Yasinta Moiwend was startled when, on a quiet morning, a massive ship docked at her village pier in West Papua.

The vessel carried hundreds of excavators and was escorted by military forces. It was the first convoy of 2000 heavy machines to arrive in Papua under a National Strategic Project for food production, palm-based biodiesel, and sugarcane bioethanol.

Yasinta, a Marind Anim woman in Merauke, never realised that her village had been chosen as the ground zero for what would become the largest forest conversion project in modern history — turning 2.5 million ha of tropical forest into industrial plantations under the guise of “food security” and the “energy transition”.

Vincen Kwipalo, from the Yei community, was also shocked when his clan’s land was suddenly marked with a sign reading: “Property of the Indonesian Army.”

Only later did he learn that the land had been seized for the construction of a military battalion headquarters, at the very moment when sugarcane, a plantation company, was also encroaching on his ancestral forest.

Threatened by the same project, Franky Woro and the Awyu community in Boven Digoel erected giant crosses and indigenous ritual markers on their land. Known as the Red Cross Movement, this form of resistance has spread among Indigenous groups across South Papua.

More than 1800 red crosses have been planted to confront corporations and the military—both physically and spiritually. Though a Christian symbol is central to the movement, local Church prelates condemned it as not part of the church.

The Pesta Babi trailer. Video: Jubi Media at Café Pacific

Pesta Babi (“Pig Feast”) combines detailed field recordings with in-depth research to examine the power structures behind the operation.

It exposes how government and corporate entities — collaborating with military and religious groups — advance international and national goals of “food security” and “energy transition” at the expense of Indigenous communities and landscapes.

The documentary illustrates the networks of Indonesian elites, oligarchs, and multinational corporations that benefit from the project, providing a vivid depiction of the political ecology of Indonesian governance in Papua.

Pig Feast serves as a record of colonialism that remains intact today.

This film is co-produced by Jubi, Ekspedisi Indonesia Baru, Greenpeace, Yayasan Pusaka, and Watchdoc Documentary. It is being screened as part of a weekend of West Papua Solidarity Forum events organised by West Papua Action Tāmaki Makaurau.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indonesia’s plan to convert over 2 million ha of conservation and indigenous lands into agriculture will cause long-term damage to the environment, create conflict and add to greenhouse gas emissions, according to a feasibility study document for the Papua region mega-project.

The 96-page presentation reviewed by Radio Free Asia was drawn up by Sucofindo, the Indonesian government’s inspection and land surveying company.

Dated July 4, it analyses the risks and benefits of the sugar cane and rice estate in Merauke regency on Indonesia’s border with Papua New Guinea and outlines a feasibility study that was to have been completed by mid-August.

Though replete with warnings that “comprehensive” environmental impact assessments should take place before any land is cleared, the feasibility process appears to have been a box-ticking exercise. Sucofindo did not respond to questions from RFA, a news service affiliated with BenarNews, about the document.

Even before the study was completed, then-President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo participated in a ceremony in Merauke on July 23 that marked the first sugar cane planting on land cleared of forest for the food estate, the government said in a statement.

Jokowi’s decade-long presidency ended last month.

Excavators destroy villages
In late July, dozens of excavators shipped by boat were unloaded in the Ilyawab district of Merauke where they destroyed villages and cleared forests and wetlands for rice fields, according to a report by civil society organisation Pusaka

Hipolitus Wangge, an Indonesian politics researcher at Australian National University, told RFA the feasibility study document does not provide new information about the agricultural plans.

But it makes it clear, he said, that in government there is “no specific response on how the state deals with indigenous concerns” and their consequences.

The plan to convert as much as 2.3 million ha of forest, wetland and savannah into rice farms, sugarcane plantations and related infrastructure in the conflict-prone Papua region is part of the government’s ambitions to achieve food and energy self-sufficiency.

Previous efforts in the nation of 270 million people have fallen short of expectations.

Echoing government and military statements, Sucofindo said increasingly extreme climate change and the risk of international conflict are reasons why Indonesia should reduce reliance on food imports.

Taken together, the sugarcane and rice projects represent at least a fifth of a 10,000 square km lowland area known as the TransFly that spans Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and which conservationists say is an already under-threat conservation treasure.

Military leading role
Indonesia’s military has a leading role in the 1.9 million ha rice plan while the government has courted investors for the sugar cane and related bioethanol projects.

The likelihood of conflict with indigenous Papuans or of significant and long-term environmental damage applies in about 80 percent of the area targeted for development, according to Sucofindo’s analysis.

The project’s “issues and challenges,” Sucofindo said, include “deforestation and biodiversity loss, destruction of flora and fauna habitats and loss of species”.

