2) TNI personnel beat Papuan student during interrogation in Dekai, Yahukimo
- Indigenous rights activists in Indonesia’s Papua region are condemning the government’s rapid approval of a massive rice plantation, arguing the government fast-tracked a key land permit without proper consultation or consent from Indigenous landowners.
- The activists say the process ignored Indigenous communities’ free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and reflects a broader pattern under the food estate program that sidelines Indigenous rights and environmental safeguards in the name of national food security.
- Critics warn of widespread deforestation, land dispossession and social conflict, echoing past failures of similar schemes elsewhere in Indonesia.
- The government claims that procedures were followed, but Indigenous representatives and civil society groups say consultations were minimal, protests were ignored and the project amounts to forced land appropriation.
JAKARTA — Indigenous rights activists have condemned the Indonesian government’s decision to grant 328,000 hectares (810,505 acres) of cultivation rights for a massive rice plantation project in Papua, warning that the final land permit was issued at unusually rapid speed, compared with the years-long process typically required for large-scale plantation permits.
The process is also criticized for taking place without the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of Indigenous communities whose customary lands are affected.
The permit — known as Hak Guna Usaha (HGU) — is the last and most decisive license required before large-scale agricultural operations can begin.
Activists say its issuance reflects a pattern of fast-tracked regulatory changes under the government’s food estate program that sideline Indigenous land rights and environmental safeguards in the name of national food security.
They warn that the project risks triggering large-scale deforestation, land dispossession and social conflict in southern Papua, echoing past food estate failures elsewhere in Indonesia.
Since the government announced plans to establish vast rice fields in southern Papua in early 2024, the project has advanced rapidly. Civil society groups report the deployment of heavy machinery and security forces to support land clearing and infrastructure development in areas earmarked for the project.
The legal groundwork has moved just as quickly. In September 2025, the government reclassified 486,939 hectares (1.2 million acres) of forest estate into non-forest land (Areal Penggunaan Lain (APL), or ‘Area for Other Land Uses’), making the area legally available for agricultural development.
Two months later, in November 2025, the South Papua provincial government issued a new spatial plan that formally accommodates the rice food estate by designating large agricultural zones specifically for rice cultivation.
Then, in January 2026, Nusron Wahid, chief of National Land Agency operating under the operating under the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning (ATR/BPN), announced that his office had granted 328,000 hectares (810,505 acres) of HGU to state-owned plantation company PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara on the rezoned land.
The timeline means the core land tenure instrument was issued just 15 months into President Prabowo Subianto’s term and only months after the land was legally removed from the forest estate.
For large-scale plantation or agribusiness projects — especially those involving land newly released from forest status — obtaining an HGU typically takes several years, said Hotman Sitorus, a forestry law expert at Veteran National Development University, Indonesia.
“In regions where customary land claims overlap, the process can even stretch for decades,” he said as quoted by local news outlet in 2023.
The government has been able to move this quickly by disregarding the principle of FPIC, according to Uli Arta Siagian, head of the campaign division at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI in Indonesian).
She said that properly obtaining FPIC from Indigenous peoples takes time, particularly for projects with serious environmental consequences that must involve entire communities.
“Reaching common ground requires a long, careful process,” Uli told Mongabay. “There’s no way all of this could happen in just five months. Gathering communities alone would take more than five months, not to mention conducting environmental impact assessments.”
Because of that, she said, the process was inherently forced.
“When a process is forced like this, it is by definition not participatory and has no meaningful engagement with other parties, especially Indigenous communities on the ground,” Uli said.
She noted that in Papua, there is no land without an Indigenous owner.
“Not even a single stretch of land,” she said. “The question is whether these customary landowners were involved in the process, and whether their right to reject the project was respected by the state.”
For Uli, the answer is clear, pointing to protests staged by Indigenous communities affected by the project and documented by civil society groups.
“Indigenous communities there are still rejecting the project. Yet the HGU was still granted,” she said. “That means the process was forced. This is no longer just irregular — it constitutes a form of state violence against Indigenous communities in Papua.”
