UP FOR GRABS Deforestation and Exploitation in Papua’s Plantations Boom ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CONTENTS EIA/Telapak thank the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation and the Body Shop Foundation for their support. EIA/Telapak also thank the community groups, NGOs and individuals in Papua who contributed to this report. 1 INTRODUCTION This report was written and edited by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak. 2 PAPUA – THE LAST FRONTIER Report design by: www.designsolutions.me.uk Many thanks to Emmerson Press for the printing of 10 PAPUA’S PLANTATIONS BOOM this report. (Emmerson Press: +44 (0) 1926 854400) Printed on recycled paper 22 FORESTS FOR THE PEOPLE November 2009 ISBN: 0-9540768-8-5 24 RECOMMENDATIONS 25 REFERENCES TERMINOLOGY In this report the term Papua applies to the Indonesian part of the island of New Guinea. Papua Province and West Papua Province refer to the two provinces which ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY (EIA) make up Papua. The term district refers to local regencies 62/63 Upper Street, London N1 0NY, UK or kabupatens, the local administrative units which make Tel: +44 (0) 20 7354 7960 up a province. Fax: +44 (0) 20 7354 7961 For Land Areas: email: [email protected] 1 hectare (ha) = 2.47 Acres / 10,000 M2 / 0.01KM2 / www.eia-international.org 0.0038 Square Miles. For an idea of what this means, 30,000 hectares is equivalent to the size of Malta, 300,000 hectares is roughly three times the size of Hong Kong, and 1 million hectares is roughly the size of Cyprus. Jayapura Manokwari TELAPAK BRUNEI Sorong Mimika MALAYSIA Jalan Pajajaran No. 54, Bogor, Indonesia Merauke Tel: +62 251 393 245 /715 9909 KALIMANTAN INDONESIA Fax: +62 251 393 246 SUMATRA email: [email protected] Jakarta www.telapak.org JAVA FRONT COVER: Oil palm replacing forest in Modan, Sorong, West Papua, April 2009. The plantation has not received relevant permits. © EIA/Telapak INTRODUCTION © EIA/Telapak, April 2009 The unique forests of Papua are under Evidence shows that negotiations between ABOVE: siege from the rampant spread of plantations. indigenous land owners and plantation Oil palm seedling nurseries, Up to five million hectares of land have companies are unequal and exploitative. like Medco Group’s in been targeted for conversion to grow Promised benefits, such as schooling, Manokwari, above, are crops like oil palm, with the projected electricity and houses are seldom delivered. springing up across Papua global demand for biofuels driving much Compensation payments for land and of this conversion. timber are meagre. Children as young as as plantations spread. four are required to sign contracts so that At stake is a major part of the last tropical the firm can ensure it ties the land up for forest wilderness in the entire Asia-Pacific decades. It is the well-connected region. Papua’s forests host an amazing conglomerates and overseas investors who array of biodiversity, provide livelihoods stand to capture the financial benefits of for indigenous communities and are a vital the massive plantation expansion, and not carbon store. the Papuans. The plantations boom in Papua is being The notion that the planned increase in promoted by the Indonesian government palm oil production for biofuels will as a means of bringing development to somehow assist efforts to tackle climate Papua, and as a means of helping to curb change is illusory. Felling Papua’s climate change through increased use of forests on the planned scale will cause biofuels. Neither of these claims stand up far greater greenhouse gas emissions than to close scrutiny. any potential biofuel benefits. Given that a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions are Field investigations by the Environmental caused by deforestation, the fate of Investigation Agency (EIA) and Telapak Papua’s forests is of global concern. reveal that in fact ill-prepared indigenous Papuan communities are being enticed, The government of Indonesia deserves tricked and sometimes coerced into credit for taking decisive action to tackle releasing large swathes of forested land illegal logging over the last few years. to powerful conglomerates, backed by The tide was turned by an unprecedented overseas investors and facilitated by the enforcement operation in Papua in 2005. central and provincial governments. Yet its policy on plantations now poses a greater threat to Papua’s forests than Management of the plantations sector in illegal logging. Papua is chaotic. Unclear institutional arrangements between different levels and An urgent review of the plantations sector agencies of government, coupled with a in Papua is needed, and policies put in chronic lack of transparency, create grey place to safeguard the needs of local areas which the plantation companies are communities and to protect the remaining able to exploit. It is virtually impossible to forests, rather than the current destructive get reliable figures from the government land grab. as to which plantation licences have been granted to which companies. In