In November 2009, EIA and Telapak released “Up for Grabs” – a report and film detailing rampant deforestation and exploitation of indigenous peoples in the plantations and agriculture boom in Papua and West Papua provinces in Indonesia.

The report highlighted the politically motivated agri-business boom in the Merauke region of Papua Province, where the ambitious regent Johannes Gebze has offered up more than 4.5 million hectares to plantations and agriculture companies. The report also highlighted Gebze’s and the central government’s plans for the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE), an ambitious plan to convert 1.6 million hectares of the indigenous Malind people’s land into an industrial agriculture and biofuels factory to feed burgeoning global demand for commodities.

Since the report’s release, Indonesia’s government has re-launched the MIFEE scheme. The government has offered large financial incentives and administrative assistance for investors seeking land in the project.

However, opposition to the MIFEE project has been strong and widespread, as Papuans and farmers’ groups alike have highlighted threats to livelihoods, food security, and cultural security.

The MIFEE scheme has been condemned by The Indonesian Farmers Union (SPI), the Indonesian Farmers and Fishermen Community Forum, the Justice and Peace Secretariat of the Catholic Church’s Merauke Diocese, a host of local and international environmental organizations, including EIA, an ex-agriculture Minister, and, most recently, AMAN, the Indigenous People‘s Alliance of Indonesia.

Not least amongst issues raised by opponents to the MIFEE scheme is the anticipated surge in economic migration to Papua to provide labour for the planned agriculture and biofuels plantation expansion. Demographic change in Papua, where Papuans already constitute as little as 40% of the population, has been highlighted as serious cause for concern for vulnerable Papuan tribal groups, on who’s land MIFEE agri-business ventures will be located.

AMAN: MIFEE is “Unacceptable”

On the 23 April 2010, at the 9th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in New York, a statement from AMAN, the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, was presented. AMAN is the biggest alliance of indigenous peoples in Indonesia, and is allied to Telapak, EIA’s partner in Indonesia.

AMAN’s statement focused on the significant threat that the MIFEE project poses to Papuans and their environment, highlighting how commercialisation of indigenous lands without free and prior informed consent of landowners “will only exacerbate the human rights situation, leading to forced evictions and other human rights violations”.

AMAN’s statement also echoes serious concerns about the demographic and cultural consequences such massive agricultural expansion plans will have on indigenous Papuans. Citing figures that claim that the agribusiness plan will result in 6.4 million new workers coming to Papua, AMAN concludes that MIFEE will “acutely threaten the existence of Indigenous Peoples” – a development it labelled as “unacceptable”.

AMAN has called for:

1. The UN to urge Indonesia and UN parties to ensure indigenous peoples are not “relocated” to make way for commercial developments such as the MIFEE project
2. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to conduct an independent study into the impacts of the MIFEE project
3. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Food, to visit Papua and report back on the situation of Indigenous Peoples in Merauke and Papua in general

AMAN’s statement was endorsed by more than 25 indigenous people’s alliances from around the world.

Returning the Forests to the People, or the Powerful?

The MIFEE project highlights how progressive policies seeking to protect Papuans’ land and resource rights are being systematically undermined by a business-as-usual industrial development model responsible for the deforestation of millions of hectares of natural forests across Indonesia.

On the one hand, Governor Suebu of Papua province, who in 2007 received the Time Magazine Environmental Hero of the Year Award for his pledge to “return the forests to the people”, is proposing to protect Papua from conversion to plantations by employing Papua’s Special Autonomy status to strengthen Papuan land tenure, and by benefiting from schemes that reward reductions in deforestation and associated carbon emissions.

On the other hand, central government ministries continue to promote massive industrial scale plantations investment in Papua, facilitating land deals for some extremely powerful actors in government and industry.

By late-April 2010, following the MIFEE re-launch in Jakarta, the Director General of Land and Water Management at the Ministry of Agriculture, Hilman A. Manan, reported that 33 investors had already applied for MIFEE permits, though he declined to name them. He also said that nine companies had already committed to invest in MIFEE, having been offered landbanks

EIA research indicates that powerful, politically-influential individuals and companies stand to obtain large land concessions under the MIFEE project, including former presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and oil tycoon Arifin Panigoro, one of the richest people in Indonesia.

Scrutiny of the MIFEE plan shows how Papua’s natural resources continue to be looted by powerful commercial interests, with little heed for the welfare of indigenous communities.


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