner Hannah Martin.

She added that Wilmar was the main supplier of palm oil to food giant Mondelez. Based on Greenpeace’s recent investigation, palm oil suppliers to Mondelez had allegedly destroyed roughly 70,000 hectares of forests across Southeast Asia in the past two years. Mondelez is the producer of Oreo cookies, among others.

Greenpeace, therefore, urged Mondelez to stop its trading with Wilmar until the later managed to produce palm oil without destroying forests.

Sustainability criteria
Mondelez has dismissed such allegations, saying the company had been prioritising suppliers that meet sustainability criteria that allow retailers and customers to trace their products back to the mill.

“We’re asking our direct suppliers to call on their upstream suppliers to map and monitor the plantations where oil palm is grown, so we can drive further traceability. We’re also excluding 12 companies from our supply chain as a result of breaches,” the company said in a statement last week, refusing to reveal the 12 companies.

Wilmar had earlier urged Greenpeace to take “collaborative action” with the company if it wanted to improve the palm oil industry.

In its statement concerning Greenpeace’s similar rally in September in Wilmar’s refinery in Bitung, North Sulawesi, Wilmar said the protest was a criminal act of trespassing and vandalism as well as a safety risk to the activists as well as Wilmar staff.

“No organisation is above the law and we urge Greenpeace to adopt a collaborative mindset and work with the palm oil industry to take genuine and positive action.”

Wilmar also disputed Greenpeace’s claims about the companies it sourced palm oil from.

“It must be clarified that, out of the 25 companies listed, Wilmar is buying from 13 supplier groups, not 18 as alleged in the report,” the company said, adding that 11 of the 13 companies have been put on Wilmar’s grievance list.

“Greenpeace’s allegation that Wilmar is failing at monitoring our supply chain is based on a willful lack of understanding of our work on the ground.”

Ivany Atina Arbi is a Jakarta Post journalist.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for an independent inquiry into the death in detention of Muhammad Yusuf, a reporter who was being held in South Kalimantan province, in the far south of the Indonesian part of Borneo, on a charge of defaming a local palm oil production company.

A series of irregularities surround Muhammad Yusuf’s death in the town of Kotabaru on June 10, nine weeks after his arrest because of his coverage of allegedly illegal land seizures linked to the activities of MSAM, a company that operates a huge oil palm plantation in the province, reports RSF.

Yusuf had become well-known for his reporting on the story, writing no fewer than 23 articles for two news websites, Kemajuan Rakyat and Berantas News, from November 2017 to March 2018.

He was arrested on April 5 as he was about to fly to Jakarta to meet with the National Commission on Human Rights.

After holding him for more than two months, the police say he was taken from prison to a hospital in Kotabaru on 10 June with chest pains, vomiting and breathing difficulties, and died soon after arrival as a result of a heart attack.

“We call on the Indonesian government and supreme court to guarantee a full and independent investigation and to deploy whatever resources are necessary to ensure that all possible light is shed on this journalist’s death,” said Daniel Bastard, head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“The credibility of the rule of law in Indonesia is at stake because of the many doubts surrounding this case.

“What with his critical reporting, the appearance of collusion and a lack of transparency, there are many reasons for suspecting that Muhammad Yusuf died because of his journalistic work.”

Strong suspicions
Yusuf’s wife, Arvaidah, had requested his release three times on medical grounds because of concern about his state of health. After his death, she was denied access to the morgue and to the autopsy results. Convinced that his death was “not natural,” she has filed a complaint against the police and district attorney, who were jointly responsible for detention.

Many people question the independence of the police and district attorney’s office in this matter. South Kalimantan’s governor is the uncle of the wealthy businessman who owns MSAM, the company targeted by Yusuf’s reporting.

According to Tempo, a leading Indonesian news website, bruises on the back of Yusuf’s neck can be seen in a video of his body.

All these suspicions prompted the National Commission on Human Rights to announce last week that it was opening an investigation into his death.

Indonesia is ranked 124th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index.

The Pacific Media Centre is an associate of Reporters Without Borders in media freedom work.

• More Indonesian stories

A palm oil supplier to Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever is destroying rainforests in the Indonesian-ruled Papua region, a new investigation by Greenpeace International has revealed.