No proper consultation
Indigenous representatives from the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP in Indonesian) — a regional institution established to safeguard the rights of Indigenous Papuans and women — have also criticized the rapid regulatory process.
MRP chair Damianus Katayu said the drafting of South Papua’s new spatial plan was rushed and failed to meaningfully involve Indigenous communities.
He said only one public consultation was held before the plan was finalized and submitted to the central government.
“We were involved, but only that one time,” Damianus said, as quoted by local news in November 2025. “Suddenly the draft was finished and sent to Jakarta. I only heard about it verbally from the regional legislature, not through an official letter.”
Public consultations should have been held at least three or four times and involved all relevant stakeholders, he said, especially given that the spatial plan covers customary forests belonging to Indigenous Papuans.
“This is about Indigenous peoples’ rights as a whole,” Damianus said.
Government response
The head of South Papua’s regional development planning agency, Ulmi Listianingsih Wayeni, said the spatial plan had been drafted in accordance with procedures set by the central government because it includes a National Strategic Project (PSN in Indonesian), referring to the food estate program.
PSN designation allows the government to fast-track permits for major infrastructure and development projects — a mechanism that civil society groups say weakens safeguards around land rights and environmental protection.
Ulmi said the drafting process included cross-sectoral discussions and information dissemination across the four provinces. She added that the spatial plan incorporates socio-cultural considerations, including attention to customary land rights, cultural heritage and the protection of sacred areas.
However, activists say these claims contradict statements made by government officials about the areas targeted for the food estate project.
They point to remarks from officials at the Ministry of Agrarian and Spatial Planning who have described the forest areas designated for PSN projects in South Papua as state land that is uninhabited and without settlements.
Such statements reflect the persistence of colonial assumptions in state development policies, said a coalition of civil society organizations and Indigenous communities affected by the project.
“There remains an assumption that Papuan land is empty land without owners,” the coalition wrote in a press release. “This makes it seem normal to seize and occupy Indigenous land and forests while denying the existence and rights of Indigenous peoples.”
Without respect for Indigenous land and forest rights, the coalition warned, South Papua risks repeating the environmental disasters seen in other parts of Indonesia. They cited floods and landslides that struck parts of Sumatra late last year, which activists say were exacerbated by deforestation linked to unchecked industrial expansion.
In South Papua alone, the rice food estate project had resulted in 5,934 hectares (14,663 acres) of deforestation as of October 2025, while another food estate project there, which aims to establish sugarcane plantations, had cleared 15,643 hectares (38,655 acres) of forests as of January 2026.
The government has voiced its desire to expand the project to other regions in Papua.
“The disasters experienced in Sumatra and elsewhere should serve as socio-ecological lessons that must not be repeated,” the coalition said.
The group called on the government to halt National Strategic Projects, including the Papua food estate, that they say sacrifice people and the environment.
“We fully support the efforts of affected communities to build solidarity in the struggle for justice, the right to life, and the defense of customary territories,” the statement said.
Banner image: Papuan Indigenous people and activists hold a protest against Merauke Food Estate in front of the Defense Ministry office in Jakarta in 2024. Image © Afriadi Hikmal / Greenpeace.
2) TNI personnel beat Papuan student during interrogation in Dekai, Yahukimo
Human rights analysis
Mr Bahabol sustained a head injury as a result of security force violence in Dekai, Yahukimo, on 24 January 2026
Location: Dekai, Yahukimo regency, Highland Papua, Indonesia (-4.8638158, 139.4837298) GIDI Church in Jl Gunung, Tomon 2 area
Region: Indonesia, Highland Papua, Yahukimo, Dekai
Total number of victims: 1
| # | Number of Victims | Name, Details | Gender | Age | Group Affiliation | Violations |
| 1. | 1 | Nonis Bahabol | male | 20 | Indigenous Peoples | arbitrary detention, torture |
Perpetrator: , Indonesian Military (TNI)
Issues: indigenous peoples, security force violence