some areas firms have begun operations before EIA/Telapak receiving the necessary permits. November 2009 1 PAPUA - THE LAST FONTIER © EIA/Telapak ABOVE: Papua’s unique forests form part of precisely because their daily livelihoods Forest slated for conversion to oil the last substantial tracts of intact are inextricably linked to the forest palm for PT. Matoa Rimba Lestari’s tropical forest in the whole of the Asia- resources. Papua’s forests also contain plantation in Urunum Guay District, Pacific region, and the third largest literally hundreds of millions of tons Papua Province, September 2009. remaining tropical forest wilderness in of carbon. the world, after the Amazon and Congo Basin. As such Papua’s forests are of Yet the unique forests of Papua are global significance. increasingly imperilled by Indonesian government policies aiming to convert Indonesia’s forests once stretched from millions of hectares into monoculture Sumatra in the west to Papua in the plantations, prompting a huge land grab east. Yet rampant deforestation over the by notorious conglomerates backed up last two decades has decimated these by shadowy overseas investors. forests, with massive illegal logging, unsustainable legal logging and the rapid expansion of oil palm and FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE industrial timber plantations taking place. The fate of Indonesia’s forests As global attention increasingly focuses has been dubbed an environmental crime on the threat of climate change, the on an epic scale. EIA/Telapak have importance of preserving forests has documented how the once vast forests become more urgent. Forests sequester of Sumatra and Kalimantan have been huge volumes of carbon from the pillaged by rapacious logging and atmosphere, while carbon emissions plantation barons facilitated by corrupt from deforestation and land use change police, military and government officials, currently produce up to 20 per cent of with exploitation increasingly shifting to global carbon emissions. In 2000 Papua and West Papua provinces. deforestation worldwide generated eight billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) Papua’s forests harbour an incredible emissions.2 It is now recognised that any array of unique biodiversity, approximately efforts to limit dangerous temperature 60 per cent of that found anywhere in increases are bound to fail if deforestation Indonesia.1 In recent years these forests continues at the current rate. have been described as a “garden of Eden” after international teams of Indonesia is a prime example of this explorers discovered a host of species dynamic. With one of the world’s worst new to science and the world. deforestation rates, averaging at around two million hectares a year in the first These forests are also home to over 250 half of the decade, the country has the distinct tribal groups, some of the most third largest CO2 emissions in the world culturally and linguistically diverse after China and the U.S. Up to 75 per peoples in the world. These communities cent of these emissions stem from have managed the forests for generations, deforestation. In 2007, forest loss and 2 © EIA/Telapak ABOVE AND LEFT: Burning forests for oil palm plantations, as in Samarinda, East Kalimantan (pictured), has resulted in Indonesia becoming the third largest source of carbon emissions, with 75% stemming from deforestation. Demand for biofuels is hastening such deforestation in Papua. © EIA/Telapak land use change in Indonesia caused THE BIOFUELS CONTRADICTION 2.56 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions – nearly 32 per cent of global emissions 3 Rather than implementing policies to from these sources. reduce deforestation and better serve the needs of local communities, the Recent research indicates that Indonesia Indonesian government is pressing is highly vulnerable to the likely ahead with industrial-scale plantations, impacts of climate change. The Asian certain to provoke even higher emissions. Development Bank predicts that South To a large extent this policy is being East Asian countries such as Indonesia driven by projected demand for biofuels, will suffer far worse impacts from which have been heavily promoted by climate change than other areas of the the international community as the basis world, and has estimated that inaction for renewable “green” energy. in Indonesia could cost 6.7 per cent of GDP by 2100, compared with an average Indonesia is seeking to cash in on this global cost of 2.6 per cent.4 In terms of new demand, and investors are rushing South-East Asia, the Indonesian island in to secure land banks to produce the of Java is highly vulnerable to the “green-gold”, as biofuel feed stocks like impacts of climate change, such as oil palm and other crops are commonly landslides, floods and droughts, with described. Indeed, Indonesia’s stated the capital Jakarta at particular risk.5 goal of biodiesel providing 5 per cent of 3 CLIMATE IMPACTS OF PALM OIL Recent research shows how converting forests into oil palm plantations for biofuel actually worsens climate change.