1) Jokowi says ‘stop violence in Myanmar’. ULMWP says how about in West Papua, too?

2) Indonesia mulls putting armed group in terror list

3) Police Chief Who Threatened Papuan Protesters Probed by Internal Affairs

4) Human rights commission raises concerns on illegal arms trade in West Papua

5) PNG citizen arrested in Papua over cross-border marijuana smuggling  

6) In Indonesia, pulp and paper firms stoke demand that may drive deforestation

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https://en.jubi.co.id/ulmwp-myanmar-military-violence-jokowi-west-papua/

1) Jokowi says ‘stop violence in Myanmar’. ULMWP says how about in West Papua, too?

 News Desk March 22, 2021 8:03 pm

West Papua No.1 News Portal | Jubi

 

                                             Markus Haluk - Jubi

Jayapura, Jubi – United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) responded to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s call  to end the violence by the military in Myanmar.

ULMWP’s executive director, Markus Haluk, said Papuan people condemned the violence by the military in Myanmar, which he said had violated democracy and human rights in Myanmar.

“We condemned the antidemocratic actions of the military in Myanmar, and that’s Papuan people’s principles. We condemned violence toward anyone,” Haluk said.

 

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said at least 149 people were killed since the peaceful protests erupted in Myanmar after the military took over power from Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

Haluk said that was why he rejected the Indonesian and the US government’s move since 1963. He referred to the year after the Dutch decided to leave West Papua and decolonized the area, but through the New York Agreement in 1962, facilitated by the US government, West Papua fell to Indonesia’s hands.

 

Read also: ULMWP Chair: New killings in Nduga show independence only solution in West Papua

 

Pro-Independence factions of West Papuans considered that Indonesia colonized them ever since. Indonesia denied that they colonized Papua Land, or internationally known as West Papua, claiming that the country wanted to bring prosperity and justice to West Papua.

 

But the Papuans accused Indonesian government of only wanting to exploit the natural resources and did not care about the people. Armed and bloody conflicts and alleged gross human rights violations repeatedly occurred ever since, with no peaceful resolution on the horizon.

 

Haluk said considering such a long history between Jakarta and Papua, he could only laugh, and be angry at the same time, that Jokowi had a double standard when it came to democracy and human rights. Haluk said Jokowi raised concerns about what happened in Myanmar but the Indonesia government acted “against humanism and democracy”, Haluk claimed.

 

“Frankly, I was angry, emotional, upset but I laughed out loud, too. You always talk about democracy, human rights, acting heroic for the people in Myanmar. But what about what has been happening before your eyes? In your backyard, which is the Papuan problem,” Haluk said.

 

“What has President Jokowi done? Have you done with the 11 visits? Are you done with us after you finish building the Red Bridge of Port Numbay? Is it appointing Jayapura as the host of the National Games, with its facilities, (enough)? Is  sending the military and the police from outside Papua (Jokowi’s way to care about Papua)?” Haluk went on.

 

Read also: 1,350 military personnel deployed to secure Indonesia-PNG borders

 

Haluk referred to Jokowi’s claim that he visited Papua Land more than he visited other regions in Indonesia. Jokowi said during his presidential campaign in 2019 that he had visited Papua and West Papua provinces 11 times.

 

Haluk said what Jakarta had done would never answer and give resolutions to the conflicts between Papua Land and the Indonesian government for the past 58 years.

 

“I’m telling President Jokowi, it was high time that Jokowi spoke about Myanmar and resolve the political conflicts and human rights violation, crimes against humanity in West Papua,” he said on Sunday, March 21, 2021.

 

He said Jokowi had to fulfill his promise to the OHCHR at the UN to invite her to West Papua.

 

He also had to fulfill his promise he made in 2014 that he would open Papua Land to foreign journalists. “Permit and open access to international journalists, foreign diplomats, scholars, US senators, US Congress members and international communities to visit West Papua,” Haluk demanded.

 

Selpius Bobi, an activist who was jailed for four years for protesting against the presence of PT Freeport in West Papua, said Indonesian government would never stop limiting the freedom of native Papuans. What happened 15 years ago in 2006, when he was protesting and then arrested, was still happening.