It warns of long-term land degradation and erosion as well as water pollution and reduced water availability during the dry season caused by deforestation.

Sucofindo said indigenous communities in Merauke rely on forests for livelihoods and land conversion will threaten their cultural survival. It repeatedly warns of the risk of conflict, which it says could stem from evictions and relocation.

“Evictions have the potential to destabilize social and economic conditions,” Sucofindo said in its presentation.

If the entire area planned for development is cleared, it would add about 392 million tons of carbon to the atmosphere in net terms, according to Sucofindo.

That is about equal to half of the additional carbon emitted by Indonesia’s fire catastrophe in 2015 when hundreds of thousands of acres of peatlands drained for pulpwood and oil palm plantations burned for months.

Indonesia’s contribution to emissions that raise the average global temperature is significantly worsened by a combination of peatland fires and deforestation. Carbon stored in its globally important tropical forests is released when cut down for palm oil, pulpwood and other plantations.

In a speech last week to the annual United Nations climate conference COP29, Indonesia’s climate envoy, a brother of recently inaugurated president Prabowo Subianto, said the new administration has a long-term goal to restore forests to 31.3 million acres severely degraded by fires in 2015 and earlier massive burnings in the 1980s and 1990s.

Indonesia’s government has made the same promise in previous years including in its official progress report on its national contribution to achieving the Paris Agreement goal of keeping the rise in average global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius.

“President Prabowo has approved in principle a program of massive reforestation to these 12.7 million hectares in a biodiverse manner,” envoy Hashim Djojohadikusumo said during the livestreamed speech from Baku, Azerbaijan.

“We will soon embark on this programme.”

Prabowo’s government has announced plans to encourage outsiders to migrate to Merauke and other parts of Indonesia’s easternmost region, state media reported this month.

Critics said such large-scale movements of people would further marginalise indigenous Papuans in their own lands and exacerbate conflict that has simmered since Indonesia took control of the region in the late 1960s.

Republished from BenarNews with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indonesia has lodged a diplomatic protest with Papua New Guinea after the alleged shooting of an Indonesian fishing boat captain within the PNG-Indonesia border last week.

PNG Prime Minister James Marape yesterday confirmed an investigation is being conducted into the shooting.

“PNG will be conducting a full investigation into this matter and will inform the nation and Indonesia government too as to what happened,” Marape said.

The fishing vessel was allegedly shot at by a PNG Defence Force Guardian-class patrol boat within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of PNG.

The fishing vessel escaped back to Merauke in Papua with the body of its captain while two other boats were rounded up and escorted to Port Moresby.

The Australian government has denied any involvement in the incident and in any recent joint fishing patrols with PNG.

The vessel that was shot at has been identified as KMN Calvin 02 with the captain of the vessel also identified by the Indonesian authorities.

Two other boats detained
It is reported that two other vessels have been detained by the PNGDF — the KMN Arsila 77 with a crew of seven and KMN Baraka Paris with a crew of six.

Indonesian Ambassador to PNG Andriana Supandy has already communicated with various PNG government officials.

The Indonesian Embassy in Port Moresby has also submitted an official diplomatic note to convey Indonesia’s various concerns.

The boats arrived in Port Moresby at midday yesterday and are being processed at the PNGDF Basilisk base.

On board these two vessels are 13 Indonesian fishermen who have also been detained.

In an interview with the Post-Courier, Ambassador Supandy said he had been advised that the boat crews would be prosecuted.

But the Indonesian government was still demanding an official explanation and a report which has not been received since their request for an investigation.

Indonesia summons officials
Ambassador Supandy said the Indonesian government had summoned PNG officials in Jakarta for an immediate investigation into this fatal shooting.

“Considering the strong and excellent bilateral relations between Indonesia and PNG, the Government of the Republic of Indonesia stands ready to proactively cooperate in the due process of law with the Government of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea,” Supandy said.

Last Thursday, Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned the PNG interim charge d’Affairs in Jakarta to convey a demand for comprehensively investigating the shooting incident by PNG security forces that had killed an Indonesian fisherman.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeks an explanation from the Papua New Guinea government regarding the shooting incident and presses for a thorough investigation and strict punishment to be applied if procedural violations are found, including the possibility of excessive use of force,” said Judha Nugraha, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director of Protection for Indonesian Citizens.

The last such shooting incident happened in 2006 with then Deputy PM Don Polye saying at the time that there would be an inquiry into the incident.

An Indonesian fisherman was shot with further three wounded in the incident.

Miriam Zarriga and Gorethy Kenneth are PNG Post-Courier reporters. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz