Indigenous peoples of the Papua region have been experiencing a lot of injustice for a long time. This is including injustice to access truthful information, especially about the condition of the forests, land, and development programs. This injustice of information brings indigenous peoples into situations where they suffer losses and caught in a weak position in the conflicts of natural resource management.
Besides balancing the strengths, strong and up to date data and basic information are important for planning and implementing good forest management in the Papua region. “Portrait of the Forest and the People of Papua Bioregion” is expected to be accessible to everyone, the community, the government, and the private sector so that they have the same view in seeing the reality and facts of forest conditions and their changes. And the most important is the indigenous peoples and their territories.
Until 2013, the area of natural forests in the Papua Bioregion (Papua, West Papua and Aru Islands) reached 30 million hectares or 85% of the land area. The existence of these natural forests continues to experience pressures. In 2013, 31% or 11.2 million hectares of natural forests were in licensing concessions, which are the License to Commercially Utilize Timber in Natural Forest or IUPHHKA-HA or HPH, License to Run Business of Industrial Plantation or IUPHHK-HTI or HTI, plantations, and mining. The largest natural forest is in the concession area of 4.7 million hectares, followed by mining area of 3.6 million hectares, plantation area of 448 thousand hectares, HTI area of 299 thousand hectares, and the rest in overlapping of licensing areas of 1.9 million hectares. In 2009 to 2013, the loss of natural forest in Papua was 612,997 hectares, or with the rate of 153,249 hectares per year, or equivalent to more than twice the area of Jakarta. The largest deforestation occurred in Papua Province, covering an area of 490 thousand hectares (80%), followed by West Papua Province with the deforested area of 102 thousand hectares (17%), and the Aru Islands with 20 thousand hectares (3%).
The government is making efforts to protect natural forests in Indonesia through a moratorium scheme on the utilization of forest areas in natural forests and peatlands. In 2013, in Papua alone, there were around 20.8 million hectares of forest area inside the moratorium area, of which 18.8 million hectares were still natural forests. However, in the moratorium area, deforestation still occurred more than 227 thousand hectares or with the rate 57 thousand hectares per year. The high rate of deforestation in the moratorium area is caused by the large number of illegal activities in utilizing forest resources in Papua. For example, the conversion of natural forests into plantations, illegal logging, illegal company activities, forest fires, and infrastructure development.
Efforts to protect forests and to recognize indigenous peoples must ultimately be a consequence of affirmative policies that support those who most vulnerable to forest degradation and forest loss. In the context of Papua, the most vulnerable objects are native and local people of Papua, and also the forest ecosystem itself. Moreover, the most vulnerable communities are women and children of indigenous communities. Women have traditionally been responsible for basic family needs, food, water, health.
The data above shows the condition of forests in the Papua Bioregion until 2013. The large amount of natural forest within the permit concession area was a sign that these areas will be deforested and degraded in the following years. The word “development” will be a powerful weapon to legalize all forms of forest exploitation. So far, there has not been found a positive correlation between development and the economic conditions of the people in the Papua Bioregion. Conversely, with the loss of natural forests, there are indications of injustice. Deforestation is the first step of the forest resource exploitation, which are only enjoyed by a handful of people.
Responding to the various problems above, in collaboration with various parties, this publication can be published. It is expected to be used as a reference for various stakeholders in creating information justice about natural resource management, sustainability of forest management, and in encouraging recognition and protection of rights and the territory of indigenous peoples in Papua.
Potrait of The Forest, Tenure & People
Papua is an eastern part of Indonesia which has very high biodiversity. In fact, it is also a habitat for typical Australian fauna species such as marsupial mammals and several species of birds (Wallacea AR, 1869). In 2012, the Papua mainland was dominated by natural forests reaching around 86% of the land area (Margono BA et. al, 2014). Meanwhile, the results of the FWI analysis in 2014 shows that natural forests in the Papua Bioregion reached 83% of the land. Until 2018, there was a reduction in forest area of 200 hectares per year between 2013 to 2018. Practically, until 2018, the area of natural forest in Papua was around 33 million hectares or 81% of the land.
Forest becomes part of the life of Papuan people who are very dependent on natural forests. The local wisdom of the community in utilizing forests has become a special value for them in managing the forest. These practices are clear examples of sustainable forest management. The forest utilization is based on the needs and is carried out in accordance with applicable customary rules. The regulation is based on empirical experience since the beginning of their ancestors.
Nevertheless, the glorious natural forests in Papua has never been separated from the threat of deforestation and degradation. Massive and systematic land-based extractive industries continue to convert natural forests and eliminate the sources of community life and habitat of endemic animals.
In fact, generally, the lives of many people in Papua Bioregion still depend on the nature. Damage to the ecosystems such as mountains, valleys, savannahs, hills, rivers, lakes, marshes, coast and sea, and so on, will have a side effect in the form of damage at the base of the joints of life and the civilization. The special characteristic of the traditional life of the people in West Papua is the layered human relationship with the nature and the land, whether social, economic, ecological, cultural, magical religions, etc. Daily manifestations can be seen from the type of utilization of natural resources around them, which are generally still oriented towards subsistence objectives. The goal is to fulfill basic daily needs and not to serve commercial or large markets. The tools and technology that are used also pay attention to the limits of tolerance that can threaten the ecosystem. They make sure that their way of life is in harmony with their survival needs in the landscape of their ecosystem, in the highlands, middle, low-coastal marine, and small islands. However, the inclusion of development policies from outside, along with the ‘immigrant’ culture, more or less influenced the overall way, behavior, ideas and attitudes of Papuans. It is a logical fact that cannot be denied. Therefore, understanding the community life in the land of Papua now, must be able to ‘go beyond’ the perspective of ‘romantic anthropology’ which sees Papuans as given, static, and immune to the touch of acculturation and dynamic social-cultural changes. Thus, the way to understand the people in Papua needs to be done by discovering the “inner nature” and “inner world” emically and ethically. Simultaneously, it has to emphasize the dynamics of changes that occur in every aspect of socioeconomic, ecological, cultural, spiritual, etc. In this way, the people in Papua must be seated in a range of understanding based on emic attitudes and rational analysis (the results of social construction) together so that the portrait that is obtained can be understood in a whole and human way.
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