Monthly Archives: September 2013

Malind District Leader Fails to halt PUSAKA’s workshop in Kampung Onggari

By admin | Published: September 27, 2013

The Leader of Malind District, Martinus Dwiharjo, failed to stop an event organised by PUSAKA (a Jakarta-based NGO which has long supported villagers affected by MIFEE plantations), after it was made clear that this activity was a training and workshop on how to create village regulations to empower Papuan indigenous peoples’ and protect their rights, […]

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Sugar Company Rajawali Felling Sacred Forests.

By admin | Published: September 27, 2013

Sugar-cane plantation company Rajawali’s prescence in Kampung Domande is still controversial. Domande villagers have several times resorted to using customary law to block access and halt the company’s activties. In late May 2013, the people of Domande wrote a letter detailing their protests and complaints about Rajawali’s operations on their land, namely that the company […]

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Harvesting Swamp Fish in Domande

By admin | Published: September 27, 2013

(Sept 2013) At the moment it is dry season across the whole Merauke area, there has been no rain for over a month and the sun beats down intensely in the daytime. On the other hand, the nights are cool. Most small streams in the forest are dry. The swamps have become no more than […]

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Shut Down Forest-Destroying Oil Palm Companies in Nabire!

By admin | Published: September 7, 2013

A leader of the Yerisiam Ethnic Group in Nabire, on the north coast of West Papua, is once again calling for support and advocacy as two oil palm plantations move on to his people’s land. Simon Petrus Hanebora’s press release, as reported by Majalah Selangkah, is a forthright accusation against the companies, claiming they are […]

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Forum to Care for Papua’s Natural Resources Opposes ConocoPhillips Seismic Testing in Boven Digoel

By admin | Published: September 5, 2013

It is not just plantations – oil and gas companies are also threatening to turn Southern West Papua into an industrial landscape. ConocoPhillips is planning to restart exploration (seismic testing) in the Warim block in the near future, a remote forest area mostly located in Boven Digoel regency, several hundred kilometres inland from Merauke. The […]

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People of Woboyu Traumatised by Gunshots / Continuing Opposition to Plantations.

By admin | Published: September 2, 2013

On 29th September, Romanus Mbaraka, the Bupati or Regency Leader of Merauke, travelled to Kampung Wambi in Okaba District, to try to convince local people that plantation development did not necessarily have to be a bad thing. Hundreds of people from surrounding villages came to hear him speak. A local journalist with tabloidjubi.com also travelled […]

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Press Release – Starvation and poverty in Indonesia: civil society organisations appeal for suspension of MIFEE project in Papua pending redress for local communities

By admin | Published: September 2, 2013

[awasMIFEE note: this press release is concerned with the same submission we reported on on July 26th. Four organisations have issued their press release now to coincide with the end of the 83rd Session of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination]  29 August, 2013 From Forest People’s Programme, Down To Earth, […]

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