Satellite analysis suggests that around 4000ha of rainforest were cleared in PT Megakarya Jaya Raya concession between May 2015 and April 2017 – an area almost half the size of Paris.

The findings come as a delegation from the Indonesian government arrived in Europe last week to defend the palm oil industry, in response to moves by European Parliament to discourage the use of palm oil in biofuels on environmental grounds, Greenpeace International reports.

Luhut Panjaitan, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs of Indonesia, is visiting several European cities, including Brussels and Berlin.

“After destroying much of the rainforests of Sumatra and Kalimantan, the palm oil industry is now pushing into new frontiers like Papua, said Richard George, forests campaigner at Greenpeace UK.

“If the Indonesian government wants to defend this industry, the best thing it can do is to force it to clean up its act, not threaten to start a trade war.”

Photos and video taken in March and April 2018 show massive deforestation in PT MJR, a palm oil concession controlled by the Hayel Saeed Anam Group (HSA), including in an area zoned for protection by the Indonesian government in response to the devastating forest fires in 2015. Development is prohibited in these areas.

Supply chain
Although PT MJR is not yet producing palm oil, two other HSA subsidiary companies – Arma Group and Pacific Oils & Fats – supplied palm oil to Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever, according to supply chain information released by the brands earlier this year.

Each of these consumer companies has published a “no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation” policy that should prohibit sourcing from rainforest destroyers.

“Brands have been talking about cleaning up their palm oil for over a decade. Companies like Unilever and Nestlé claim to be industry leaders,” said George.

“So why are they still buying from forest destroyers like the HSA group? What are their customers supposed to think? What will it take to get them to act?”

This case also raises serious questions for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Many HSA Group palm oil companies are members of the RSPO, although PT MJR and the other HSA Group concessions in this district are not.

Members of the RSPO are not allowed to have unaffiliated palm oil divisions, and the development witnessed in PT MJR would also violate several of the RSPO’s Principles and Criteria.

Sourced from a Greenpeace International media release.

ANALYSIS: By David Robie in Yogyakarta

In May, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo of Indonesia raised eyebrows across the archipelago when he inspected the Trans-Papua highway while trail blazing with a motorbike.

Tempo magazine, Indonesia’s most authoritative news magazine, remarked that he did this while “wearing only a thick jacket without a bullet proof vest”. Mentioning this lack of a flack jacket was tacit acknowledgement of the uncertain situation given an exponential rise of pro-independence sentiment in Indonesia’s two most eastern-most provinces of Papua and West Papua.

But Jokowi’s unconventional style of launching infrastructure projects didn’t just end there. Earlier this month he cruised along in a four-wheel drive vehicle on the recently completed Becakayu toll road, which had been languishing uncompleted for 18 years until his presidency gave the project a hurry up.

Last month, while giving a speech at Diponegoro University’s 60th Dies Natalis in Semarang, Central Java, Jokowi declared that infrastructure development was vitally important for the future in Indonesia. He wanted the country to become more competitive than its neighbours, such as Malaysia and Singapore.

“Why is our infrastructure being built?,” he asked rhetorically about the rapid pace and emphasis that he and Vice-President Jusuf Kalla have given the strategy – a marked contrast with other presidencies.

“The answer is that we want our competiveness to be better than other countries. Our global competiveness must be improved,” he said. “This year is pretty good as we have soared from 41st to 36th among 137 countries.”

The latest edition of Tempo magazine has devoted 38 pages to its cover story on infrastructure projects, headlining the fairly comprehensive report “Devil in the details”.

Few environmental reports
But absent from the range of quality articles was any serious report on the state of the environment in Indonesia — or environmental journalism, given that 2000 of the country’s 17,000 islands and 42 million households in a population of 261 million are at risk of “drowning” by 2050, according to a Listening Post report on Al Jazeera last month.

As Al Jazeera reported, “when you look at the [Indonesian] mainstream media, it is hard to find stories that go beyond catastrophes like forest fires or mudslides, examining who and what is behind them.”

A leading environmental journalism advocate has blamed lack of climate change and environmental reporting skills in Indonesian newsrooms for the lack of coverage.

“It is easier for journalists to cover sports or the economy, because they have scores and numbers,” Harry Surjadi, head of the Indonesian Society of Environmental Journalists, told Listening Post. “Those stories are much easier to write than environmental stories, where journalists have to understand biology, ecology, waste and chemistry.”

