Monthly Archives: April 2015

West Papua Oil Palm Atlas – The companies behind the plantation explosion.

By admin | Published: April 30, 2015

Indonesia’s oil palm industry is moving east. With large tracts of land increasingly difficult to find in Sumatra and Borneo, plantation companies are now focussing their attention on Indonesia’s eastern frontier: the small islands of the Maluku archipelago and especially the conflict-ridden land of West Papua. In 2005 there were only five oil palm plantations […]

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West Papua Oil Palm Atlas Introduction

By admin | Published: April 30, 2015

Over the course of several months, we have tried to collect as much data as we can about the oil palm industry in Papua. We have done this through a process of internet research, communication with local Papuan NGOs, church organisations, indigenous organisations and other activists, and attempts to contact government and corporate sources. We […]

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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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PT Pusaka Agro Lestari starts work again, but local forestry service still wants safeguards.

By admin | Published: April 11, 2015

After mounting criticism of PT Pusaka Agro Lestari, an oil palm company owned by Noble Agri which is linked to the giant COFCO group, the local regency head in Mimika took the step of revoking the company’s permit to operate in December last year. However, PT Pusaka Agro Lestari already held cultivation rights (Hak Guna […]

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Logging company shut down in Fakfak after police intimidation and protests.

By admin | Published: April 10, 2015

After protests by the Mbaham Matta indigenous people, lawmakers have reportedly agreed to shut down a logging company’s operations. One of the accusations against the company was that members of the police mobile brigade stationed at the company premises had been intimidating residents. The people wanted to protect their nutmeg trees from being felled by […]

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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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