South Pacific Studies Vol.34, No.2, 201471

Papua’s Threatened Forests: Conflict of Interest
Government versus Local Indigenous People
HIDAYAT Herman1, 2, * and YAMAMOTO Sota2

1: Indonesian Institute of Sciences,
Gatot Subroto Street No. 10, Jakarta, 12710 Indonesia
2: Research Center for the Pacific Islands, Kagoshima University,
Korimoto 1-21-24, Kagoshima, 890-8580 Japan*Corresponding author
E-mail: hermanhidayat246@gmail.com

Abstract
The main threats of Papua’s forests include increases in logging (both legal and illegal), oil palm
plantations, and mining. This study examined local community perceptions of forestlands, highlighting
the rising crisis of illegal logging, and government perception of forestlands, emphasizing the problemsof the expansion of oil palm plantations and the increase in mining activity (Freeport Grasberg Company
and Tablasupa Nickel Mining Company). “Political ecology,” which highlights the role of stakeholders,
was used as the theoretical framework for analysis of the illegal logging crisis, the expansion of oil palm
plantations, and increased mining activity.
We found that illegal logging, expansion of oil palm plantations, and mining activity have led to forest
degradation, environmental damage, river pollution, land disputes, human rights violations, and economic
marginalization of local indigenous communities. In general, officers of non-governmental organizations(NGOs) and indigenous communities, such as the Amungme and Kamoro in the Jayawijaya Regency
and the Muyu and Malind in Merauke, oppose the expansion of mining and oil palm plantations and areoutraged by corporate forest and human rights violations.
Key words: forestry sector, illegal timber trade, mining, palm oil, special autonomy, stakeholders

Introduction
The forests of Papua (Irian Jaya) are among the last frontier rain forests in the Asia
Pacific region. According to the MINISTRY OF FORESTRY (2005), the Irian Jaya forest
covered about 34 million ha of Papua in the mid-1990s. By 2004, however, Forest
Watch Indonesia estimated that its size had decreased to 30.4 million ha of naturalforest cover, of which 10.2 million ha and 1.1 million ha, or 37% of the total territory
Received: 29 July, 2013
Accepted: 7 November, 2013

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(MCBETH 2007), was considered degraded forest and deforested, respectively. Thus, therich biodiversity and forest resources of Papua are seriously threatened. The principal
threats include logging (both legal and illegal), the expansion of oil palm plantations,and increased mining. For example, illegal logging on behalf of Koperasi Peran
Serta Masyarakat (KOPERMAS) accounted for more than 120 in 2003 in the Sorong
Regency of West Papua, and was enabled by the manipulation and corruption of thelocal elite (bureaucrats, military officials, and politicians). KOPERMAS activities have
led to conflict between local indigenous peoples and the local elite; while the local
people are paid minimally for the illegal KOPERMAS timber trade, members of thelocal elite are handsomely paid. A similar situation occurred with the mining sector of
the Freeport Company. Although the company is one of the largest corporate taxpayers,having paid the Indonesian government approximately USD 899 million in taxes anddividends in fiscal year 2010, the company’s operations have led to forest degradation,
river pollution, environmental damage, and conflict with the local Amungme andKamoro people.
Because palm oil constitutes a lucrative business that brings in significant staterevenues in the form export taxes and dividends, the Indonesian government plans to
support the expansion of the palm oil estate in Papua. By 2011, about 1.5 million ha of
Papua had been planted with oil palms, and another 2 million ha of plantations wereplanned in preliminary proposals (OBIDZINSKI et al. 2012). Additionally, the Merauke
Integrated Food and Energy Estate project (the MIFEE project), backed by the Ministryof Agriculture, allocated another 1.6 million ha for agriculture, of which 600,000 ha
was set aside for palm oil plantations. This mega-project for palm oil, rice fields, andfood production will eventually threaten virgin forests and protected areas, including
peat lands, water catchment areas, and residential areas, including of the villages ofindigenous peoples.
After the Suharto regime stepped down in May 1998, centralized natural resourcesmanagement shifted to a decentralization model, in which local governments were
given land in which they could manage the natural resources. This “reformation”
regime (1999-2004) emphasized democracy, accountability, good governance,
and transparency with respect to natural resources management (HIDAYAT 2004).
Decentralization gave local government’s administrative, fiscal, and political authority.
The political decision to transfer authority from the central government to local
governments relied on the assumption that the local governments had sufficientcapability and capacity to manage administrative affairs, fiscal matters, and politics(LITVACK et al. 1998). This policy of local autonomy was realized as part of a broader
political decentralization in Indonesia enacted by Law number 22/1999 and subsequent
Law number 32/2004. Conceptually, the local autonomy policy formed part of a new
governance system that enabled greater democracy, accountability, participation,
independence, and social welfare.
Decentralization and local autonomy were viewed as more consistent withdemocratic principles such as plurality, transparency, accountability, and local rule. In

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73

practice, the local autonomy granted to Papua Province via regulation Number 11/2001
afforded recognition of customary forest rights for indigenous peoples and additional
land tenure systems. It also established the Papua’s People Council (Majlis Rakyat
Papua), which supplied the province with a greater share of revenues from natural
resource utilization and exploitation. However, the central government’s continued
interest in the administrative, fiscal, and political matters related to natural resource
management caused local conflicts and constrained implementation at the local level
because of a lack of “government regulation” (peraturan pemerintah) (interview on 20
May, 2012). Thus, through enacting local regulation, local governments have issued
concession permits for logging, industrial timber plantations, palm oil plantations, andmining to private entities. As a consequence of these concessions, local governments
enjoyed new revenues from export taxes, dividends, and royalties from privatecompanies, all of which empowered the economic and social development of local
communities. The central government is reluctant to grant full authority to implement
special autonomy to local governments created a conflict of interest between the central
and local governments in terms of political authority, dividends, royalties, and export
taxes on natural resources.
Thus, in this study, we examined two critical issues. First, we examined local
community perception of forestlands with a focus on the rising crisis of illegal logging
that threatens the Papua’s forests. Second, we examined government perception offorestlands, highlighting the problem of expansion of palm oil planting, the MIFEE
project, and mining activities (Freeport Grasberg Company and Tablasupa Nickel
Mining Company).

Study Site and Data Collection
The fieldwork was carried out in May 2012 (Jayapura Regency, Sentani) and
June 2012 (Manokwari Regency) (Fig. 1). The research method entailed in-depth
interviews with purposefully selected informants familiar with the objective of ‘guided’questionnaires, including two forestry agency officers, two officers of social andpolitical agencies, two government officers, three academics, two tribal heads (Ondoafi),
two NGO staff members, and five local farmers. Manokwari and Jayapura wereselected for fieldwork based on two rationales. First, many local communities heavily
depend on the Manokwari Regency site for forest resources. Additionally, the locals
actively maintain customary forest rights and depend on the forest for subsistence(primarily meals), such as sagu (Metroxylon sp.), gembili (Dioscorea spp.), talas (e.g.
Colocasia esculenta), etc. Second, the Jayapura Regency was chosen because of thegovernment’s interest in issuing logging concessions to the Tablasupa Nickel Mining
Company in the Cyclops conservation forest. These government concessions havegenerated forestland conflicts and led to forest degradation. Other regions evaluatedincluded the Merauke and Boven Diegul regencies, where palm oil plantations and74South Pacific Studies Vol.34, No.2, 2014●

Manokwari

Jayapura●

Bintuni●

Sorong ●FakfakSentani ●●Temba●
gapura ● Jayawijaya●

Timika●MeraukeFig. 1. Map of West Papua and Papua provinces, Indonesia.

the MIFEE project are located; the Jayawijaya and Sorong regencies, where Freeport
is located; and the Raja Ampat, Bintuni, and Manokwari regencies, where data werecollected on the illegal logging crisis using books, literature, newspapers, and website
information.
A “political ecology” theoretical framework was applied in this study. This
framework emphasizes combining ecological concerns (forest conservation andlocal forest rights) with political economics (logging, estate plantation, and mining
concessions). This framework considers both government and private corporate
interests in a side-by-side and ever-changing dynamic tension between natural ecology
and human-based change and among diverse groups within society, from the local
individual to regional and transnational entities (PETERSON 2000).