Nevertheless, Jokowi was praised by The Jakarta Post in a recent editorial for both his development policies and his concern for the poor of the country with his popularity  climbing.

“His overwhelming attention to the basic needs of the people has made him rather obsessive with the objective of keeping the prices of food and other basic necessities stable, thereby keeping inflation below 4 percent,” the Post noted.

However, in its special development edition, Tempo said in an editorial that the Widodo administration was “racing against time” after three years in government to complete its raft of planned infrastructure projects costing an estimated RP4,197 trillion (NZ$415 billion) between 2014 and 2019.

Many ambitious projects with an emphasis on developing the regions, especially eastern Indonesia — including Papua, are being worked on at the same time.

Projects’ sustainability
“All these activities spark public excitement, but also raise questions about the projects’ sustainability,” the magazine said.

“Jokowi’s choice to develop infrastructure is certainly not misplaced. Several studies show that infrastructure development in Indonesia was relatively backward in comparison with neighbours. Even worse: previous administrations spent more on fuel subsidies compared to physical construction,” Tempo commented.

In his Semarang speech, Jokowi said: “Why must we build? Because our country is an archipelago state, the marine foundation base is a must. Airport development was equally important as many islands could not be serviced by ship.

“So, on the remote islands of Natuna, Miangas, we are building an airport. This is just one example because we are building lots of small airports,” Jokowi added.

Tempo seemed to agree with this view by stating in its editorial: “In order to reach a healthy and growing economy, Indonesia needs new roads, bridges, power stations, airports and ports. This in turn requires massive funding.”

Some 42 percent of the required funding — the budget from the 2017 year has been almost tripled from RP177 trillion in Jokowi’s first year in office in 2014 to RP 4011 trillion this year — depends on allocations from the state budget, the magazine noted, plus money from state-owned businesses and private partnerships.

Tempo praised Jokowi for cutting back on energy subsidies, saying this was the right move to make – especially over fuel costs.

Sounding a warning
While also complimenting Jokowi on the boost for several jumbo projects that had stalled in recent years to ensure they get completed, Tempo also sounded a warning.

“Jokowi is racing against time. Infrastructure construction generally takes a while, and its economic benefits are only felt three to five years after construction begins: a time span which does not align with our five-year political cycle,” the magazine said.

“The government should avoid giving the impression that it is impatient to reap its rewards from the projects, especially once the cycle of political succession comes around. Good governance must not be abused for the sake of earning points for the next general elections [in 2019].”

Infrastructure highlights:
National: RP1,320 trillion (two programmes and 12 projects).

Bali and Nus Tenggara: RP11 trillion (15 projects, including the North Timor border crossing and supporting facilities).

Java Island: RP1,065 trillion (903 projects, including the 81km Serang-Panimbang toll road, MRT underground in Jakarta and public trains/railway).

Kalimantan: RP564 trillion (24 projects, including border crossings and facilities and the Serang-Balikpapan-Samarinda toll road).

Maluku and Papua: RP444 trillion (13 projects, including development of the Tangguh Train 3 LNG plant and the Palapa ring broadband).

Sulawesi: RP155 trillion (27 projects, including the Manado-Bitung toll road).

Sumatra: RP638 trillion (61 projects, including five sections of the Trans-Sumatra toll road).

According to a breakdown chart published by Tempo, partnerships with private companies would provide more than half the projected budget – 57.5 percent, with SOEs providing 30 percent and the balance of 12.5 percent from the state budget.

In a four-page interview with the magazine, Jokowi said that after touring across the country, from Sabang to Merauke, “I saw for myself how grave the inequality was”, and he was convinced that an expanded infrastructure would help reduce the gap.

“This is a matter of equality and justice. Besides, our infrastructure development has lagged far behind our neighbours,” he said.

“Infrastructure is a foundation for tackling the problem of inequality. If we want it easy, we just have to allocate the budget for subsidies and increased social assistance, so purchasing power will increase and the public is happy.

“But do we want to continue this kind of strategy? I took the risk by not resorting to this kind of political move, and instead diverted resources to infrastructure development.”

Yet surprisingly nothing in this otherwise comprehensive report addressed climate change and environmental issues, a critical component of sustainable development in Indonesia.

