Putri Nurjannah Kurita, Sentani – The Papua chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has issued an official statement voicing serious concerns about plans by the central and regional governments.
Walhi is concerned over President Prabowo Subianto's plan to promote Papuan land and forests for large-scale agricultural projects such as palm oil and sugarcane plantations and related food and energy programs.
This policy is seen as a threat to the rights of Papuan indigenous communities, the preservation of customary forests, local food security and environmental sustainability.
In a press release on Wednesday December 17, Walhi Papua Director Maikel Peuki said that the government's food and energy self-sufficiency policies tend to strengthen corporate domination over vast areas of land, rather than being based on the needs and local wisdom of indigenous communities.
"Large monocultures such as palm oil and sugar cane actually threaten biodiversity, forest ecosystems, and the traditional food security of Papua's indigenous people", he said.
President Prabowo is seen as ignoring Papuan Special Autonomy (Otsus) and the special administration with its own authority that respects the land of Papua, which is not an empty land and there are traditional owners who have rights to customary land and forests.
The central and regional governments have not involved indigenous communities through free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) before making decisions.
This policy could trigger agrarian conflicts, accelerate forest destruction and destroy local food systems that have relied on sago and other forest products.
Earlier, Prabowo encouraged the planting of oil palms in the Papua region to produce fuel from palm oil.
"And also later we hope that in the Papua region it must be planted with oil palms so they can also produce BBM [fuel] from palm oil", said Prabowo in a joint briefing with regional heads from across Papua at the State Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday December 16.
In addition to palm oil, Prabowo also proposed planting sugar cane and cassava, which can produce ethanol.
Prabowo plans to achieve food and energy self-sufficiency within five years of his leadership. He said this initiative could also save Indonesia hundreds of trillions of rupiah from the state budget.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "WALHI Papua Kritik Model Pembangunan ala Prabowo dan Komersialisasi Hutan Adat di Tanah Papua".]
