A world premiere of a new documentary revealing the devastation of rainforest in the southeastern part of West Papua is one of two films being screened in Auckland next month.

Billed as “Sinéma Merdeka: Stories from West Papua”, the programme is showing the heart of a hidden Pacific conflict and will be presented live by celebrated Papuan journalist and Jubi News founder Victor Mambor.

The two films are “Pesta Babi — Colonialism in Our Time” and “Sa Punya Nama Pengungsi” (My name is Pengungsi).

“Pesta Babi” (The Pig Party), directed by Cypri Dale and Dandhy Laksono, is being premiered at the Academy Cinema, Auckland CBD, at 6pm on Saturday, March 7.

Filmed under siege and a draconian media ban, the filmmakers offer a rare and
urgent glimpse into indigenous life in Merauke, where Indonesian bulldozers have been systematically destroying their pristine rainforest home.

This film is co-produced by Jubi, Ekspedisi Indonesia Baru, Greenpeace, Yayasan Pusaka, and Watchdoc Documentary.

The second film, “Sa Punya Nama Pengungsi”, directed by Yuliana Lantipo is set against the backdrop of escalating government violence and the displacement of an estimated 100,000 Indigenous Melanesian people from their lands.

“My name is Pengungsi” is centred on the story of two Papuan children born in the midst of the conflict. Both are named “Pengungsi”, which in English means “Refugee”.

Films talanoa
The films will be followed by a Q&A/Talanoa with Mambor and fellow Australian-based West Papuan journalist Ronny Kareni and hosted by Dr David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report and deputy director of the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN).

The twin-film festival is part of a weekend West Papua Solidarity Forum programme at the Auckland University Old Choral Hall, 7 Symonds Street, on Saturday, March 7, and on Sunday, March 8.

There will also be a public media seminar at the Whanau Community Centre and Hub featuring journalist and filmmaker Victor Mambor at 6pm, Monday, March 9, at the Taro Patch, Papatoetoe.

Organisers of the film screenings are West Papua Action Tāmaki Makaurau West Papua is the western half of New Guinea island and has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963. The independent state of Papua New Guinea is the eastern half.

Organisers of the film screenings are West Papua Action Tāmaki Makaurau. The group notes that more than 500,000 civilians have been killed in a slow genocide against the indigenous population, according to human rights agencies.

Basic human rights such as freedom of speech are denied and Papuans live in a constant state of fear and intimidation.

Foreign journalists have generally been barred entrance.

Traditional ways of life are under threat as huge tracts of rainforest are cut down to make
way for Indonesian palm oil and food estates, the world’s largest gold mine and ever-increasing transmigration from Indonesia, making Indigenous Papuans a minority in their own land.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Greenpeace Indonesia’s forest campaigner Nico Wamafma says the West Papua region has lost 641,400 ha of its natural forests in the two decades between 2000-2020 in massive deforestation.

Greenpeace’s research shows this deforestation occurred mainly due to the increasingly widespread licensing of land-based extractive industries that damage the rights of indigenous peoples.

Wamafma said that the total forests loss consisted of 438,000 ha spread across Papua, Central Papua, Mountainous Papua and South Papua provinces.

The remaining 203,000 ha were lost in West Papua and Southwest Papua provinces.

“In the last two decades, we lost a lot of forests in Merauke, Boven Digoel, Mimika, Mappi, Nabire, Fakfak, Teluk Bintuni, Manokwari, Sorong and Kaimana,” Wamafma told Jubi in a telephone interview

Papua is losing natural forests due to the licensing of land-based extractive industries, such as mining, Industrial Plantation Forest (HTI), Forest Concession Rights (HPH), and oil palm plantations.

Wamafma said the formation of four new provinces resulting from the division of Papua had also accelerated the rate of deforestation in Papua.

He said that if the government continued to take a development approach like the last 20 years that relied on investment, the potential for natural forest loss would be even greater in Papua.

Wamafma said there were now 34.4 million ha of natural forests in Papua.

Republished from Tabloid Jubi with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Illegal palm oil plantations are destroying protected Indonesian rainforests and other habitats — and New Zealand’s industrial dairy sector is a major beneficiary, says a new environmental report.