Results and Discussion
Problem one: Illegal logging
The illegal logging crisis
The pressure on Papua’s forests has increased dramatically in recent years.
According to TELAPAK AND ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY (2005), Papua
has become the main illegal logging hotspot in Indonesia. The report describes how
approximately 300,000 m3 of merbau1 logs per month are smuggled from West Papua
1 Merbau is the most commonly used name for the genus Intsia spp. Merbau is also known as “kwila” inPapua New Guinea, “ipil” in the Philippines, and “kayu besi” in Borneo/Kalimantan. Intsia bijuga and I.
palembanica are mostly found in Papua-Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and I. palembanica is foundprincipally in Malaysia. Within Indonesia, merbau is virtually confined to the province of Papua. The dark
timber is widely used for high-end general construction, exterior joinery, flooring, outdoor furniture, etc.
Prices of merbau timber vary, but are around USD 150-200/m3 for the logs and USD 450-600 for sawed
timber at the point of export (see TELAPAK AND ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY 2005: 5).

HIDAYAT and YAMAMOTO: Papua’s Threatened Forests

75

regions such as Sorong, Raja Ampat, Bintuni, Fakfak, and Manokwari to woodprocessing factories in China. As reported by OBIDZINSKI et al. (2007), cross-border,
illegal timber trade in Kalimantan and Sarawak also involves a systemic “conspiracy”
among government officers, timber traders, and local people. Illegal logging is systemicin Papua and is backed by powerful international syndicates of brokers and fixers inIndonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China, each providing a specific linkin the chain. Additionally, the logging and timber smuggling operations are supported
and managed by high-ranking Indonesian military, police, and other government andlaw enforcement officials.2 Telapak and Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
findings suggest that approximately 2.3 million m3 of Indonesian timber were smuggled
to the Chinese market. Indonesian government estimates are even higher, at around 9
million m3, valued at IDR 18 trillion (USD 1.86 billion). This illegal logging occurred
during the political transition from the Suharto regime to the reformation period (19992004), which featured a “democratic” system of governance involving greater regional
autonomy, accompanied by weak law enforcement, for many Indonesian districts.
In 2001, the Indonesian government passed a law granting special autonomy to
Papua. The law established the Papuan People’s Council, recognized traditional tribal
or adat land tenure systems, and granted a greater share of the revenue from natural
resource exploitation－i.e. 80% of income from forestry, mining, and fishing and 70%
from oil and gas－to the Papua local government.
Two factors drive the growth of illegal logging. The first is the internal conflict ofinterest between the central government’s Ministry of Forestry and local government
agencies. Forestry management in Papua is chaotic, with many overlapping andconflicting regulations issued at the national level in Jakarta, the provincial level
in Jayapura, and at the district level. For instance, the Ministry of Forestry (central
government) issued a decree permitting the allocation of small-scale local concessionsof 100 ha for community forestry activity. The spirit of this decree during thereformation era empowered economic and social development among the indigenous
local people and led to the creation of the KOPERMAS system, through which local
communities could obtain permission to log on their customary forests in local cooperatives. More than 300 community logging co-operatives (KOPERMAS) exist in
Papua. However, there have also been widespread reports of abuse of these logging
licenses by the military, the police, and the forestry agency. The forestry agency
reportedly acts as a “foster father” (bapak angkat), encouraging local communities tosell merbau timber to traders and resorting to intimidation if local communities are
reluctant to sell.
The Ministry of Forestry has criticized the abusive practices of KOPERMAS:“KOPERMAS permits are only fronts for private businessmen to exploit our forests.
These KOPERMAS permits are illegal” (D OWN TO E ARTH 2005). KOPERMAS
activities have led to conflict within local communities, which often feel powerless
2 See TELAPAK AND ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY (2005).

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against the foster fathers. For example, in the Sorong Regency, a local community
was promised IDR 100 million (USD 10,920) for 3,000 m3 of merbau, but received
only IDR 25 million (USD 2,750) plus sacks of rice and noodles. In another case near
Sorong, members of a community were paid only IDR 100,000 (USD 11)/m3 of merbau
under pressure from a military police officer. In both examples, the greatest portionof profits went to the foster fathers and brokers. Meanwhile, the local communities
benefit minimally from this illegal timber trade. The price of merbau is USD 120/m3
at the point of export in Papua, but costs USD 240/m3 upon arrival in China (Table 1).
Furthermore, of the 120 KOPERMAS permits issued in the Sorong region throughearly 2003, over 40% were located in Raja Ampat district, despite much of thearea’s being designated as protected nature reserves (TELAPAK AND ENVIRONMENTALINVESTIGATION AGENCY 2005: 7).
Furthermore, by 2002 the Ministry of Forestry had issued 54 logging permits
that covered an area of 13 million ha, or almost one-third of Papua’s total land area.
Many of these concessions are linked to Indonesia’s biggest forestry conglomerates,
such as Kodeco and Korindo (from South Korea), Wapoga Mutiara Timber, Kayu
Lapis Indonesia, and the Djajanti Group, as well as the military foundations suchas Hanurata (A SOSIASI P ENGUSAHA H UTAN I NDONESIA 2011), which controls fiveconcessions in Papua and shares its headquarters in Jayapura with a detachment of
troops from the army’s special forces. Military personnel are frequently employed as“security” personnel for logging operations in Kalimantan and Papua. The growth ofboth logging concessions and KOPERMAS concessions throughout Papua, especiallyin West Papua, are leading to unprecedented and unsustainable levels of exploitationof the province’s forests, thereby leading to forest degradation in Papua. According to
the Ministry of Forestry, deforestation averaged 118,000 ha/year over the past decade.
An official release on 15 January, 2003, stated that timber was already illegally flowing
out of West Papua to Malaysia, China, and other countries at a rate of 600,000 m3 permonth, or twice that revealed in the Telapak/EIA report, and at a cost to the governmentof IDR 7.2 billion in lost revenues. 3
The second factor that drives illegal logging is the external involvement ofintegrated international syndicates from Jakarta, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong,
Table 1. The price of merbau from logging to processing in the market (USD/m3).
Country
Indonesia (Papua)
China (on arrival)

Normal price (USD/m3)

Illegal timber trade (USD/m3)

120-150

11-20
240

China for flooring price468*1

Retail price in UK and USA

2,228*1: Figure is for 26 m2 of flooring, the average amount produced from 1 m3 of logs (source: LAWSON 2006).

3 See DOWN TO EARTH (2005).

HIDAYAT and YAMAMOTO: Papua’s Threatened Forests77

as well as China and India, the ultimate destination of the illegal timber. The bulk of
the profits from this illegal trade enriches bank accounts in Singapore and Hong Kong,
while the forest communities in Papua are paid very little and are left to count thecost. Brokers based in Jakarta and Surabaya, both of which are major Javanese ports
and timber trading centers, frequently control illegal logging operations on the groundin Papua. These brokers are typically linked to senior military, police, and forestry
officers, who ensure safe passage from Papua to international waters.
Malaysian traders (of Chinese origin) from Sarawak frequently act as logging
gangs on the ground in Papua. The role of the Malaysian presence in Papua is toprovide the heavy machinery for tree cutting and the technical expertise required to fell
the merbau trees. Machine operators typically come from Sarawak. Singapore acts asa major regional hub in the illegal logging business. Singapore-based shippers arrange
transport for the logs and provide Letters of Credit for illegal timber deals. Singaporebased traders have the international connections needed to find buyers for the logs.
Hong Kong-based brokers sell huge quantities of merbau to the timber manufacturingindustry in mainland China. Huge volumes of illegal merbau logs are moved out of
Papua and into the emerging markets of China and India. Consumption of merbau
in these two countries is escalating rapidly for processing into flooring and furnitureproducts for both domestic needs and for export, mainly to the United States, Japan,
and Europe. In the 9 months prior to September 2004, China exported 193,000 tonsof wood flooring worth USD 240 million, which constituted a 77% increase over thesame period the previous year (TELAPAK AND ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY
2005: 26). The United States is the largest market for Chinese wood flooring exports,
accounting for 30% of all sales, worth USD 96 million annually. Other important
markets include Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
Half of all tropical logs shipped worldwide are targeted for China,4 and Indonesia
has become China’s largest supplier. Chinese import statistics show a dramatic rise in
the volume of Indonesian logs entering the country between 1997 and 2001. In 1997,
the volume of imported logs registered as Indonesian was just 31,000 m3, but by 2001,
the volume had soared to 1.14 million m3.5 During this period, imports of Indonesianlogs through Nanjing ports grew by 8.30%, and the growth was fueled by illegal
timber.
An additional factor drives illegal merbau trade. China is already the world’s
biggest consumer of many commodities, such as timber, steel, copper, coal, oil,gas, and cement. The Chinese government banned logging in its own forests andimplemented a huge tree-planting program to prevent devastating floods like the onethat occurred in 1998. As a result of low tariffs on timber imports, China’s timber andwood product imports have skyrocketed from 1 million m3 in 1997. Imports of logs
alone had reached 16 million m3 in 2002, and by 2010, they were projected to reach
4 See OLDFIELD et al. (1998).
5 See WWF (2002).

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100 million m3. Today, China is the number one buyer of timber from countries mostaffected by the scourge of illegal logging, including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea,
Cameroon, and Gabon.6 The country is also the main buyer of wood from Russia.
Additionally, China uses large portions of exports from Liberia (47%), Myanmar (42%),and Cambodia (78%), all countries in which the sale of stolen timber has fueled armed
conflict.7
Taking action to stop illegal logging
The economic, social, and ecological damage inflicted by illegal logging andsubsequent deforestation in Papua is great. After Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono waselected Indonesian President, he declared a “war on illegal logging” in a speech on
11 November, 2004, near Tanjung Puting National Park, Kotawaringin Barat, Central
Kalimantan, and he followed his announcement with a presidential decree to stop
illegal logging (Inpres 4/2005). President Yudhoyono instructed the National Police
Chief Da’i Bachtiar to lead a coordinated crackdown on illegal loggers in cooperation
with the Ministry of Forestry (MS Kaban) and the Minister of the Environment(Rachmat Witoelar). The effort, which involved a 1,500-member team under thecontrol of the national police, was instructed to take action against anyone involved
in illegal logging over a 2-month operation dubbed “Hutan Lestari” (Sustainable
Forests). The integrated team consisted of officials from the police, military, Attorney
General’s Office, the Ministry of Forestry, Immigration, and Customs. The goal wasto rapidly crush systemic corruption and the integrated syndicates of illegal logging.
Between 2001 and 2003, the Papua police reported 19 cases of illegal logging entailingthe seizure of approximately 100,000 m3 of merbau logs, charges against 250 heavy
logging companies, and indictments against 62 suspects, of whom 42 were Malaysian
citizens. Nevertheless, based on a confidential report asserting that 300,000 m3 of
merbau illegally leave Papua every month, the seizures in the Hutan Lestari operation
were negligible.
According to the confidential report, by late April 2005, the Hutan Lestarioperation seized more than 340,000 m3 of logs, 19,000 m3 of timber, five boats, and 22
barges. The task force apparently issued summonses for 157 people; 35 were detained,
and 14 case files were submitted to prosecutors. For example, in November 2004,
Papua police seized the vessel MV Fitria Perdana. The vessel was carrying 5,000 m3 of
merbau timber heading for Biak Island.
There was also an external effort to halt illegal logging. In December 2002, theIndonesian and Chinese governments signed a bilateral agreement pledging to work
together to halt the shipment of “stolen wood.” Unfortunately, these measures had
minimal influence on the illegal timber trade in the field. China has failed to respond to
the Indonesian government’s requests to implement the agreement. Indonesian Forestry
6 See “Papua Refuses to Revoke Logging Licenses,” THE JAKARTA POST, 25 March, 2003.
7 See “Court Issues Unclear Ruling in Papua,” THE JAKARTA POST, 12 November, 2003.

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79

Minister MS Kaban asserted that the Chinese “did not care where [their] commodities
come from.” He claimed that all Chinese imports are considered legal under existing
Chinese trade regulations. As a result, in the two years since the bilateral agreement
was signed, not a single piece of stolen wood has been seized upon arrival in China.
The failure of this agreement highlights China’s lack of commitment to a ban on illegal
logging and to implementation of meaningful law enforcement and hard sanctions.
Despite the lack of action by China, there is much that could be easily done byIndonesia. For example, merbau log vessels travelling from West Papua to China carryfalsified Malaysian papers, including Certificates of Origin and entry permits (TELAPAKAND E NVIRONMENTAL I NVESTIGATION A GENCY 2005: 28). According to a Telapak/
EIA report, a leading American distributor of hardwood flooring, Goodfellow, Inc., isselling products made from logs illegally felled in West Papua by the China BusinessCompany. Goodfellow’s president and CEO issued a public statement that the company
is “committed to marketing products only where there is complete and documented
legal chain of custody,” and that its suppliers would soon be discussing this issue withIndonesian officials.8
Other actions to stop destructive logging, such as effective measures to stop
smuggling syndicates and international trade in illegal timber, are also needed inconsumer markets such as China, the USA, Japan, and the UK and in producing
countries such as Indonesia. The UK, the USA, Canada, and other G-8 countries are
currently negotiating new measures to halt imports of illegally cut timber. For example,
on 18 March, 2005, G-8 environment and development ministers met in Buxton,
England, and committed to action against the illegal timber trade.9
Government perception of forestlands
The government’s policy of issuing logging and estate plantation permits
eventually created land conflicts between indigenous peoples and private companies
in Papua. The government does not recognize customary forest rights, as they are notwritten into law in Indonesia. Instead, the government argues that natural resourcesmanagement is left to the state, based on the 1945 Indonesian Constitution, Article
33, Verse 3, which states, “Land, water, and natural resources within Indonesia
shall be controlled by the state and used for the welfare of all Indonesian people.”
Furthermore, the state interprets Article 22, Verse 2, as giving the government theauthority and responsibility to manage all significant natural resources for the welfareof the entire nation, especially within the forestry and mining sectors. When the
Suharto government came to power in 1966, economic development was the overriding
paradigm for overcoming the economic crisis inherited from the Sukarno regime.
Suharto’s economic planners took immediate steps to strengthen Indonesia’s weakeconomy through a Five-Year Development Plan (Pelita I 1969 to Pelita VI 1997) that
8 Letter from Richard Goodfellow dated 18 April, 2005 (cf. http://www.downearth-indonesia/org/story).
9 See DOWN TO EARTH (2005).