Forest fire devastation
Al Jazeera’s Listening Post report stressed how in 2015 huge fires swept through Indonesia’s rainforests. About 2.6 million hectares of forest was set ablaze to make way for palm oil plantations.

“The fires produced – in just three weeks – more greenhouse gases than Germany does in an entire year,” Listening Post said.

“Forest fires have become an annual occurrence in Indonesia, and still, the country’s media seldom devote the column centimetres and airtime needed to explore the causes behind them.”

Merah Ismail, campaign manager for the mining advocacy network JATAM, was quoted as saying: “When [the media] do cover forest fires or the effects of mining, they leave out “subjects like ‘water poisoned due to toxic waste or air pollution’ because they don’t know enough about those subjects”.

While Jokowi had announced in September 2015 that Indonesia would cut the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 29 percent by 2030, the nation’s news media have reported little on the progress, or lack of it, over this pledge — even with global debate on climate change at COP23 ongoing in Bonn this month.

With little media exposure or debate, the issue of the future of the rainforests has been framed as a tough choice – between the economy and the environment.

• How Jokowi has grown in the job
• Solving Indonesia’s infrastructure gap

Environmental campaigners have accused The Australian and Courier Mail newspapers in regional Queensland of being printed on paper linked to illegal deforestation and human rights abuses in Indonesia.

In a campaign launched earlier this month, Tasmania-based advocacy group Markets for Change and Washington DC-headquartered Mighty Earth said that the owners of the two publications, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, buys paper from Indonesian paper manufacturer Aspex.

Aspex is a wholly owned subsidiary of Korean-Indonesian agribusiness conglomerate The Korindo Group, which has businesses ranging from palm oil and paper to construction, to real estate, financial services, and building wind towers.

An investigation by Mighty Earth last year revealed that Korindo’s palm oil arm was burning ecologically precious tracts of forest in Indonesia’s Papua province bordering with Papua New Guinea, as well as violating the rights of local indigenous communities by grabbing land without their consent, and destroying their forest livelihoods.

While the company has committed to a moratorium on forest clearing until an independent assessment has identified areas that have a high carbon stock and high conservation value—though it did briefly break this ban in February—it has yet to make progress on implementing more stringent environmental and social impact policies.

Measures that environmentalists are calling for include the institution of a no deforestation policy, restoring forests to compensate for the land they cleared after issuing a moratorium on deforestation, resolving conflicts with communities, and being transparent about its concession boundaries, suppliers, and sustainability practices.

The Australian connection
Deborah Lapidus, campaign director, Mighty Earth, said that the investigation was sparked by a reference to Aspex on the website of Australia-based paper products company Oceanic Multitrading; the firm says it imports Aspex newsprint—that is, the cheap paper used to make newspapers—into Australia.

Through further research, trade data analysis and collaboration with a paper supply chain expert, investigators determined that Aspex newsprint was used to produce The Australian and Courier Mail in regional Queensland. News Corp has confirmed that it sources some newsprint from the firm.

Lapidus explained that this was not an active decision by News Corp, but rather a “holdover issue” from the media giant’s acquisition of APN News and Media’s regional Queensland publications last December.

APN had an existing trade relationship with Aspex in the regional Queesland market, which News Corp inherited, Lapidus said.

For the rest of its print publications, News Corp sources sustainable newsprint from the Norwegian pulp and paper firm Norse Skog’s Australian business.

News Corp’s head of environment Tony Wilkins told Mighty Earth and Markets for Change in a letter dated July 19 that “the only paper we procure from Aspex is 100 percent recycled fibre content newsprint and this is Forest Stewardship Council certified”.

• More Indonesian stories

Deported New Zealand missionary Douglas Tennent will hopefully be returning to Papua New Guinea in the next week.

This comes after the court ordered immigration services to issue Tennent a new visa last month which will see him return by or before August 8.

Tennent is scheduled to fly out on Friday, but is not confident his visa will come together in time.

“It doesn’t look like that’s happening,” he said.

Tennent was deported on June 12, 2017, over an alleged breach of visa conditions.

Authorities claim Tennent was deported due to “blatant abuse” of his special exemption/religious worker visa after engaging in “sensitive landowner issues in East New Britain Province”.

Tennent was deported after some landowners lodged a complaint regarding his involvement in such “sensitive landowner issues”.

‘Just doing his job’
It is believed the complaint comes due to Tennent’s involvement in remedying a special agricultural business lease regarding Malaysian multinational Rimbunan Hijau’s Sigite Mukus oil palm project in West Pomio.

Both Tennent and Archbishop Francesco Panfilo hold firm to the belief Tennent is “just doing his job”, however.

Returning to Papua New Guinea in the coming week will mark a seven week absence from his duties as the administrator for the Archdiocese of Rabaul.

Tennent told Asia Pacific Report the actions of immigration and the acting chief migration officer therefore have put not only himself, but Archbishop Francesco Panfilo under undue stress as the Archdiocese continues to settle disputes.

“The Archbishop is getting very stressed out. He’s had to put off a very much-needed holiday at 75 until I get back.”

“It’s just a matter of picking up the pieces,” Tennent said of negotiations with Rimbunan Hijau.

Tennent’s deportation has also “knocked off track” the giving back of 160 hectares of land to four local communities which was purchased illegally.

‘It needs to be sorted out’
The case was due to be heard in court on July 11, but that never happened due to Tennent’s absence.

“It needs to be sorted out in court and this has had adverse effects on the Kokopo community,” he said.

Despite criticisms he should be suing immigration for damages, Tennent is just looking forward to returning to work.

“The Archbishop and I have decided we’re not in to that. We just want to get back, carry on with the job.”

But Tennent will be making submissions to the Ombudsman, Constitutional Law Reform Commission and immigration calling for a change in the deportation process.

“I don’t want this sort of thing to happen again. If you’ve got a concern about somebody, you go to them firstly and you let them respond. That was not done at all.

“I think we’ve got a moral obligation to try and address that.”

Tennent said he would like to see potential deportees given fair notice around the reason for their deportation and ensure associated evidence is provided to them so they are allowed to respond to the allegations.

He would also like to see careful and thorough investigation carried out by immigration before people are deported and says reasonable time needs to be given for them to sort out their affairs.

“The number of deportations are not large in PNG, so there’s no excuse for not getting them right.”

• Missionary Doug Tennent’s PNG deportation – ‘a reality check’
• Deportation of NZ missionary ‘will not be taken lightly’, says archbishop
• Juffa blasts PNG for ‘hypocrisy’ over deportation of NZ missionary

By Kendall Hutt in Auckland

The deportation of a New Zealand missionary from Papua New Guinea last month has prompted calls for a new government.

With elections firmly underway in Papua New Guinea, Rabaul Archbishop Francesco Panfilo says the deportation of New Zealand missionary Douglas Tennent remains an issue, whatever government is in power.

“I want to inform all [sitting] candidates and aspiring candidates for national elections that neither the Archdiocese of Rabaul nor the Catholic Bishops’ Conference will take this matter lightly as it seems to imply that to work for justice is outside of a ‘religious worker’ status.”

His call comes after Tennent, who has been working as an administrator for the Archdiocese of Rabaul since June 2014, was deported on June 12, 2017, over an alleged breach of visa conditions.

Authorities claim Tennent was deported due to “blatant abuse” of his special exemption/religious worker visa after engaging in “sensitive landowner issues in East New Britain Province”.

However, both Tennent and Archbishop Francesco Panfilo hold firm to the belief Tennent is “just doing his job”.

Tennent was deported after some landowners lodged a complaint regarding his involvement in “sensitive landowner issues”.

Palm oil involvement
It is believed the complaint comes due to Tennent’s involvement in remedying a special agricultural business lease regarding Malaysian multinational Rimbunan Hijau’s Sigite Mukus oil palm project in West Pomio.

Archbishop Panfilo states Tennent is only involved in settling these disputes on his behalf.

“Mr Tennent was providing legal advice to the archbishop, who was asked by the people of West Pomio to speak up for them.”

The actions of immigration authorities – Foreign Affairs Minister Rimbink Pato and acting Chief Migration Officer Solomon Kantha – have also raised questions about the innocence of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s government in the matter.

“Any ordinary person knows that orders of this kind cannot be given unless there are powerful and wealthy institutions and personalities behind.

“For the sake of the ordinary and innocent people of Papua New Guinea, we ask the Government to come clear once and for all,” says Archbishop Panfilo.