The daming report, released yesterday by Greenpeace Indonesia, “Deceased Estate: Illegal palm oil wiping out Indonesia’s national forest”, finds palm oil plantation expansion in national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and even UNESCO sites, across Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua.

Palm oil expansion is the largest single cause of destruction of critical Indonesian rainforests over the past two decades.

The Deceased Estate has report found that there are four palm oil producers with at least 50,000ha of oil palm plantations illegally established inside the protected forest estate.

These producers include Wilmar International which imports palm kernel expeller (PKE) to New Zealand.

PKE is a product of the palm oil industry used as supplementary feed in New Zealand’s industrial dairying.

“Back in 2020, when Fonterra handed control of its PKE imports to Wilmar International, Greenpeace warned of trouble to come,” Greenpeace Aotearoa agriculture campaigner Christine Rose said last night.

‘Illegal deforestation’
“Sadly we’re now seeing evidence of New Zealand agriculture benefiting from illegal deforestation for palm oil and PKE.”

New Zealand is the world’s largest importer of PKE, importing an estimated two million tonnes a year which is used to feed the dairy herd because there are too many cows for grass growth alone to sustain.

“New Zealand’s industrial dairying is cashing in on the destruction of endangered species, critical rainforest habitat and indigenous livelihoods in Indonesia,” said Rose.

“New Zealand’s intensive dairying benefits from ecological destruction in Indonesia while polluting rivers, the climate and drinking water at home.

“The New Zealand dairy sector’s use of PKE to support herd intensification and expansion, effectively outsources environmental costs onto some of the most diverse remaining forests and species in the world, and it has to stop.

“It’s unconscionable that New Zealand is complicit in the illegal expansion of palm oil plantations that undermine indigenous community land use and destroy the habitat of rare and endangered species such as Sumatran orangutans, tigers and elephants.”

‘Highly polluting’
Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling for an end to the importation of supplementary feed like PKE, “because it drives highly polluting dairy intensification in Aotearoa, contributes to rainforest destruction and increases climate emissions both here and in Indonesia.”

Clearance of Indonesian rainforest for palm oil released an estimated 104 Tg (million metric tons) of primary forest carbon from Indonesia’s forest estate between 2001-2019. This is equal to 60 percent of the annual emissions of international aviation.

Greenhouse gas emissions from NZ’s intensive dairy sector, supported by this illegal PKE, are 48 percent of this country’s total.

“With industrial agriculture being New Zealand’s biggest climate polluter, we need an urgent shift away from this high-input, industrial agribusiness model towards regenerative organic farming that works within the limits of nature,” said Rose.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has condemned the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) under the leadership of Firli Bahuri as an “authoritarian and anti-criticism” institution over the Greenpeace laser protest.

ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadhana said this after the KPK had reported Greenpeace Indonesia to the South Jakarta district police (Polres) for laser painting the KPK’s red and white building on June 28.

“The report against a civil society organisation with the South Jakarta district police by the KPK will become a historical note that the KPK under the command of Firli Bahuri has truly changed into an authoritarian institution which is anti-criticism,” Ramadhana told Kompas.com.

Also, according to ICW the KPK’s move to report Greenpeace to police further demonstrated the KPK’s inability to cover up the scandal surrounding the civics or nationalism test (TWK) for KPK employees.

At the very least, said Ramadhana, there were three things that must be looked at in response to the KPK’s report to the South Jakarta district police.

‘Democratic’ system
First, Indonesia practises a democratic system which is embodied under Article 28 E Paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution which reads: “All persons have the right to freedom of expression, association and opinion”.

“So, this report can be seen as an effort to curb democracy,” said Ramadhana.

Second, Article 20 of the KPK Law states that the anti-corruption agency is accountable to the public.

So from this, according to Ramadhana, the laser painting action should be viewed as a response by the public to the problems within the KPK which should be responded to, not instead reported to the police.

Third, the person who made the report — who is strongly suspected to be a KPK employee — has violated the code of ethics, namely Article 7 Paragraph (2) d of KPK Supervisory Board Regulation Number 2/2020.

