Category Archives: Merauke News

Merauke Burns – but were the plantations to blame?

By admin | Published: November 20, 2015

The rains have finally arrived, putting out the forest fires that raged across Indonesia through the last few months. Forest burning takes place every dry season, but this year an especially strong El Nino phenomenon meant that the dry season was longer and dryer, and the fires were especially bad. The worst crises were, as […]

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Oil palm plantation development & forest fires in southern Papua, September-October 2015

By admin | Published: November 19, 2015

by Sam Lawson, Earthsight Summary: Analysis of satellite data clearly demonstrates forest fires burning in areas undergoing conversion for oil palm in two locations in southern Papua. One of these areas is intact primary forest, while part of the other is on peat soil. The concessions concerned are both owned by the large Korean conglomerate […]

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Merauke District Council and Indigenous People’s Association take issue with military working on one-million hectare rice estate

By admin | Published: November 13, 2015

A Member of Merauke Regency District Legislative Council, Hendrikus Hengky Ndiken, has expressed his complaints about the 1.2 million hectare rice estate recently announced by the Indonesian President Joko Widodo. He was disappointed by how land conversion work seemed to have been taken over by the military. He said that local entrepreneurs who have joined […]

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Agriculture Minister telephones Merauke’s Regency Leader, asking to speed up Food Estate project

By admin | Published: August 14, 2015

Speaking to journalists in Jakarta, the Agriculture Minister has admitted that the plan which President Jokowi announced in May this year, to develop 250,000 hectares of rice estate each semester, is not progressing as fast as the government had hoped. The reason is the difficulty in getting permission to use indigenous land. Given that the […]

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Minister announces 500,000 hectare new sugar plantations in Merauke, Aru, SE Sulawesi.

By admin | Published: June 23, 2015

Officials in Jakarta can’t seem to stop making pronouncements promising vast new agricultural expansion along the eastern frontier of the Indonesian state. In May President Joko Widodo announced 1.2 million hectares of rice fields to be developed in three years in the Merauke area of West Papua. Now his agricultural minister, Amran Sulaiman, has apparently […]

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Malind Ezam tribal chief: Disappointed by government, wants to give back Kalpataru prize.

By admin | Published: June 22, 2015

Amandus Yoliw Kaize, A Malind tribal chief from the Ezam group in Kaisa Village, Malind District, Merauke, wrote to President Joko Widodo on 18th April 2015 and sent Pusaka a copy in early June. The letter concerned a report of a land grab. In the letter, Amandus reported his problems with an oil palm plantation […]

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Felda Global Ventures buys Rajawali’s Sugar Operations, 37% of all Plantations.

By admin | Published: June 18, 2015

Malaysian company Felda Global Ventures has finalised a deal to buy 37% of PT Eagle High Plantations Tbk, the plantation company in which the Rajawali Group held the controlling stake. The company was created last year after Rajawali’s reverse takeover of BW Plantations. It’s a huge deal. Felda Global Ventures claims to be the world’s […]

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Jokowi relaunches MIFEE, wants 1.2 million hectares of new ricefields within 3 years!

By admin | Published: May 15, 2015

Indonesian President Joko Widodo made his second presidential visit to Papua on 9th and 10th May. In Jayapura he made two small but welcome gestures, pardoning five long-term political prisoners and announcing that there would be no more restrictions on foreign journalists reporting from Papua. The next day he flew to Merauke to get down […]

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Government still looking to Merauke for industrial agriculture development.

By admin | Published: April 17, 2015

Since the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate was launched in West Papua in August 2010, it has had the result of clearing the way for oil palm and sugar-cane plantations, but has failed to meet its stated aim to develop large-scale production of certain key food crops, notably rice. Now there are signs that […]

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17 clans in Ngguti District make a complaint about PT Dongin Prabhawa to National Human Rights Commission.

By admin | Published: April 6, 2015

Around 42,000 hectares of indigenous land around several villages in Ngguti District in Merauke Regency has been clearfelled since 2009 by PT Dongin Prabhawa in order to develop an oil palm plantation. Sacred places and sago groves were included in the area cleared. Now 17 clans are reporting the company to the National Human Rights […]

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