“Let us pray that the upcoming National Elections may give us leaders who are committed to the achievement of a just and peaceful society,” he says.

Religious workers role
Tennent told NZ Catholic in their latest edition last Sunday his deportation had pitted Papua New Guinea’s government against the Catholic Church.

“I think they didn’t realise when they did the deportation that it wasn’t about me. It was about the whole role of religious workers,” he said.

This is echoed by Archbishop Panfilo:

“To advocate for the vulnerable and powerless, which is the situation of the people of West Pomio, is a gospel mandate, just as it is to educate and care for sick people.

“It is the duty of any religious worker and of any Christian for that matter, to give effect to the teachings of Christ in word and action. One wonders why those who expose these evil practices should be deported and not the ones who commit them”, Archbishop Panfilo said.

Tennent remains in New Zealand, anxiously awaiting news from authorities in Papua New Guinea about whether he can return.

He is currently in the process of re-applying for a new visa and is planning court action against the government.

• Juffa blasts PNG for ‘hypocrisy’ over deportation of NZ missionary

Pacific Media Watch News Desk

Oro Governor Gary Juffa has condemned the Papua New Guinea government for “hypocrisy” and “double standards” over the controversial deportation of New Zealand Catholic missionary Douglas Tennent.

Acting Chief Immigration Officer Solomon Kantha told EMTV News that Tennent’s deportation last week related to “visa conditions”.

However, Juffa, who has been vocal about foreign investors in the country during the election campaign, said the move by the Immigration Office to deport Tennent was illegal and not in the best interests of Papua New Guineans who were being marginalised on their own land by big foreign companies.

If the current PNG government was interested in the people it would support Tennent and say, “let us fight this corruption and deal with this on behalf of the landowners,” Juffa said.

The PNG Immigration Department is reviewing its decision to deport Tennent, reports Cathnews.

Kantha said Tennent’s visa had been cancelled by Immigration and Foreign Affairs Minister Rimbink Pato because of his alleged involvement in landowner issues, the NZ Catholic news service reported.

The acting immigration head said the decision was based on a “complaint” from landowners in East New Britain.

The Sikite Mukus palm oil project has been a “hive of landowner dispute” between those who want the project and those who do not want the project, EMTV News said.

Archbishop refuses
The Post-Courier reported that Kantha had told the archbishop of Rabaul, Francesco Panfilo, that Tennent could reapply for a new visa and work permit.

However, the archbishop has refused to do so unless he receives reassurance from PNG’s Foreign Affairs Department that Tennent could return.

He is also demanding to know who lodged the complaint letter.

The managing director of the landowners’ umbrella company, Memalo Holdings Ltd, has denied being responsible.

Wesley Pagott said although the members of Sigite Mukus Integrated Rural Development Project (SMIRDP) disagreed with with what Tennent had been doing, they were surprised to hear that he was deported.

Memalo Holdings was originally incorporated listing six separate landowner companies as shareholders.

They were all incorporated on the same day. Two have since been delisted.

Memalo controls the land on which the SMIRDP is being developed by the Malaysian logging company Rimbunan Hijau Group (PNG).

The group has a diverse set of interests that encompass forestry, timber processing, palm oil, transport, media, retail and property development.

It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rimbunan Hijau, a company based in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Governor pledges support
The Acting Governor of East New Britain, Cosmas Bauk, has pledged his support for Tennent, Cathnews reported.

He said he would do everything in his power to make sure that Tennent could return to continue on with his work.

Bauk said he was disappointment at the manner in which the current government had been doing its business without regards to the people’s fight for justice and what they rightfully claimed as theirs.

He commended the church for their efforts in assisting the people in Pomio and East New Britain and would stand with the church in this fight.

The Papua New Guinea 2017 general election is June 24 until July 8.

• Deported NZ missionary wants clarity

Palm oil is an important commodity for Indonesia’s economy, contributing US$17.8 billion, or about 12 percent, to its export revenue.

While this year the production of crude palm oil is likely to increase 16 percent, to up to
33 million tons, with expected conducive weather conditions, environmental issues and social conflicts continue to overshadow the sector’s future in the world’s biggest palm-oil producing country.

Just earlier this month, the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) approved a set of recommendations to the European Commission, which will phase out the use of palm oil as a component of biodiesel by 2020 and require exporters to prove responsible cultivation practices on their plantations.

A report prepared by the European Commission says that as the demand for palm oil is estimated to double by 2050, it poses severe environmental damages to oil-producing countries such Indonesia, Malaysia and others in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Palm oil industry has been accused of causing deforestation, environmental degradation, and human rights violations ranging from land disputes to child labor.

The report is due for a vote in the European Parliament on April 3-6.

In response to the report, Indonesian experts, executives of an organization seeking to promote sustainable development, and a former government official, have started to defend the industry that employs millions.

Black campaign
“This is a real black campaign, involving conflicts of interests, and deriving from trade competitors,” said Bayu Krisnamurthi, former Deputy Minister of Trade and Agriculture in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s cabinet.

Bayu is now the chairman of the Indonesian Society of Agricultural Economics, which provides expertise to the agricultural sector.

In November 2013, the EU set duties of 8.8 percent to 20.5 percent for Indonesian palm oil producers to apply for five years. It argued that by imposing duty on the raw products, an advantage will be given to domestic producers.

The Indonesian government’s is going to file a complaint to the World Trade Organisation against the duties.

Petrus Gunarso, a member of the Indonesian Forestry Scholars Association (Persaki), rebutted the claim that Indonesia’s palm oil industry is the main contributor to the country’s deforestation, claiming that most of the palm oil plantations, which currently cover about 11 million hectares, were previously rubber plantations.

Petrus said that many farmers had converted their plantations as the price of rubber has been declining and palm oil cultivation is more profitable.

“That’s why the sizes of our rubber plantations have shrunk,” he said, adding that plantations are also established on degraded forests, which the government classifies as non-forest estates.

‘Not deforestation’
“By Indonesian law, that’s not deforestation,” Petrus said.

While palm oil producers may need to work more on convincing Europeans to buy their products, at home they have to deal with social conflicts, especially regarding land disputes.

The Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development, IBCSD, has commissioned a team to study the costs of these conflicts.

Using 2016 data from five plantations in Kalimantan and Sumatra, the team concluded, in a report titled “The Cost of Conflict in Oil Palm in Indonesia,” that the tangible costs of social conflicts ranged from $70,000 to $2.5 million. The biggest direct costs were income losses due to disrupted operations.

The intangible costs, according to the report, ranged from $600,000 to $9 million, and were due to reputational losses, casualties and property damage.

The reputational losses, according to the study, affect the companies’ ability to obtain loans, decrease the demand for their products and their stock market value.

“Conflicts are going to exist in all industries, it’s our homework now to find the most feasible solutions for the companies and communities,” said Aisyah Sileuw, president director of consulting firm Daemeter, which published the report.

As the infamous commodity makes the industry the most favorite one to bash on, Aisyah believes it is “impossible to get rid of it,” not only because of the huge export revenue it generates, but also since 40 percent of the country’s smallholders depend on palm oil.

British-based group HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, has been accused of being a “dirty banker” by funding companies alleged to be destroying forests in a new Greenpeace report.

HSBC is currently one of the largest providers of financial services to the palm oil industry, according to the report.

HSBC has detailed policies on forestry and agricultural commodities (including specific sections on palm oil), Greenpeace says.

The choking haze, which covered a vast expanse of Southeast Asia, killed more than 20 people and sickened at least half a million, offering a stark reminder that pollution and its pernicious effects do not respect national boundaries.

It will require local policy and enforcement in Indonesia along with regional cooperation to remedy this environmental and human health disaster

The more than 94,000 individual Indonesian fires are primarily the result of “slash and burn” land clearing, a practice in which landowners, both large and small, raze forested areas and burn the debris or drain peat bogs and incinerate carbon-rich peat deposits.

The fires clear and prepare land for planting crops or sometimes to interfere with their competitors’ operations.

Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil, and farmers light fires to make way for more palm plantations, pulpwood, and other agricultural operations.

Most of the fires raged outside of official agricultural and pulpwood concessions, meaning they were set illegally, and many of these fires reduced protected forest and peatlands to charred fields.

Shifting weather patterns
Shifting weather patterns have contributed to the disaster, as an extended dry season has allowed the fires to burn longer and over a larger area than ever before.

The impacts from these fires are widespread, both geographically and in the types of damages they cause. Transboundary air pollution has in some places exceeded 2000 on the Pollutant Standard Index.

Anything above 300 is hazardous to human health. This air pollution causes widespread respiratory infections and premature deaths.

The fires have released more than 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide this year alone, tripling Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions and making it the fourth largest emitter of climate pollutants.

The fires have also devastated wildlife, threatening one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. Endangered species, including Orangutans, have lost critical habitat. Many animals have been sickened by the smoke, and the flames have killed untold numbers.

In addition to environmental costs, estimates of the economic impacts exceed US$14 billion.

A transboundary disaster of this magnitude requires responses at all level of government. In 2014, Singapore passed the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, giving its government the authority to prosecute companies operating in Indonesia that cause air pollution in Singapore.

Haze pollution law
Also in 2014, Indonesia ratified the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, which, among other policies, improves fire monitoring.

Laws are only a starting point for improving environmental performance.

In 2015, faceless corporations and anonymous people have burned more land and created more transboundary pollution than in years past, despite new laws forbidding these practices.

In order to manage land for the benefit of people and the environment, nations have to take responsibility for enforcing existing laws and welcome international monitoring assistance.

National sovereignty must be respected, and yet Indonesia’s fires and haze violate the sovereignty of neighboring states. Pollution does not respect political boundaries.

The parties responsible for pollution, however, are subject to governmental authority. Only through cooperation and respect for the rule of law can governments make lasting environmental progress.

From Global Metrics for the Environment: The Environmental Performance Index ranks countries’ performance on high-priority environmental issues. The 2016 Environmental Performance Index is a project lead by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) and Yale Data-Driven Environmental Solutions Group at Yale University (Data-Driven Yale), the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, in collaboration with the Samuel Family Foundation, McCall MacBain Foundation, and the World Economic Forum. More information and references here.

Indigenous landowners from the Marap people in Arso in Papua’s Keeron regency have this week invoked customary law to take back 1300 ha of oil palm land owned by PTPN II for 30 years as part of its Arso plantation.

The action took place at Yamara village PIR 3, Manem sub-district, Keerom Regency, in the province of Papua near the Papua New Guinea border on Wednesday.

Maickel Fatagur, head of the Fatagur clan which holds customary land rights, alongside other clans such as the Wabiager and Gumis clans, said that they would no longer hold any kind of meetings with the company.

That is because they have used customary law to take back the land PTPN was using, specifically the Core III, Core IV and Core V divisions.

“We used customary law to take the land back. That means now there will be no more meetings with the company. The land now belongs to us.” he said.

“We invite PTPN II Arso to take back its oil palm and we will take back our land. That’s all,” Fatagur made clear to the manager of PTPN II’s Arso plantation on Wednesday at Tami in Manem District, in Keerom.

According to Fatagur, PTPN II has operated the Arso plantation on the Fatagur clan’s land, and that of its sub-clans, for about 30 years, but the local community, who hold the customary land rights, have never felt economically secure

Action supported
“All these years attention has never been paid to the wellbeing of the community, who hold the customary land rights, ” said Fatagur.

Dominika Tafor, secretary of the Boda Student Association (Himpunan Mahasiswa Boda) in Keerom, who is also an indigenous member of the Marap ethnic group, said she was supporting the action taken by local indigenous people.

“We strongly support the action which the Marap community of Workwama village are taking today. We support it, because for so many years the company has not paid attention to the fate of the community. They only come to destroy,” she said.

When the indigenous people arrived at the plantation office in Tami, PTPN II’s Arso plantation manager, Hilarius Manurung, received them. He said he would take their wishes on board and pass them on to the Keerom local government.

“Since we’re a state-owned company, we can only listen to all aspirations and complaints and pass them on to the local government for further action. There’s not much we can do. What we can do is to follow up all these complaints from the community,” said Manurung.

Suarapapua.com observed that security forces from the Keerom police headquarters were present – 11 armed policemen in a Dalmas truck, ready to police the Marap people’s action.

The indigenous people’s main banner said: “We don’t need oil palm, we only need forest … for our grandchildren”

As a symbol, the indigenous people brought soil from the three oil palm locations and taro yams from their gardens, placing them in a noken string bag made from forest palm frond midribs, and using traditional rituals took them to PTPN II’s office located in the plantation
administration centre in Tami.

[Translation].

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