All Eyes On Papua: Don't Extort Papua's Land Just For The Sake Of Cuan Semata

Representatives of the Awyu and Moi Indigenous peoples, Papua visited the Supreme Court building, Monday (27/6/2024). (Greenpeace)

JAKARTA Shortly after social media was enlivened with the image of All Eyes on Rafah, now the sentence All Eyes on Papua is viral. Papuan indigenous peoples are fighting for their land which will be transformed into palm oil.

The All Eyes on Papua movement appeared on various social media platforms, from Instagram to X, previously known as Twitter.

literally, this movement means that all eyes are on Papua. This sentence is a form of public concern for the forests of Papua which is said to be used as oil palm plantation land.

Last Monday the indigenous people of Awyu Papua demoed in front of the Supreme Court Building. They are fighting for their rights, the customary forest they live in will be evicted to be used as an oil palm plantation.Please focus on them too # Alleyesonpapua # Alleyesonpapua, "wrote account user X @lercwolf.

From here we will understand that our brothers in Indonesia are impoverished by officials, greedy high-ranking officials who are all in their brains in their business. Sacrification for oil palm plants is a cell and humane act. DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT PAPUA!! #AllEyesOnPapua #L ProtectHutanPapua, "wrote another account user, @variabelcepheid.

All Eyes on Papua appeared on social medicine after environmental fighters from the Awyu tribe and the Moi tribe were involved in a land conflict with PT Indo Asiana Lestari (PT IAL).

This conflict began with a forest area of 36,094 hectares or the equivalent of half of Jakarta located in Boven Digul, Papua, which will be involved in the opening of oil palm plantations by PT IAL.

For a long time, indigenous Papuans have been hunting and mixing for their survival in stages. For this reason, PT IAL's project to open oil palm plantations threatens the lives of the Papuan people, including the Aywu and Moi tribes.

In 2021, the Papua Provincial Government will issue a permit for environmental feasibility for PT IAL to open plantations covering an area of more than 36 thousand hectares in Mandobo District and Fofi District, Digoel Regency, South Papua Province. In addition, a palm oil processing plant with a capacity of more than 90 tons of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) per hour will also be opened.

The granting of the environmental permit was then sued by Hendrikus Woro, an environmental fighter from the Awyu tribe, at the Jayapura State Administrative Court on August 10, 2023. But unfortunately the lawsuit lost and now the Supreme Court (MA) is the last hope to save their forests.

On Monday (27/5/2024), environmental fighters from the Awyu tribe and the Moi tribe visited the MA Building in the Central Jakarta area. Wearing typical clothing from their respective tribes, they held traditional prayers and rituals in front of the office of the highest judicial institution, accompanied by solidarity from Papuan students and a number of civil society organizations.

Through this peaceful demonstration, the indigenous peoples of the Awyu tribe and the Moi tribe hope that the Supreme Court will impose a legal decision that protects their customary forest.

"We came a long, complicated, and expensive distance from Tanah Papua to the capital city of Jakarta, to ask the Supreme Court to restore our seized rights by canceling the license of the palm oil company that we are currently fighting against," said Hendrikus Woro, launching the Greenpeace page.

The existence of the palm oil company PT IAL will damage the forests that are a source of livelihood, food, water, medicine, culture, and knowledge of the indigenous peoples of Awyu and Moi.

Fiktor Klafiu, perwakilan masyarakat adat Moi Sigin menegaskan hutan adat adalah tempat masyarakat berburuan dan membumu sago. Hutan juga dianggap sebagai pharmacy karena semua kebutuhan masyarakat ada di hutan.

The forest is also a habitat for Papua's endemic flora and fauna, as well as a large store of carbon reserves. It is feared that the PT IAL operation will trigger deforestation which will release 25 million tons of carbon footprint or CO2e into the atmosphere, exacerbating the impact of the climate crisis in the country.

The Forum for the Environment (WALHI) believes that granting permits to companies for oil palm plantation businesses and converting Papuan forest areas on a large scale violates customary rights and is not in accordance with the Indonesian government's commitment to overcoming climate change.

National Uli Arta Siagian National Forest and Walhi Gardens Campaign Manager said, philosophically, indigenous Papuan people view the land and natural resources in it as having important positions and positions and influencing the movement of people's lives. Land is believed to be common hope, and land as a relationship of faith.

Land as a common hope has the meaning of land as an eternal and final treasure. Meanwhile, the concept of land as a hope for life is closely related to the life expectancy of indigenous Papuans, where they cannot live without land.

The indigenous people live, work and live on land. Land creates and gives birth to indigenous Papuans as true humans. Therefore, land is also considered as a true mother, because indigenous people live and grow up by their land," said Uli Arta Siagian.

Therefore, WALHI said taking customary territory unilaterally means taking the entire life of the community.