Meanwhile, it is stated that the Supervisory Boards, “In its implementation of the basic values of professionalism, all Commission members are prohibited from: responding to criticism and suggestions in a negative and excessive manner”.

“Because of this, the Supervisory Board must take immediate action in response to this report,” said Ramadhana.

Police report filed by KPK
Earlier, KPK acting spokesperson Ali Fikri admitted that the police report over the laser painting was submitted by the KPK’s general bureau.

“Correct, the KPK through the general bureau has carried out coordination and made a report with the South Jakarta Polres,” said Fikri in a written release.

“It was in relation to the laser painting incident on the KPK building on June 28, 2021, at around 7.05 pm by an external party,” he said.

The KPK believes that the laser painting had the potential to intentionally disturb the operational order and comfort of the KPK offices. Moreover, the KPK’s red and white building is a vital object.

“We believe that they intentionally disrupted the operational order and comfort of the KPK offices as a vital national object,” said Fikri.

Fikri revealed that KPK security personnel and the South Jakarta district police who were on guard at the time had prohibited and warned the external party not to carry out the action.

The party which carried out the laser painting, however, continued with the action, even changing location.

No police permit
Also, according to Fikri, the action was carried out outside of the times set for protest actions and did not have a permit from police.

Because of this, the KPK is leaving entirely up to the South Jakarta district police to follow up on the report.

“So now, we are leaving it entirely up to the South Jakarta Polres to follow up on it,” said Fikri. “We hope that all parties will always maintain order and comfort at the KPK offices.”

The laser painting action occurred on the evening of Monday, June 28, when protesters used a laser to write messages, one of which was “Brave, Honest, Sacked”. There was also a message which read: “Motion of No Confidence”, and “Save the KPK”.

The messages were part of an action by Greenpeace Indonesia in response to issues related to corruption eradication ranging from the sacking of 51 KPK employees for failing to pass the TWK to efforts to weaken the KPK.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Tindakan KPK Laporkan Aksi Tembakan Laser Dinilai Otoriter dan Anti-kritik”.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

A palm oil supplier to Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever is destroying rainforests in the Indonesian-ruled Papua region, a new investigation by Greenpeace International has revealed.

Satellite analysis suggests that around 4000ha of rainforest were cleared in PT Megakarya Jaya Raya concession between May 2015 and April 2017 – an area almost half the size of Paris.

The findings come as a delegation from the Indonesian government arrived in Europe last week to defend the palm oil industry, in response to moves by European Parliament to discourage the use of palm oil in biofuels on environmental grounds, Greenpeace International reports.

Luhut Panjaitan, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs of Indonesia, is visiting several European cities, including Brussels and Berlin.

“After destroying much of the rainforests of Sumatra and Kalimantan, the palm oil industry is now pushing into new frontiers like Papua, said Richard George, forests campaigner at Greenpeace UK.

“If the Indonesian government wants to defend this industry, the best thing it can do is to force it to clean up its act, not threaten to start a trade war.”

-Partners-

Photos and video taken in March and April 2018 show massive deforestation in PT MJR, a palm oil concession controlled by the Hayel Saeed Anam Group (HSA), including in an area zoned for protection by the Indonesian government in response to the devastating forest fires in 2015. Development is prohibited in these areas.

Supply chain
Although PT MJR is not yet producing palm oil, two other HSA subsidiary companies – Arma Group and Pacific Oils & Fats – supplied palm oil to Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever, according to supply chain information released by the brands earlier this year.

Each of these consumer companies has published a “no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation” policy that should prohibit sourcing from rainforest destroyers.

“Brands have been talking about cleaning up their palm oil for over a decade. Companies like Unilever and Nestlé claim to be industry leaders,” said George.

“So why are they still buying from forest destroyers like the HSA group? What are their customers supposed to think? What will it take to get them to act?”

This case also raises serious questions for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Many HSA Group palm oil companies are members of the RSPO, although PT MJR and the other HSA Group concessions in this district are not.

Members of the RSPO are not allowed to have unaffiliated palm oil divisions, and the development witnessed in PT MJR would also violate several of the RSPO’s Principles and Criteria.

Sourced from a Greenpeace International media release.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz