1) Life-Preserving Mangroves in Papua
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Ohotya village in Mimika Regency, Papua, was lively in the afternoon. Children came out to play around their stilt houses as the adults finished their daily chores. Ansalma Matnarewa, one of the villagers, just returned from the mangrove forest not far from her village. She was carrying a medium-sized noken, a traditional woven bag.
Ansalma put the bag on the floor of her kitchen and checked her catch of the day. Unprepared, she accidentally let out a large mud crab (Scylla serrata), also known as karaka in the local language. Still covered in mud, the crab walked sideways across the room, its claws up in the air ready to attack.
"Careful, those claws can hurt people badly," the 32-year-old woman told Tempo English last month.
She took her small child, who had been watching her in the kitchen, out of harm's way and grabbed a long, thin metal hook to hold down the mud crab. With ease, Ansalma held the wetland creature right in the middle of its shell and quickly tied the claws with plastic rope to incapacitate it. She did the same thing to the two other crabs in her noken, one looked smaller than the others.
"The big ones I can sell for Rp50,000. For the small one, I can probably get Rp40,000," Ansalma said.
She sold the mud crabs to collectors in the village. These collectors would gather as many crabs as possible from the villagers and transport them to Timika, the capital city of Mimika Regency. Karaka is a popular delicacy in Papua, especially in the Mimika Regency. Its large size and shell hide a lot of crab meat. Visitor can easily find karaka dishes in Timika. There are many restaurants all over the city that sell mud crabs.
Ansalma said the price of mud crabs was better now because the village chief had come up with a rule that stipulates collectors take turns in harvesting the crabs. Previously, the villagers could sell however many crabs to the 10 collectors in the village. This pushed the price of the crabs down since the collectors took a long time to gather enough crabs to transport to Timika.
"They have to make sure the crabs are alive. Dead crabs are worthless," said Lukas Harepa, 35, a villager who hunts mud crabs for a living. That is why the collectors must bring the mud crabs to the city as fast as they can.
However, the boat ride from the village to Timika takes about two hours along the river. The crab collectors will lose money over the transportation cost if they only bring a small number of mud crabs at a time.
"A villager can catch two to three mud crabs four if we're lucky," Lukas said. "We usually don't go hunting on Sundays because we go to Sunday service at church."
Around 125 families currently live in Ohotya village. With the village rule in force, the collectors can gather enough crabs within a day or two. But Ansalma is unhappy as she must work harder to catch the mud crabs in the mangrove forest.
"There used to be so many karaka around here. We didn't have to travel so far or spend too long to catch them," Ansalma said.
These days, Ansalma has to go by boat to an uninhabited island nearby because Ohotya village has no more mud crabs. The villagers had harvested mud crabs without care for sustainability.
Despite last year's marine affairs and fisheries ministerial regulation prohibiting the capture of crabs less than 15 centimeters in length and fertilized female crabs, Ansalma was getting fewer crabs this year. She admitted sometimes she would still sell the smaller or fertilized female crabs to the collectors.
"It's against the regulation, but I need to earn money for my family," Ansalma said. (*)
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2) Officer Shoots Dead Boy in Sugapa, Residents Torch Police Station
28 August 2016
Angry residents set fire to the Sugaba Police Station – Jubi
Jayapura, Jubi – A teenager died after being shot allegedly by a Mobile Brigade officer in Sugapa. Angry residents set fire to the Sugaba Police Station in response to the news.
A local resident contacted by Jubi said the shooting occurred on Saturday (27/8/2016) at around 10:25 Papua time and followed a previous shooting on Thursday (25/8/2016).
“On Thursday, Nope Sani and Nole Sondegau offered the firewood but rejected by the Company Tigi Jaya that paved the Papua Trans road. Don’t know why the company then called the Mobile Brigade whose officer came and shot the two boys three times but missed,” said Sugapa resident on Saturday evening.
Then on Saturday, he futher said, Noperianus Belau, Luter Iapugau, Hans Belau and Otinus Sondegau who were drunk blocked a taxibike driver on the street. He couldn’t accept this and called the Mobile Brigade.
“The officers came right away and pursued these boys who are junior high schools students. Because they run away, the officers run to catch them. They shot Otinus in front of his house; one shot hit his hand and another hit his chess. He died instantly,” he said.
Not accepting this action, his parent burnt Sugapa Police Station.
‘They also took their son’s body that were settled in the Regent’s house to their home,” said Jubi’s informant.
Papua Police Spokesperson Senior Police Commissionaire Patridge Renwarin confirmed about the incident. According to him the incident was occurred at around 11:15 Papua time after the blockage at three-way junction near Sugapa Market by three drunken boys. They head off those who crossed the street.
“A Mobile Brigade officer came and hit one of them, while two run away and chased by two officers,” Renwarin told report on Saturday evening through the short message.
Besides chasing the boys, the officers opened fire and warned by Sugapa police officers. Shortly after, a boy came to Sugapa Police Station reporting his friend was shot dead and Sugapa’s women took his body to the police station.
According to Renwarin, currently the Police coordinated with the Intan Jaya Regent who’s currently outside of Papua. The Police also coordinated with the Chairman of Intan Jaya Legislative Council.
“We also coordinate with the priest to calm down the people and entrust the handling of this case to the Indonesian Police,” said Renwarin. (*/rom)
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3) HDI Does Not Necessarily Reflect Progress
29 August 2016
Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said higher Human Development Index scores did not necessarily reflect the achievements of a province.
“Low HDI as happening in Papua that currently is in the last position of 34 provinces occurred because historically the number was low, as we just started the development since 2002 by Special Autonomy. It is not comparable to other provinces in Indonesia,” Enembe recently told reporter in Jayapura.
Examining the growth rate, he explained, Papua’s economy was improving because it grows around 8.76 percent per year, which is significantly higher than overall Indonesian economic growth.
Papuan economic growth is in line with the welfare of Papuan people. It was indicated by the reduction of poverty rate in 2015 to 28.17 percent while in 2013 it reached 30.05 percent, so it reduces to 1.88 percent.
“Along with this achievement, Papua was awarded as the first rank province in reducing the poverty number,” he said.
In addition, the implementation of development 2016 to materialize the vision of Papua, there are main programs that have high leverage and could be directly experienced by people, namely Gerbangmas Hasrat Papua and Prospek.
“For Gerbangmas, the Provincial Province allocated Rp 250 billion for 2016 and Rp 565 billion for Prospek, in which all were allocated for the villages in 29 regencies and municipality in Papua,” said Enembe.
Earlier, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan claimed the Human Development Index of Papua Province has not been improved. It was have indications of inefficiency of development and funds use.
“It becomes a problem. It means the budget absorption was not right. If you looked at the budget absorption from 2007 to present, it is the same. It shows indication that we did not use the development funds efficiently in Papua,” said Pandjaitan some weeks ago.
He emphasized that the benefits of special autonomy funds has not been clearly obtained. Therefore, the education and health sectors must be immediately improved.
“I frankly have asked to the Attorney General George Brendis for Australia to get involved in education and health. Not for money. We have enough money. But the technology to combat the various diseases occurred here,” he said.
In response to this, he noticed as well as invited all stakeholders in Papua to not quarrel about unnecessary issues, for the education and health sectors is the important issue.
“If we examine that currently the HDI of regencies in Papua is under the national and provincial averages. It becomes a problem for us. I would give data to the Regional Secretary to be examined. Because our data indicated the average HDI per regency and province is under the national average,” Pandjaitan said. (*/rom)
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4) Illu Residents Benefit from Subsidised Flights
29 August 2016
Jayapura, Jubi – Illu Sub-district residents, Puncak Jaya Regency, Papua said they had benefited from subsidized flights provided by Papua Provincial Government in collaboration with the airlines serving the flight route to Papua remote areas.
A local resident, Mekinus Kogoya, said earlier the flight fare from Illu to Wamena, Nabire and Jayapura by small aircraft carrying 12 passengers cost Rp 500,000. “Now, the airfare from Illu to Wamena is Rp 250,000-300,000, Illu-Nabire Rp 250 thousand, Illu – Jayapura Rp 300,000. It is because of the subsidy. It helps people,” said Kogoya in the conversation with Jubi at Illu on last week.
He said, with more affordable fare, people could fly to other areas for the urgent matter.
“Ticket prices used to be expensive. People were in trouble if there’s an urgent need. But now people are not too burdened. For example, when they are going to Wamena, people currently prefer to take an airplane that a car,” he said.
According to him, the land transportation fare from Illu-Wamena is more expensive than the airfare Wamena-Illu and vice versa.
“If taking a car from Wamena-Illu, the fare per person is about Rp 500 thousand. Therefore people prefer to take an airplan. It is the plane is not available for everyday. The flight schedule to Illu is three times a week,” he said.
If the airfare ticket from Illu to several areas could be affordable, it is different with the taxibike fare from Illu to other sub-districts in Puncak Jaya Regency. For example, the route Illu-Tingginambut that could be reached in approximately 30 minutes could reach Rp 1 million.
“The cheapest is between Rp 500-600 thousand. It could reach Rp 1 million. It depends on the situation. If it rains or there is security caution, it could reach Rp 1 million,” said another Illu resident Yus Enumbi.
According to him, besides non-Papuans, the taxibike drivers are also the local residents.
“Many local kids here are becoming the taxibike drivers because the fare is tempting. It is good for them to have a job that generate incomes,” he said. (*/rom)
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5) Korean palm oil firm accused of illegal forest burning in
Indonesia
Arthur Neslen Thursday 1 September 2016 20.31 AEST
Some of the world’s biggest buyers have stopped trading with
Korindo after the emergence of footage claiming to show illegal burning in
Papua province
The boundary between intact forest and land already cleared
for palm oil plantations in Indonesia. Photograph: Yudhi Mahendra/Mighty
A Korean palm oil company has been dropped by buyers after
footage emerged that allegedly shows the illegal burning of vast tracts of
tropical forest on lands it holds concessions for in Indonesia.
Some of the world’s biggest palm oil trading producers
including Wilmar, Musim Mas and IOI have stopped using palm oil sourced from
Korindo, much of which is destined to meet European
demand.
Korindo’s alleged deforestation of pristine woodland in
Papua province also threatens to destroy the last sanctuary of several birds of
paradise and the tree kangaroo, according to a report by a new environmental
alliance called Mighty.
The group has collected evidence from drones, remote
sensors, GPS satellites, and videographers and photographers on the ground,
which it says proves that Korindo has flouted Indonesia’s no-burning laws and
violated responsible sourcing requirements.
Bustar Maitar, Mighty’s campaign director in Papua, told the
Guardian: “Korindo is clear-cutting forests and then starting fires to clear
the land of remaining biomass. That is forbidden by Indonesia’s regulations but
during last year’s forest fires, most of the blazes in the Papua region
happened in Korindo’s concessions.”
“There are a lot of animal species and flora here that
haven’t even been discovered yet,” Maitar added. “If these kinds of land
clearing activities continue, they may never be.”
But Koh Gyeong Min, Korindo’s head of sustainability, denied
that the firm had been responsible for any illegal forest burning. “It is not
true actually,” he said. “We followed all of the Indonesian regulations and
acquired all the proper licences from the government for all areas of operation
within our group.”
“I also would like to ask: do the local NGOs or residents have
any evidence about our company that they have brought to the Indonesian
government or the local courts? As far as I know there have been no cases of
that.”
The allegations come as south-east Asia’s 2016 burning
season is just beginning. On 30 August, the
Indonesian government warned that haze from fires on
Sumatra and Kalimantan could reach Malaysia and Singapore in the days ahead.
More than 3,000 hotspots have been detected in the
Indonesian archipelago in the last month, with maps released by Greenpeace
of Riau and West
Kalimantan showing that many are occurring on industrial
plantation concessions in the same
areas that burned last year.
Yuyun Indradi, Greenpeace Indonesia’s forest campaigner
said: “Companies that refuse to take steps to prevent fires have not just ash,
but blood on their hands.”
Wildfires in Indonesia’s tropical forests last year are
thought likely to have contributed to the premature deaths of more than
100,000 people, and to have emitted more CO2 than the whole of the
UK that year.
Korindo is active in Indonesia’s north Malaku region as well
as Papua, holding around 620 square miles of forest concessions in total. The
company, whose promotional
video calls on viewers to “make the Earth green”, has already
cleared around 193 square miles of forest.
Maitar said that Korindo had not responded to letters sent
by the new alliance, and that the new report was aimed at putting pressure on
the Indonesian government.
Several major buyers of Korindo’s palm oil acted to cut the
firm out of their supply chains after hearing of the allegations.
A spokeswoman for Musim Mas told the Guardian that it wanted
to see Korindo engage with civil society groups and adopt a “No Deforestation,
No Peat, No Exploitation” (NDPE) policy. “During this period we will continue
to stop buying the palm oil temporarily and monitor Korindo’s progress,” she
said.
NDPEs have become a palm oil industry standard in south-east
Asia but the Mighty campaign argues that they are not working. Glenn Hurowitz,
Mighty’s US campaign director, said that Korindo had been able to deforest 113
square miles of land since 2013, despite clearly visible satellite evidence of
894 hotspots in that period.
“This investigation shows the true face of the palm oil
industry in Indonesia even after No Deforestation policies,” Hurowitz said.
“The current, mostly confidential company-by-company system is inadequate. We
urgently need a transparent, systematic approach, as well as further action by
government and prosecutors.”
One of Malaysia’s largest palm oil companies, IOI – which
was itself suspended
from a sustainability scheme for not doing enough to prevent deforestation -
said that its third party suppliers had also “decided to temporarily stop
sourcing from Korindo” after hearing the allegations.
The palm oil giant Wilmar told the Guardian that it too had
contacted Korindo after a heads up about the new evidence. “Due to a lack of
progress from the supplier, and in view of the serious allegations, Wilmar has
ceased procuring from Korindo with effect from June 2016,” a spokeswoman said.
None of the companies would reveal how much money they spent
on ensuring that third-party palm oil suppliers did not cause environmental
damage.
Gyeong Min said that after a demand from Wilmar earlier this
year, Korindo began a “high-carbon stock assessment” which would be published
later this month. “We also announced a temporary moratorium for our remaining
plantation area,” he said.
Last month, a Korindo subsidiary called PT Tunas Sawa
Erma declared a
three-month suspension of new forest clearings across 25,000
hectares of territory, while it developed a NDPE policy.
But Mighty says that the moratorium did not extend to all
Korindo operations. “A couple of months ago we visited their concessions and
the land clearing was still happening,” Maitar said. “In our experience with
other companies, all activities involving the cutting down of forests should be
stopped, while they are doing these sorts of assessments.”
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6) Maluku Governor: ‘Melanesian Family’ Meeting Scheduled for September
28 August 2016
Jayapura, Jubi – Melanesian countries in the South Pacific, including Fiji, are expected to take part in an Indonesian Melanesian conference scheduled to be held in September in Ambon, Maluku Province, Maluku Governor Said Assagaff said on Saturday (27/8/2016).
He also said he had invited the Coordinating Minister of Politic, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto and the Minister of Internal Affairs Tjahyo Kumolo to attend the meeting.
“I asked Maluku Regional Secretary Hamin Bin Thahir who attended a meeting in Jakarta on 25 August 2016 to ask the ministers to come in the event,” he said.
Secretary Hamin’s presence in Jakarta was to talk about the readiness of Maluku to welcome fellow Melanesians from North Maluku, Papua, West Papua and East Nusa Tenggara.
“We are ready to be host the Melanesian meeting event. Hopefully it would run well because this meeting is very useful to reinforce and strengthen the inter-regions partnership in Indonesia, including those in the Melanesian group,” said the governor.
The meeting in Ambon is planned to be attended by the ambassador of several countries in the South Pacific area, as well as an initiative to start a coordination and consolidation between the government of five provinces in the Eastern region that integrated into Melanesian group. This meeting, further said the governor, would also be used to measure the potencies of each provinces, especially the top product and to open the possibility of export to other countries, therefore the Melanesian province could be a route of trade in Indonesia. (*/rom)
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