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covered many sectors. The Suharto regime issued the Basic Law of Forestry number
5/1967 and government regulation number 21/1970, which created a logging forest
concession mechanism for the government to exploit natural resources, including thosein the forestry sector, to achieve a economic growth, ignoring the customary forest
rights of indigenous peoples. As a result, the forestry sector began to develop the legal
framework required to permit private companies and state forest enterprises (Inhutani)10
to harvest and export timber. Sumatra and the Kalimantan islands were the first targets
for exploitation because they had the largest stocks of commercially valuable tree
species and were closest to the Asian markets of Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South
Korea, and Japan (HIDAYAT 2004: 50). Excess log exploitation led to deforestation, andthe government issued an export-logging ban in 1984. The goal of this regulation was
to establish domestic “sawed timber and plywood industries,” which actively invited
additional logging concession holders, other companies, and government capital. As
a result of this policy, Indonesia received added value from its forestry industries andbecame the largest plywood exporter in the world by the mid-1990s. It also benefited
from foreign exchange earnings, taxes, and job creation for local people in the provinceand districts (HIDAYAT 2008: 65-66).
In contrast, in many Indonesian districts, the economic condition of indigenous
local communities, especially those that formerly depended on timber and non-timber
forest resources and products, worsened considerably after implementation of theForeign Act (number 1/1967), the Domestic Investment Act (number 6/1968), andthe Forestry Act (number 5/1967) on logging forest concession, which eventually led
to land conflict and contributed to forest degradation in many districts (TJITRADJAJA
1993, HIDAYAT 1997).11 The Suharto regime failed to recognize the customary forestry
rights of indigenous peoples and instead only allowed the collection of very limited
forest products and strictly prohibited the cutting of trees and utilization of theirown forestlands. Therefore, land conflicts between local forest dwellers and logging
concession holders have been widely reported in Indonesian outer islands, such as theconflict over 18,600 ha that occurred from the end of the 1980s through the end of the
1990s between the Muara Gusik villagers and ITCI (a private company). Land conflictalso occurred in 1991 on part of the 299,975 ha industrial timber planting concession
area between the Arara Abadi Forestry branch of the Sinar Mas holding company andthe local people of the Bengkalis and Kampar districts of the Tarik Serai, Tasir Serai
Timur, Pinang Sebatang Barat, and Koto Garo. The local communities claimed thatpart of an acacia plantation in those villages belonged to the local people throughcustomary forest rights and asked for the return of the concession area (HIDAYAT 2011:10 Inhutani’s major shareholder is the state. Inhutani was established to carry out logging concessions in outerislands such as Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua. In contrast, Perhutani, which is also owned by thestate, was established for planting and selling the teak from plantations concentrated in Java Island. Inhutani ismostly non-profitable. The company is rife with corruption in the form of collusion between Inhutani officers
and Ministry of Forestry officers.
11 These land conflicts occurred in many districts in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua. Macro-mappingby logging concession holders enabled the annexation of customary forest rights of indigenous peoples and/or
local communities.

HIDAYAT and YAMAMOTO: Papua’s Threatened Forests

81137). After these land conflicts, a new Forestry Law number 41/1999 was issued toreplace number 5/1967 in the spirit of reformation that emphasized accountability andtransparency after the Suharto regime stepped down (May 1998). The reformation laws
recognized the customary forest rights of indigenous peoples based on Forestry Act
number 41/1999.
The failure to recognize the customary forest rights of local communities led toland conflicts over forest resources. But land conflicts were not just about establishingrights; they were also about access. RIBOT and PELUSO (2003) define “access” as“the ability to derive benefits from things.” Benefits include materials (land, forest
products), people (manpower), institutions, and symbols. Power is also a benefit, andpower can be in the form of material goods (wealth and arms), culture (dignity andcharisma), or social status (position of power). Local communities claimed customary
forest rights and access to their own land based on a moral claim, despite the fact thatthey had no legal standing.
Conflict over forestland access and resources management has been one of the
impediments to achieving sustainable forest management, particularly “natural forest”
management activities such as logging permits (HPH) and industrial timber planting
concessions (HTI). To date, only some management units of HPH and HTI companies
have been able to realize sustainable forest management using “social management12.”Social management performance has been evaluated by several indicators, not justthose directly related to conflict resolution but also those related to social capacity
development as a whole, including “conflict management” indicators (H ASAN and
NURROCHMAT 2012: 245-247).
The government invited both domestic and foreign investors to participate inseveral sectors, including oil palm plantations, the mega MIFEE project, KOPERMAS,
and mining exploration. These investments were initially launched as “national
development” initiatives to generate increased foreign exchange earnings, tax revenues,
gross domestic product (GDP), and jobs. However, these investors required hugeswaths of land to extend their businesses in logging, plantations, and mining, andeventually caused land conflicts with local communities in many districts in Papua.
Problem two: Palm oil and the mega MIFEE project
There are two critical threats to Merauke’s forest. The first is the MIFEE project.
It was established in 2009 with the goal of providing food and energy for Indonesia
and for export by developing estates based on rice, palm oil, sugar cane, cacao, andsoybean in Merauke. The MIFEE project has been designated as a national special
economic zone. The second threat is the expansion of palm oil areas.
As of early 2011, palm oil plantations covered 7.8 million ha in Indonesia;
12 Social management is a range of activities that aim to improve benefits and reduce the impact of forest
management activities (both logging and industrial timber activities) on the lives of local communities acrossgenerations (based on Indonesian Ecolab Standard Institute/LEI 5000 year 2000).

82South Pacific Studies Vol.34, No.2, 2014previously, between 2006 and 2010, palm oil cultivation covered only 5.9 million ha(SLETTE and WIYONO 2011). In 2010, these plantations produced 22 million tons ofcrude palm oil (CPO); by the end of 2011, CPO production had increased to 23.6
million tons (OBIDZINSKI et al. 2012). Of this quantity, 15.5 million tons of CPO
was allocated for export. Investors received IDR 122.7 trillion in foreign exchangeearnings, and the government received just IDR 14 trillion in CPO taxes (K OMPAS
15 September, 2011). Most plantations and CPO production sites were located in
Sumatra and Kalimantan, but as new land available for plantations became more
limited, the annual development of new plantations gradually declined in Sumatra andKalimantan. Thus, Papua Island (Irian Jaya) was identified as the next target area forpalm oil production in the 2000s. By 2011, oil palm plantations covered approximately
1.5 million ha of Papua, and another 2 million ha of plantations were planned (Papua
Province Bureau for Plantation Estates, April 2011). In 2008, the Papuan governor
issued a policy for accelerating poor/rural development through oil palm plantations
for biofuel production (USAID 2009). The role of palm oil investors was significant
in establishing CPO processing sites such as Perkebunan Nusantara XIII Company,
which was established as a government-owned CPO factory in West Kalimantan in the
1980s. Additionally, big investors and multinational groups such as Sinar Mas, Wilmar,
Golden Hope, Asian Agri, Cargill, and Lyman control major oil palm plantations in
the provinces (OBIDZINSKI et al. 2012). According to official statistics, 337 oil palm
plantations covered a total of 3.6 million ha in 2009 (DINAS PERKEBUNAN KALIMANTANBARAT 2011).
The rich biodiversity of the West Papuan forest is threatened by deforestation. The
main threats to Papua’s forests are oil palm plantations, logging (both legal and illegal),and mining. The exact amount of land set aside for oil palm plantations is unclear,and figures vary according to sources. According to MCBETH (2007), the Indonesia
central government plans to massively expand oil palm plantations in West Papua.
The conversion of forestland to oil palm estates is planned for four million ha in areas
such as Merauke, Boven Diegul, and Mappi and in the Sari, Keerom and Jayapura
Regencies. About 90% of the area designated for conversion to oil palm plantation is
primary forest that has never been logged (MCBETH 2007). Furthermore, Greenpeace
claims that the Indonesian President has asked Papuan Governor Barnabes Suebu to
open five million ha of land for conversion into oil palm plantations in a bid to increase
biofuel production. 13 A source in a Down to Earth article quotes the Indonesia’s
Investment Coordinating Board as follows:“Over two million ha of land in Papua are available for palm oil
development. Most of this (1.935 million ha) is spread through nine
districts in Papua Province, with the remaining 150,000 ha in the
recently renamed ‘West Papua’ Province. BKPM classifies this land
13 RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL, 9 October, 2007.

HIDAYAT and YAMAMOTO: Papua’s Threatened Forests83

as state and customary/collective land. The BKPM data states thatland already taken for palm oil schemes covers around 90,000 ha in
Papua, and around 30,000 ha in West Papua, according to Ministry ofAgriculture data.”
Since 2006, biofuels have increasingly attracted the Indonesian government’s
interest because of their potential to reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels (BRITISHPETROLEUM 2010). Because Indonesia has long been dependent on fossil fuel energy
for revenues and to finance development, it has become increasingly urgent to conserve
remaining oil reserves and look for alternative sources of energy. In 2005, revenue
from the oil and gas sector was about USD 19.2 billion (24% of Indonesia’s GDP).
Unfortunately, production of Indonesian oil has declined over the past decade, while
consumption has increased. As a result, in 2004, Indonesia became a net importer ofoil, and the government issued many energy subsidies (BEATON and LONTOH 2010).
Based on the National Energy Policy of 2006, the Ministry of Energy set guidelines
for the use of biodiesel by heavy industries and established blending targets. The
government has actively courted investors to apply for land and industrial licenses.
The government hoped that by 2010, the biofuel sector would have created 3.6 million
jobs in rural areas and helped reduce poverty by 16% (DILLON et al. 2008, MINISTRY
OF ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES 2008, OXFAM 2008, OBIDZINSKI et al. 2012).
In 2007, the first year that Indonesia’s biofuel policy was in effect, investment in the
biofuel sector was significant. But by late 2007, the Indonesian Association of Biofuel
Producers reported that 17 biodiesel companies had reduced production or temporarilysuspended operations. In 2008, only five mills were operational, which caused biodiesel
production to fall by 60%. The decline was caused by a drop in the price of fossil fuels
on the international market, which rendered CPO-based biofuels uncompetitive. The
price of CPO on the international market is variable, but it has recently been on therise. In March 2008, it peaked at USD 1,410/ton. Throughout 2011, the price hoveredaround USD 1,000/ton.
Several factors indicate a high demand for palm oil, including rising palm oil
prices, which make biofuels economically viable. Indonesia has now become the largest
global producer of palm oil, with production of 17-17.2 million tons in 2007 and 22.6
million tons by the end of 2011. Other reasons for increased global demand for palm
oil are the trends toward reducing greenhouse gases and reducing reliance on fossil
fuels. According to reports of the NGO Down to Earth, the demand for biofuel is also
driven by government policy. For example, the European Union (EU) has stated that
5.75% of all vehicles must use biofuels by 2015 as part of a broader set of measures toreduce greenhouse gas emissions.14 The EU policy has been criticized by some NGOs
in an open letter to the EU, and its citizens have declared that implementing the targets:

14 See DOWN TO EARTH (2007b).

84

South Pacific Studies Vol.34, No.2, 2014“…means that the European Union (EU) will risk breaching its
international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions andprotect biodiversity and human rights; because the proposed targets
will, amongst other things, promote crops with poor greenhouse gasbalances, trigger deforestation and loss of biodiversity and exacerbate
local land use conflicts.”15
Cutting down tropical forests in Papua for oil palm plantations will not only
lead to increased global warming; it will also destroy the area’s rich biodiversity,
which is utilized by indigenous people in every aspect of their daily lives. Therefore,pro-preservation NGOs emphasize the sustainable use of forest resources for local
communities, including their use for gathering foods and medicinal plants, for hunting,for collecting timber for home construction, and for their cultural and spiritualsignificance. Scott Frazier (FRIEND OF THE EARTH INTERNATIONAL 2004) notes theimpact of plantations on biodiversity:a) 8 0-100% of mammal reptile and bird species are lost (whenplantations are established in primary tropical forests);b) F ire is often used as a management tool on plantations. This firecan spread to the surrounding habitats.16
Frazier also asserts that palm oil production brings pollution. Carelessly andcopiously applied pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, along with waste productprocessing, endanger aquatic and terrestrial flora and fauna. Additionally, a critiqueby the International Crisis Group in 2007 noted that “the social and political tensions
generated by natural resources investment have always been an important elementof the Papua conflict. Papua and West Papua’s timber, estate, and mining are vital to
the national economy (income), yet their populations are poorer than those of any
other provinces in Indonesia except West Nusa Tenggara.” Another concern is the“the potential influx of non-Papuan Indonesian workers from Java, Bugis, Buton, andMakassar.” Recently, native Papuans have expressed concerns that they will becomea minority, particularly in big cities such as Manokwari, Sorong, Abepura, Sentani,
and Jayapura. The influx of other ethnic groups has created the potential for additional
conflict between the local communities and other migrants.17
The mega MIFEE project also threatens forestlands in Papua, especially in
Merauke. In June 2008, Bogor Agricultural University, which has studied the MIFEE
project, argued that Indonesia will face a crisis in 2010-2025. A lack of sufficient landin Java due to the very rapid increase in population and industries has resulted in the
15 See DOWN TO EARTH (2007a).
16 See KARTIKASARI et al. (2012).
17 See INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP (2007).

HIDAYAT and YAMAMOTO: Papua’s Threatened Forests

85

emergence of nine megalopolises in Java, but a decline in the food supply is anticipatedas Indonesian populations increase to an estimated 300 million in 2025. These
conditions could lead to famine, highlighting the need to find a solution in the formof vast areas of land to be used for agricultural development. For this reason, in 2009,
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono declared the establishment of MIFEE,
with the goal of feeding “Indonesia and the world” by developing a food and energy
estate based on rice, palm oil, sugar cane, cacao, and soybean in Merauke. Merauke
has been designated a national special economic zone to attract the USD 8.6 billion of
investment needed for the project. MIFEE is one of the priority programs of the second
term of the Yudoyono presidency (2009-2014). To fulfill its ambition, the Indonesian
government invited multinational companies from the Middle East, Asia, and the US,
as well as from Indonesia, to participate. More than 30 companies, such as the Bin
Laden Group (Saudi Arabia), as well as companies from Oman and the United ArabEmirates confirmed their interest in this project and have already received concessions
from the Indonesian government. Asian corporations participating in the project include
the Mitsubishi Group (Japan), the Wilmar Group (Singapore), and LG International
and Korindo (South Korea) (Table 2). North American firms participating in MIFEE
include the International Paper Company (Memphis, Tennessee), which has discussed
the development of a mill in either Kalimantan or Merauke with the Indonesian
Ministry of Forestry. Domestic companies participating in MIFEE include the MedcoGroup, the Artha Graha Network, Bangun Cipta Sarana, Comexindo, Sumber Alam
Sutra, Rajawali Nusantara, Sinar Mas (Kertas Nusantara), and Diegul Agro Lestari aspart of Astra Agro Lestari (Table 2).
Agus Samule, an expert on the Papuan governor’s staff, opposes the MIFEE
project. Samule has said that going forward with MIFEE would be an act of grave
injustice, because it would mean that Papua, and especially the Merauke Regency,
would be expected to bear all the consequences of the food crisis in the world and inIndonesia. Instead, he believes that this burden should be borne by districts throughout
Table 2. Company actors of the MIFEE project.
Domestic company

Overseas company

Medco Group

Mitsubishi Group (Japan)

Artha Graha Network

Wilmar Group (Singapore)

Bangun Cipta Sarana

LG International (South Korea)

Comexindo

Korindo (South Korea)

Sumber Alam SatraInternational Paper Company (USA)

Rajawali Nusantara

Bin Laden Group (Saudi Arabia)

Sinar Mas
Diegul Agro Lestari
Perkebunan Nusantara XIII Company
Source: “Grand Designs for Merauke: MIFEE in Theory and Practice”.

86South Pacific Studies Vol.34, No.2, 2014

Indonesia, from east to west and from north to south.18 Local NGOs, such as SKPKAM, Foker, SORPATOM, and AMAN, have also raised strong opposition to MIFEE
based on major environmental and ecological concerns.19 AMAN has stated that,
under MIFEE, the conversion of customary forestlands into agricultural estates andutilization by companies amounts to a human rights violation against indigenous
tribes and will radically alter the nature of local communities.20 The Malind tribe will
become a minority in its own land because skilled migrant workers with better training
from other provinces have been invited to work for MIFEE. Moreover, the conversion
of protected forests into agricultural lands is potentially a violation of Forestry Act
regulations, and will lead to widespread deforestation of Merauke. Furthermore,
the MIFEE project contradicts the Indonesian Government’s commitment to reducegreenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2020. It also conflicts with a recent USD 1 billion
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) agreementwith the Norwegian Government to preserve Indonesia’s rainforests, particularly thosein Papua.
In contrast, the head of the regency, Johanes Gebze, has been positive withrespect to the MIFEE project. Gebze has favored increasing local autonomy andimproving food self-sufficiency. The local and central governments have carried out
their own studies and produced draft positions on the MIFEE project. The central
government, which had originally crafted MIFEE, drafted the additional government
regulation No. 20/2008 regarding National Land Allocation. As a result, the Indonesianpresident enacted Inpres No. 5/2008, which requires adoption of the MIFEE plan aspart of provincial land allocation. Initially, the provincial government recommended
the allocation of 5,552 ha for MIFEE, but the Ministry of Agriculture suggested that
1.6 million ha should be allocated for the project. The huge area included not only
agricultural land and transmigration sites suitable for food production but also virginforests and protected areas including peat lands, water catchment areas, and residential
areas set aside for the villages of the indigenous Malind tribe. Unfortunately, in
the implementation of the MIFEE project by the Merauke Regency and the central
government, there has been virtually no effort to improve the destinies of indigenous
peoples with respect to raising per capita income, establishing training centers, orproviding modern equipment and technology for agricultural production.
The response to the MIFEE project by indigenous tribes, such as the Malind,Muyu, Mandobo, Mappi, and Ayu, has been overwhelmingly negative (Table 3). They
tribes have asserted that they are victims of conspiracy by investors and government
officers and that they have been manipulated into releasing customary forestland
18 See MOIWEND (2010).
19 Office for Justice and Peace of the Archdiocese of Merauke (SKP-KAM), Papua NGOs Cooperation Forum(Foker LSM), Solidarity for Papuans (SORPATOM), and the Indigenous People’s Alliance of Indonesia(AMAN).
20 See paper titled “Request for Consideration of Customary People (Masyarakat Adat) in Merauke, Papua
Province, to the United Nations Committee for Erasing Race Discrimination” on 23 April, 2010 (http://www.
aman.or.id/in/masyarakat-adat/masalah-adat/179.html).

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Table 3. Local indigenous communities.
Sector issue

District

Tribe

Merauke Integrated Food, Energy,
and Estate (MIFEE) projectMeraukeMalind, Muyu,
Mandobo, Mappi

Mining project (Freeport Grasberg
Company)

Jayawijaya (Tembagapura)
Jayawijaya (Timika)

AmungmeKamoroMining project (Tablasupa Nickel
Company)

Jayapura (Sentani)

Sentani

Source: KRISTIANTO 2010; interview with informants, May 2012.

rights. The Farmers Association of Indonesia and AMAN have loudly voiced thesesame concerns. The Malind tribe, which has 50,000 members, is one of the tribes
most affected by the food and energy project, and the economic marginalization of
the Malind people in Merauke is only expected to worsen. The Malind will lose theircustomary lands through seizure in the name of development, and they will lose theircustomary systems and regulations. The unique identity of the Malind tribe will be
gradually lost, along with the destruction of the natural features that are the symbol ofeach clan.
Problem three: Mining activities
We evaluated the mining activities of Freeport Grasberg Company and
Tablasupa Nickel Mining Company, located at Mount Jaya and in the Cyclops Forest
Conservation Area, respectively. Both firms have been accused of human rights abusesand ecological damage.
Freeport Grasberg Company
Freeport Grasberg Company is one of the world’s largest gold and copper mining
operations. It is located in Jayawijaya Regency, Papua, and is situated on 16,500-foot,snow-capped Mount Jaya, a few hundred miles south of the equator in Papua New
Guinea. Recent estimates suggest that the mine has the third largest reserves of copper
and the second largest reserves of gold in the world. Gold production from the mineaverages between one million and 1.5 million oz/year; copper production averages
1 billion lb/year. The mine employs approximately 17,000 people, at least 85% ofwhom are non-Papuans (ROBERT 1996: 15). According to BRYCE (1996), the Grasberg
Mine contains gold, silver, and copper valued at USD 50 billion. Politically, Freeport
received mining permits and concessions after the Sukarno regime stepped down in
1966. Freeport established close contact with the new Suharto regime in 1967, andwas the first multinational corporation to sign a contract with Suharto’s New Order
Government. Under the contract, Freeport was obliged to house, supply, and transport
any government officials, including members of the security forces and soldiers forprotection of the mining area. As was typical in newly independent countries during

88South Pacific Studies Vol.34, No.2, 2014

the Cold War and beyond, the Suharto regime had come to power with backing andassistance from the US government, including the Central Intelligence Agency, becauseof its foreign-investment-friendly economic policies (ABRASH and KENNEDY 2001).
The wealth of Freeport’s mine deepened the relationship between the company
and the Indonesian government. Freeport has been responsible for about two thirds
of Indonesia’s annual gold production, and it is regularly among the largest corporate
taxpayers in Indonesia. Parent company Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, Inc.,
reported that it paid the Indonesian government as much as USD 899 million in
financial obligations in the first half of 2010 alone. This payment comprised USD
581 million in corporate income taxes; USD 137 million in employee income taxes,
regional dues, and other taxes; USD 105 million in royalties; and USD 75 million as
the government’s share of dividends (“Chronology of Events in West Papua” 2012).
The government has thus deemed Freeport to be of strategic importance to the state;
its importance exceeds its monetary value, because the government also shares thecorporate dividends. Freeport became the first symbol of foreign investment confidence
in the Suharto regime, and the Freeport mine was declared one of ten “national assets.”
The Freeport mine also generated valuable income for Papua (Irian Jaya), accounting
for 88% of the province’s non-oil exports (BALLARD 2001: 23).
Development of Freeport mining areas began in 1971, and production commenced
in 1972. The Freeport mines currently produce 78,000 tons of ore a day, withproduction increasing from 7,500 metric equivalent tons in 1972, to 66,000 metrictons in 1993, and 220,000 metric tons in 1998. Unfortunately, unsustainable waste
management has led to pollution; waste was thrown directly into the Agabagong River,which flows into the Aijkwa River and then into the Arafuru Sea. The mine also dumps
300,000 tons of waste tailings directly into the Aijkwa River every day.21 As a result,environmental damage has been great, particularly in the aftermath of a large overbank
event at the Aijkwa River in 1990 that saw tailings disgorged over a 30 km2 area of
lowland forest. The scene was described by one observer: “Dead and dying trees are
everywhere, their broken branches protruding from tracts of gray sludge…. Vegetation
is being smothered by accumulated sludge that is several yards deep in places…. By thecompany’s own calculation, 51 square miles of rain forest is expected to be destroyed
before the century is out” (ROBERT 1996: 16). Freeport, with its careless exploitationof the environment over the course of more than 30 years, has damaged 30,000 haof rainforest as well as the Aijkwa River. The environmental damage has affected
thousands of local people, primarily the Amungme and the Kamoro, who depend on
natural resources for their food, subsistence, water, and cultural practices (ABRASH and
KENNEDY 2001). In 1977, indigenous people affiliated with the Free Papua Movement
issued their own critique of Freeport’s environmental record by blowing up one of itsore pipelines.
21 Press release, “Rio Tinto’s Shame File: Indonesian Landowners’ Discontent Represented at Rio Tinto AGM,”
Mineral Policy Institute, 22 May, 2000.

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89

To counter the intense criticism of its environmental record, Freeport has
employed environmental consultants. In a 1999 report written for Freeport,
environmental consultants from the consulting company Montgomery Watsonsuggested that the company “incorporate modern, state-of-the-practice geotechnicalstability techniques in sitting and designing the Wanagon and Carstenz (Overburden
Stockpiles).” However, Freeport’s management ignored and suppressed the consultants’recommendation that dumping at Wanagon be regulated. As a result, just months later,
in May 2000, the Wanagon stockpile underwent a massive rockslide that entered Lake
Wanagon, generating a flood of water that washed downstream like a tidal wave into
the populated valley below, and four workers were killed. The gray sludge rockslide
to downstream areas killed the rainforest as far away as 80 km from the mine site, andan area that was once a source of livelihood for local indigenous communities waspolluted (ABRASH and KENNEDY 2001).
There are two large indigenous communities in the Freeport concession area:
the Amungme of the highland area around the Grasberg mine and the township ofTembagapura, and the Kamoro on the coast and in the lowland plains in the new townsof Kuala Kencana and Timika. Today, there are also almost 100,000 immigrants, themajority of whom have arrived from other parts of Indonesia since 1990. Unfortunately,while work on the Freeport contract began in 1967, the local government did not
involve local communities as shareholders or landowners. Instead, Freeport paid norent or royalties to the Amungme, other than the stipulated “reasonable compensation
for dwellings to local inhabitants and cost of their resettlement.” Therefore, as themine infrastructure expanded in 1973 and as the township of Tembagapura wasconstructed, the Amungme of the Wa Valley continued to protest what they saw
as a constant process of encroachment on their land, with neither consultation nor
adequate compensation. The protests led to the signing of an agreement that was
negotiated at Tembagapura in January 1974 between Freeport, local communities,
the Amungme community leaders, and military government officials. As part of theagreement, Freeport agreed to construct 19 buildings in the villages of Wa, Tsinga, andKwamki Lama and to offer re-employment to Amungme laborers, including schooland health clinic workers, in exchange for local landowners’ approval of its mining
activities. The company responded by injecting large sums of money into indigenous
communities and also offered a “One Percent Trust Fund,” which designated 1% of
the company’s annual revenues to a regional development program. Unfortunately,
the Lembaga Musyawarah Adat Suku Amungme (LEMASA), the Amungme Tribal
Council, represented by LEMASA leader Tom Beanal, refused to acknowledge thefund and unconditionally and absolutely rejected Freeport’s offer. LEMASA instead
insisted that the Freeport mine be closed in response to the human rights violations
and environmental damage done by the Company. The Amungme leaders did not fully
understand the implications of the 1974 agreement. Those leaders still alive today insist
that they went to the meeting prepared to deny Freeport further access to their lands but
were intimidated into signing the agreement by the presence of military officers acting

90South Pacific Studies Vol.34, No.2, 2014

as mediators.
Freeport has continued its mining exploration and has established a lucrative,
highly profitable business. In 1991, Freeport CEO James Robert (Jim Bob) signed a
new contract with the Suharto regime to exploit a huge gold deposit that Freeport had
discovered at Grasberg in 1988. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the deal wasrife with the corruption and collusion for which the Suharto regime has since become
infamous.22 After obtaining the extended contract from the Indonesian government,
Freeport sought large injections of foreign capital, provided primarily by Rio Tinto ofAustralia, to finance this massive increase in the rate of mining.
Consecutive protests against the expanded mining occurred in May 1994 and in
March 1996. In November 1994, a wave of defiance began in the Tsinga valley, wherea group of some 200 members of the Free Papua Movement, or Organisasi Papua
Merdeka (OPM), entered the village of Tsinga and raised the banned pro-independence
Morning Star flag. Following the event in November 1994, two shooting incidents
occurred along the company road between Timika and Tembagapura, resulting in
the death of one Freeport employee and injuries to two others. The army responded
severely, killing about 30 villagers suspected of being OPM participants, and many
Amungme tribal resettlements were destroyed. This event prompted an investigation
by Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in September
1995, which concluded that identifiable human rights violations had occurred in andaround Freeport’s project area, including indiscriminate killings, torture, inhumaneor degrading treatment, unlawful arrests, disappearances, and destruction of property.
Komnas HAM noted that these violations “[were] directly connected to the (Indonesianarmy’s)…acting as protection for the mining business [of the] Freeport Company”(BALLARD 2001: 12).
In 1996, several thousand villagers launched a protest against Freeport inTembagapura in response to an incident in which a Dany man was hit and injured by
Freeport vehicle. The protest targeted the unpopular security department, and over the
next few days, the riot spread to Timika, where Freeport facilities and the airport wereattacked. Four people were killed, and more than a dozen were injured in this riot,
and protesters damaged Freeport’s equipment. According to the Australian Council
for Overseas Aid and the Catholic Church of Jayapura, Freeport turned a blind eye
while the Indonesian military killed and tortured residents of dozens of indigenous
communities in the area surrounding the mining concession. “Villagers were beaten
22 There was much debate in the Indonesian Parliament after the Suharto regime stepped down in May 1998
regarding re-reviews of contracts between the Indonesian government and mining, oil, and gas investors.
Previous high-income contracts with investors were reportedly corrupted by high government officials under
the cronyism of the Suharto regime. For example, during the reformation government of the Abdurrahman
Wahid regime (2000-2001) the Indonesian Parliament proposed to renegotiate the contract with the FreeportCompany, which carries out strategic gold and copper mining and exploration. The Parliament proposed toincrease its share of dividends from the 9% of the original 1967 contract, which had been raised to 12% in
1991, to a full 25-30%. In prior years, Freeport had generated large profits on the international market. The
higher proposed dividend was considered very significant; it aimed to increase foreign exchange earnings
substantially and sought to provide public funds for education and health care in Indonesia.

HIDAYAT and YAMAMOTO: Papua’s Threatened Forests

91

with rattan, sticks, and rifle butts, and kicked with boots,” one tribal leader told
Catholic Church officials, and “some were tortured until they died” (ZIMAN 1998).
In response to this tragedy, the OPM took hostage a number of foreign and national
scientists working in the Lorentz National Park, resulting in a wave of military
repression across the region and several more civilian massacres. Throughout these
events, Freeport facilities were used as bases for military operations.
The struggle of the Amungme and Kamoro indigenous communities had begun
as an effort to shut down Freeport’s operation because of human rights violations andenvironmental damage. However, over time, the struggle became intimately integrated
with Papua’s territory-wide struggle for independence. Amungme community members
supported the goals of the OPM. As Tom Benal and other Papua community leaders
have asked: “Could it be that [the] Indonesian government is drawn from Papua (Irian
Jaya) not by its people but by its natural resources? The legislative and executive
bodies have proven incapable of responding to the genuine aspiration of the local
communities within the context of the Republic of Indonesia” (ABRASH and KENNEDY2001).
The response from President Abdurrahman Wahid, who came to power in late1999 as part of the post-Suharto reformation government, was to take steps to review
and renegotiate Freeport contracts and to hold Freeport accountable for environmental
damage and human rights violations associated with its mining activities. WALHI,
Indonesia’s largest environmental organization, has accused Freeport in the courts offailing to provide accurate information about the environmental impact of the mine andcases regarding human rights violations against indigenous communities.
The Tablasupa Nickel Mining Company
The Tablasupa Nickel Mining Company has explored and exploited forestland thatis part of the Cyclops Conservation Forest. The concession to do so was obtained fromthe head of the Jayapura Regency on 29 June, 2007. The designation of the Cyclops
mountain region as a conservation forest area with an area of 22,500 ha was establishedby regulation No. 365/Kpts-II-/1987 of the Ministry of Forestry on 18 November,1987. The highest peak in this area is 1,880 m. Administratively, the area is located in
the Jayapura Regency, Sentani Regency, Depapre District, and Jayapura City, Papua
Province. There are four natural ecosystems in the Cyclops area: lowland rainforest,
mountain forest, secondary forest, and grassland.
Recently, forest degradation in the Cyclops area has occurred, leading to flood,
soil erosion, and water shortages in downstream regions such as Jayapura City, Sentani
City, and Sentani Lake (popular for eco-tourism). Several factors drive Cyclops forest
degradation:1) The rapid growth in economic development, industrialization, and populationin the land adjacent to the Cyclops Conservation Area has led to forestland
encroachments for property, housing complexes, and resettlements for migrant92South Pacific Studies Vol.34, No.2, 2014

workers in Jayapura City. For example, there are at least 56 houses in illegal
settlements in Harapan, Ifar Gunung Dayo Baru, and Sereh villages. If
regulation against illegal settlement in the surrounding catchment area of the
Cyclops conservation area is not implemented, forest degradation will continue
to occur.
2) At least 49 households of indigenous peoples in this area have been engaged in“shifting cultivation,” in which activities have been shifted from the ancestralcustoms tree cutting for subsistence. This shift has led to soil erosion and forest
degradation. Hence, the role of the local government and the Forestry Regency
Agency is to cooperate to relocate indigenous people who have been engaged
in shifting cultivation in the Cyclops area.
3) Finally, and most significantly, the Tablasupa Company has carried out nickel
mining activities under a permit granted by the Jayapura Regency on 29 June,
2007. In addition, some type C rock exploration has been carried out by a local
businessman from the Sentani tribal (Ondoafi). These mining activities have
led to forest degradation, floods, and soil erosion. In March 2007, Sentani
City (the capital of the Jayapura Regency) was flooded, resulting in damage
to infrastructure, drainage systems, two bridges, and roads, and a halt intransportation for several days (interview on 20 May, 2012).
The forestry agency, various NGOs, and academics have offered many criticalcommentaries on the forest degradation in the Cyclopes Conservation Area, andsuggestions have been made for rehabilitation, reforestation, relocation of illegal
settlements, and termination of shifting cultivation. According to George Karma,
head of the forestry agency in the Jayapura Regency, the Cyclops area is vital andmust be maintained for strict conservation as an upstream water catchment area for
the watershed of Sentani Lake and for water resources for the people in Sentani andJayapura City. Marshall Suebu, head of the Hiroshi Foundation (for maintaining
natural resources and environment) in the Jayapura Regency has also suggested better
management of the Cyclops conservation area through better cooperation between thelocal governments in the Jayapura Regency and Jayapura City. Furthermore, Suebu
suggested that the local governments jointly and proactively engage in reforestation
and rehabilitation with the active involvement of local communities, academics, privatecompanies, and NGOs. A high-priority feature of this effort is the relocation of illegal
settlements and an end to the shifting cultivation occurring among some indigenous
peoples (interview on 24 May, 2012). Fritz M. Felle, the head of the Sentani tribe,
has noted that, until now, there has been no integrated management effort to reduce or
eliminate forestland encroachment by such activities as shifting cultivation, fires, illegal
logging, rock and metal mining, and illegal resettlement. Thus, law enforcement by
the local government for prevention of forest degradation in the Cyclops Conservation
Area has not occurred. The ecological impact of encroachment is very serious andincludes soil erosion, floods, and water shortages, especially in the dry season.

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According to Gady Batubara, director of the water supply for Jayapura City, the supply
of clean water during the 4 dry months (June through August) is a serious threat (KOMPAS
20 October, 2010).
Academics such as J. R. Mansoben and Enos Rumansara, both anthropologists
from Cendrawasih University, have also presented critiques of the forest degradation
crisis in the Cyclops Conservation Area. Both have asserted that maintaining the
Cyclops area is of high strategic importance to many stakeholders because of theregion’s clean upstream water, position as a catchment area, and potential as a carbon
sink. As part of an effort to improve Cyclops management, Cendrawasih University
held a seminar in conjunction with the local government titled “Safety Program for
the Cyclops area and Sentani Lake.” Several stakeholders were invited to the seminar,
which was held during the Sentani Festival, 19-23 June, 2012. The goal of the seminar
was to improve stakeholders’ awareness of the need for a proactive conservation effort
that includes massive reforestation, forest rehabilitation, and protection of the areafrom illegal settlements and shifting cultivation (interview on 25 May, 2012).

Conclusion
The operation of large-scale business projects such as mining and estateplantations (especially oil palm) and the MIFEE project captured the public interestfor their potential to create jobs for migrant workers because the “neoliberal economy”
has removed the potential for capital, technology, and cash flow for investment in theregencies, districts, and rural areas (villages). Papua, in particular, has seen a great
expansion of the activities of many multinational corporations, such as Freeport and
LNG in the mining sector, Kodeco and Korindo (South Korea), the Djajanti Group,
Kayu Lapis Indonesia, Hanurata, and Wapoga Mutiara in the logging sector; andthe Sinar Mas Group, Wilmar, and Astra Agro Lestari in the palm oil sector. The
Indonesian central government’s policy has been to grant concessions for investment by
multinational corporations and domestic private companies to generate foreign capital,
tax revenues, and foreign exchange earnings from commodities exports, technology
transfer, and jobs. For example, Freeport McMoRan has been of the largest generatorsof income, jobs, taxes, and dividends for the Indonesian government, despite the factthat the company’s operation led to forest degradation, environmental damage, andhuman rights violations against the local indigenous people.
Instead, the interests of the local communities have been largely ignored,
especially with respect to customary forest rights upon which indigenous communities
depended for subsistence and daily needs. For example, during the illegal logging crisis
in Papua in 2000-2003, the government did not immediately address forest degradation,
land conflicts, or economic marginalization of local communities. Instead, politicalmanipulation, collusion, and corruption among the local elite, traders, and the militarywere prevalent.

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Indigenous communities responded with protests and demonstrations. The Sentani
in Jayapura, the Arfak in Manokwari, the Amungme in the upstream Tembagapura
region, and the Kamoro in the downstream coastal area of Timika organized against
illegal logging, logging concessions, palm oil plantations, and mining (Freeport)
because their ancestral forestlands were encroached upon or seized without propercompensation and/or dividends for indigenous communities, or because of thedestruction of their ancestral forests, lakes, mountains, and valleys, all of which are
regarded as sacred places. The continuing operation and expansion of the Freeportmining operation eventually led to deforestation, severe ecological damage, and theeconomic and social marginalization of indigenous communities.
Despite warnings about threats to forests and increased conflict, we conclude
that the Indonesian government’s interests in Papuan forestland resources lie withexpanding oil palm estates (i.e., with the MIFEE project), increasing logging
concessions, and increasing mining activities. Expansion of these activities to generateincreased revenue from investors, including dividends and taxes, foreign exchangeearnings, etc., is an ongoing effort. Conflict will continue because the government’s
rationale is based on an “economic gain” paradigm, rather than on conservation ofnatural resources and on customary rights for local people. The priority step is how
to realize the Special Papua Autonomy regulation (No. 11/ 2001), which authorizedadministrative “decentralization” and gave fiscal and political management to the
local government. Although this political decentralization was initially designed topromote democratic values, accountability, and transparency in the management in
Papua, thus far decentralization has not been fully implemented. The management of
natural resources, such as forestry, estate plantation, and mining activities, is still at a
crossroads: the central government maintains the bulk of the authority, and it controls
the issuing of permits and concessions to investors. Local governments do not currently
make significant decisions because the central government still asserts that local
government officers do not have a sufficient capacity to manage natural resources. The
impact of this policy is that recent large-scale development in Papuan forestry, estateplantation, and mining sectors has not led to an improvement in the infrastructure,
economics, agriculture, education, or health of indigenous communities. Instead, there
is ongoing, embedded conflict surrounding forestland utilization and concessions
among three interested parties (the central government, the local government andindigenous people), each of which interprets the laws, regulations, and local needs
differently. This critical condition in the implementation of law could be considered
by a Constitutional Court as a way of making a fair decision on natural resource
management in Papua.

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