“We, the indigenous people of Yowied Village reject corporations coming on to our land in Tubang District for the following reasons: there is not so much land around Yowied Village. Our lives are dependent on what our environment can provide. Where will the future generations go?” The sign is tied with coconut leaves, a signal […]
The forest villages of Merauke are as remote as it is possible to imagine in the twenty-first century. Nowhere in Indonesia is further from Jakarta – 3700 kilometres as the crow flies. 662 km of forest and a high mountain range separate Merauke from the Papuan capital, Jayapura, which is also the focus of most […]
Three years ago, on August 11 2010, Agriculture Minister Suswono travelled to remote Kampung Serapu, inland from Merauke in the south-east corner of West Papua, He was there to launch the Merauke Integrated Food And Energy Estate(MIFEE). It was an ambitious plan for 1.28 million hectares of high-tech agribusiness development, with the aim of restoring […]
The 16th of October was World Food Day, and two groupings of Indonesian and international organisations have used the opportunity to publish reports or press releases on MIFEE. The first of the two articles below, from Forest People’s Programme together with Sawit Watch and Pusaka, launches a report “A sweetness like unto death”, which is […]
BOGOR, Indonesia (10 October, 2013) — Large-scale land acquisitions connected to a major food and energy development program in the Indonesian province of Papua, could be improved to better meet socio-environmental sustainability standards, according to the findings of a studyby scientists at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate […]
The government must step up action to meet the constitutional rights of indigenous people and local communities as part of the process of determining the status of forest land. Jakarta, 4th October 2013. The National Forestry Council People’s Chamber (Kamar Masyarakat Dewan Kehutanan Nasional (KM DKN)) held a meeting in late September to discuss recent […]
The Yei people have stated their opposition to a sugar-cane company owned by the Wilmar Group in front of the company’s field manager as he came to negotiate with the leadership of the Yei tribe and the community of Kampung Torai, Sota District, on Monday, 23rd September 2013. Father Lambert Bakujai, a Yei Community Leader, […]
(Merauke, Sept 2013) Compaines operating within the framework of MIFEE, the large-scale food and energy mega-project in Merauke, are still not meeting their commitments to recruit local people to their work force. However, when negotiating to use customary land, companies often promise to use local labour. In Kampung Zanegi, where PT Selaras Inti Semesta (SIS […]