 

Bobi urged Jokowi to stop sending military and police personnel to West Papua. “Stop kidnapping, murders, and arbitrary arrests against human rights activists in Papua. Pull out military personnel who came from outside Papua Land, retract Special Autonomy Law on Papua Land and stop planning new provinces for Papua Land,” he said.

 

The Indonesian government had denied any wrongdoings in Papua Land, and had not followed up reports from human rights NGOs like the Amnesty International. The government had also yet to follow up the National Commission for Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM)’s recommendation on the allegation that what happened in Paniai Regency in 2014 was gross human rights violations.

 

Komnas HAM’s representative in Papua, Frits Ramandey, said Jokowi administration’s formula on finding solutions to Papuan conflicts “did not work”.

 

He said on March 19, 2021 that Papua needed a mediator and a negotiator to bridge native Papuans interests with the Indonesian government.

 

“No matter how many times Jokowi comes to Papua, using his way of talking, blusukan, it won’t work. What does he expect?” he said. Blusukan is a Javanese word for Jokowi’s famous and popular style of direct communication with the people, in which he visited a neighborhood and asked the people directly about what they wanted and needed. Oftentimes his visits became media stunts in which he visited unlikely areas, surprising low-income families by popping up at their houses unannounced, bearing gifts.

 

Ramandey did not specify who should serve as the mediator or negotiator.

 

Editor: Kristianto Galuwo, Evi Mariani

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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/indonesia-mulls-putting-armed-group-in-terror-list/2185567

2) Indonesia mulls putting armed group in terror list

Rights groups urge government to proceed with caution, evaluate situation in Papua before making any decisions

Erric Permana   | 23.03.2021

JAKARTA, Indonesia

The Indonesian government is considering adding an armed group in the easternmost province of Papua to the list of terrorist organizations, a senior official said on Tuesday.

During a panel discussion with lawmakers, Police Commissioner-General Boy Rafli Amar, head of the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), said the so-called West Papua National Liberation Army - Free Papua Organization (TPNPB-OPM) meets the criteria for being branded as a terrorist organization as it engages in violence with firearms, causing fear in society. 

"Based on the actual conditions on the ground, members of the group can be said to have committed acts of terror," Amar said. 

He said the agency may recommend President Joko Widodo to include the armed group in the list of banned organizations in Indonesia. "We cannot make our own decision… it is still being discussed," he added. 

An official from the State Intelligence Agency said the activities of the armed group are similar to those of terrorist organizations. 

The group has attacked and killed both security forces and civilians, as well as causing damage to public and private property, according to the agency's spokesman Wawan Hari Purwanto. 

"There is a lot of pressure to include the armed criminal group in the terrorist organization list," Purwanto said in a text message to Anadolu Agency on Tuesday. 

He said the violence has incited widespread fear in society and that their actions correspond with the definition of terrorism as stipulated in the country's law. 

Rights groups ask government to proceed with caution

However, the National Commission on Human Rights has urged the government to proceed with caution and evaluate the situation in Papua before making any decisions. 

Commissioner Amirudin Al Rahab told reporters on Tuesday that a deeper study and communication with all parties are needed before classifying the group as terrorist.

He said the commission could communicate with the BNPT and discuss various options. 

"[The commission] will ask more substantive questions from the standpoint of all parties upholding and respecting human rights," he added. 

Another human rights group, Kontras, expressed concern over the definition of terrorism in the law, calling it "too broad."

Arif Nur Fikri, the group's deputy coordinator for advocacy, said the government can easily label religious or sociopolitical groups that oppose the government as terrorist organizations. 

"Maybe this time it is Free Papua Organization, we don't know, maybe in the future it will be another government-critical organization," Fikri told reporters. 

According to data from the Papua regional police, there were 46 cases of alleged armed group violence in Papua in 2020, with nine people killed -- five civilians, two soldiers, and two police officers. 

Ahmad Musthofa, a police spokesman, said last year 23 people were injured, including 10 civilians, seven soldiers, and six police officers.

*Writing by Rhany Chairunissa Rufinaldo with Anadolu Agency's Indonesian language services in Jakarta

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https://en.tempo.co/read/1445213/police-chief-who-threatened-papuan-protesters-probed-by-internal-affairs

3) Police Chief Who Threatened Papuan Protesters Probed by Internal Affairs

Translator: Ricky Mohammad Nugraha   

Editor: Laila Afifa

 23 March 2021 22:26 WIB

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian National Police Internal Affairs (Propam) on Tuesday claimed they had investigated the Malang Police Chief, Sr. Comr. Leonardus Harapantua Simarmata Permata, after he had allegedly threatened to kill a group of Papuan college students commemorating the International Women's Day.

The Papuan Students Alliance (AMP) filed a complaint against Police chief Leonardus after the alleged incident was recorded in a video that went viral on social media. The footage shows the chief threatened to shoot at the protesters if they pass a certain physical border and said that the protesters' blood would be ‘halal’ to be shot dead. 

“[He] has been questioned and [we are] now investigating the case to determine whether the officer involved had committed a violation,” said the Police Internal Affairs spokesperson, Sr. Comm. Ahmad Ramadhan in South Jakarta on March 23. 

One of the notable accounts that shared the video on social media was Papuan activist Veronica Koman who shared it on March 9. In the video, the police chief can be heard warning the protesters to not exceed an established border, “If you cross that line your bloods are halal [to be shot at]! If you enter this fence then your blood is halal.”

The lawyer representing the Papuan Students Alliance, Michael Himan, on Friday March 12, said that the Malang police chief had intentionally called for his personnel to take aim and shoot the Papuan students. 

Michael said that the language and wording that the police chief aggressively used was highly demeaning. He maintained that a leader in a police institution should have refrained from saying such words and be able to control his emotions. 

Read: BNPT Looks into Possibility of Labeling Papuan Armed Group as Terror Network

ANDITA RAHMA

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https://en.jubi.co.id/komnas-raises-concerns-on-illegal-arms-trade-in-west-papua/

4) Human rights commission raises concerns on illegal arms trade in West Papua

News Desk March 23, 2021 4:32 pm

West Papua No.1 News Portal | Jubi

 

Jayapura, Jubi – The National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in Papua said one of the problems that made them worried was about illegal arms trade in Papua Land.

 

The head of Papua representative office of Komnas HAM in Papua, Frits Ramandey, said he had learned that there were people of various backgrounds who were involved in this illegal trade.

 

Media reports revealed that recently two police officers and a military soldier were arrested for allegedly selling arms to some people in Papua Land. The two police officers were arrested when they sold the arms allegedly to an armed group in Bintuni in West Papua province of Papua Land.

 

The two police officers were from Maluku Police and they had stashed the gun and rifle and about 600 ammunitions since 1999 when they were on duty during the sectarian conflicts in the province, Antara news agency reported.

 

Read also: Arms smuggling in Papua is linked to smugglers from Philippines

 

“What has become our concern today is the rampant illegal arms trade. When I met one detainee in Sorong, he told me how illegal arms entered Papua,” said Ramandey in a coordination meeting with Papuan People Council in Jayapura on March 19.

 

He suspected that some of the illegal arms were bought by “village fund”. He got the information from a suspect arrested in Mimika Regency in September 2018. “When village fund from Jakarta entered Papua, ammos and guns illegal trade was on the rise in Papua,” he said.

 

Village fund is a government program introduced in 2015, based on a 2014 law on villages. The fund is expected to speed up development on the village level, including to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Each village can receive up to Rp 1 billion.

 

At the end of February this year, the House of Representatives deputy speaker, Azis Syamsuddin said he condemned two police officers who sold the arms to an armed group in Papua.

 

Earlier in October 2020, Papua Police arrested three people who tried to sell a gun to a businessman in West Papua. One suspect, MJH, is an active police officer living in Depok, West Java. He brought the gun on a flight from Jakarta to Nabire. The businessman who ordered the arms, an M4 and M16, was also arrested.

 

Papua Police investigation last year revealed the three people had smuggled illegal arms into Papua seven times since 2017. MJH was the courier who abused his status as an active police officer to freely bring the arms on flights.

 

Papua Police chief at that time, Insp. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw, said last year that eventually the arms were sold to armed group members, one of them identified as Tandi Kogoya.

 

He said one arm could be sold at Rp 300 million a piece. MJH got Rp 10 to 30 million each time he brought an arm to Papua.

 

In November last year, Papua Police also investigated an illegal arm trade from the Philippines to Papua Land. The arms were smuggled from the Philippines to North Sulawesi and then to Manokwari.

 

Reporter: Arjuna Pademme

Editor: Kristianto Galuwo

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https://en.antaranews.com/news/170654/png-citizen-arrested-in-papua-over-cross-border-marijuana-smuggling

5) PNG citizen arrested in Papua over cross-border marijuana smuggling  

12 hours ago

Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA) - Officers of the Indonesian police in Papua Province arrested a citizen of Papua New Guinea (PNG) on early Monday (March 22) for being allegedly involved in a cross-border drug trafficking network.

The police personnel confiscated five sacks of marijuana from the detainee, Director of the Papua Police Criminal Investigation Department-Narcotics Division Sen. Coms. Alfian stated.

The PNG citizen named Gadafi Kuentaw Waropo, 18, was apprehended in Many Island of Jayapura Selatan Sub-district, Jayapura City, following the arrest of Beny Toway Waropo, 28.

Waropo concealed the marijuana packages at a place in proximity to his home in Many Island, Alfian revealed.

Meanwhile, Waropo was apprehended in the Kali Acai neighborhood of Abepura on Sunday evening (March 21), Alfian told ANTARA here on Monday.

During a raid at his house, the cops discovered 21 packs of marijuana and a 10-kg rice bag, Alfian remarked, adding that the marijuana packages were smuggled into Papua from PNG.

However, Alfian has yet to gain concrete information on whether the drug packages were smuggled by sea or land since the case is being investigated by the Papua police.

In fighting drug rings in communities, Alfian urged local residents to assist the police by giving tip-offs if they spotted suspected activities in their neighborhood areas.

Domestic and transnational drug dealers view Indonesia as a potential market on account of its vast population and millions of drug users.

Indonesia has been dragged into a state of emergency over narcotics trade and abuse. Drug trade in the nation is valued at nearly Rp66 trillion.

Data indicates that people from all societal levels are falling prey to drugs in the country irrespective of their socio-economic and professional backgrounds.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck the country on March 2, 2020, drug lords have continued to be a serious threat on account of rampant drug trafficking even amid the health crisis.

Since his first leadership term, President Joko Widodo has constantly reminded the people of the serious repercussions of drug consumption on Indonesia.

While inaugurating a grand mosque in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on January 20, 2015, the head of state had cautioned that at least 50 people were dying of drug use daily.

The statistics included those who failed to get rehabilitated. According to the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Indonesia had more than 3.3 million drug users in 2017.

The drug users belonged to the age group of 10-59 years, and the percentage of teenagers falling prey to drug addiction stood at 24-28 percent, according to the BNN.

Information on the agency's official website found that Indonesians in the age group of 15-35 years are at the highest risk of drug abuse.

In supporting their drug-trafficking networks in the country, drug lords are dragging not just people in their 30s into their drug rings but even those in their 20s.


Related news: Soldiers near Indonesia-PNG border help residents to construct church

Related news: Soldiers near Indonesia-PNG land border conduct bridge repair work
Close EDITED BY INE

Reporter: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf

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https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/indonesia-pulp-paper-new-investment-demand-deforestation/

Mongabay Series: Indonesian Forests

6) In Indonesia, pulp and paper firms stoke demand that may drive deforestation

by Hans Nicholas Jong on 23 March 2021

• Pulp and paper companies are expanding in Indonesia by building new mills, putting more pressure on existing pulpwood plantations to increase their production.
• According to a new NGO report, this could reverse a declining trend of pulpwood-related deforestation in recent years, with producers seen as likely to clear more forests for plantations in order to meet the demand from the new mills.
• Activists, therefore, have called on the government to provide protection foron all natural forests in Indonesia from such an expansion.

JAKARTA — Plans for expansion by the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia threaten to reverse a declining rate of deforestation for pulpwood plantations, according to a NGO analysis.

An increasing number of producers and buyers of wood pulp and paper have adopted zero-deforestation commitments in recent years. This has contributed to a drop in forest-clearing for the industry in Indonesia, according to analysis of data from Trase, a supply chain transparency initiative.

Trase’s new Indonesia wood pulp supply chain map can now track pulp exports back to the specific plantations that contributed most of the pulpwood. It shows the average deforestation rate from 2017-2019 fell by 85% compared to the three-year average for 2010-2012.

But this decline might not last long, given that at least six new pulp mills have recently started operating, according to data from the Ministry of Industry, which points to an increase in demand for pulpwood and thus for new plantations to feed them. Two of the mills are already running at full capacity, three are slated to max out this year, and the sixth will ramp up to 85% capacity this year. Their combined output at full capacity will be 1 million tons of pulp per year. In 2019, Indonesia’s total pulp production was 9 million tons, according to data from Trase.

There’s also a plan by China’s largest pulp company, Nine Dragons Paper, to expand into Indonesia with a $1 billion investment, according to Indonesia’s Ministry of Industry, with a view to producing 6 million tons of pulp a year.

The group said nothing is set in stone yet.

“We are still looking for the best location,” Nine Dragons Paper said in a statement to Mongabay. “We are still looking for the best location, so far no suitable land parcel is identified yet.”

Nine Dragons Paper obtains certification from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), but it’s unclear if the group has a zero deforestation policy or not, according to the Global Canopy’s “Forest 500”.

“It’s time to stop the construction of new mills,” said Timer Manurung, director of the environmental NGO Auriga. He said the industry had embarked on a spree of building new mills without considering where the wood to supply them would come from, and was as a result undermining its own sustainability pledges.

“Where will they get their raw material from? They will [eventually have to] get it from the cutting down of natural forests. And as a result, their products won’t be accepted by the market,” Timer said.

Christopher Barr, executive director of the NGO Woods & Wayside International, agreed that the industry’s expansion raised concerns about its sustainability.

“Indonesian producers have built some of the world’s largest pulp mills, and these multi-billion dollar facilities place enormous pressures on the landscapes in which they are situated,” he said.

He cited in particular the clearing of carbon-rich peatland forests to develop pulpwood plantations, a practice that over decades has degraded this unique ecosystem and render it extremely flammable. The near-annual burning of these dried-out peatlands sends clouds of choking haze across Borneo and Sumatra, and into neighboring Southeast Asian countries. Peat fires have also contributed to Indonesia becoming one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. The burning season of 2015 released nearly 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a day, more than the daily emissions of all economic activity in the U.S.

“Producers’ heavy reliance on peatlands for wood supply is a key driver of catastrophic fire risk, especially as climate change is creating longer and more frequent droughts,” Barr said. “As the industry has expanded, this reliance on peatlands has locked in the sector’s sizeable carbon footprint for the long term.”

The Papua problem

With much of the forests in Sumatra and Borneo cleared for pulpwood, palm oil and mines, the anticipated expansion of the pulpwood industry would likely be in the relatively pristine forests of Indonesia’s easternmost region, Papua.

Last year, the region accounted for 3.4 million hectares (8.4 million acres) of areas designated by the government for selective logging and pulpwood cultivation, or 40% of the national total. That’s up from 4.9 million hectares (12.1 million acres), or 28% of the total, in 2017, and shows a disturbing pattern, said Mufthi Fathul Barri, a researcher with the NGO Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI).

“It means that it’s getting more obvious that the expansion of selective logging and industrial forest plantations is moving east, especially into Papua,” he said.

Timer said the trend is alarming because it looks like the government is preparing Papua to be the new forest-clearing frontier.

“It is as if the lands in Papua are vacant in the minds of people in Jakarta, even though Indigenous peoples own these lands,” he said. “I don’t know why the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has proposed forest areas in Papua [for selective logging and pulpwood plantations]. This will surely drive deforestation.”

Timer said that while the government has rolled out various policies to curb deforestation — including moratoriums on clearing primary and peat forests and on licensing new oil palm plantations — there are still loopholes that leave vast swaths of natural forest unprotected.

He cited the case of Merauke, the southernmost district in Papua, whose lush forests blanket a mostly flat terrain. That means most of the district doesn’t qualify for protected-forest status, which applies to forest landscapes on a gradient.

“We protect landscapes if they are steep and there’s a risk of landslides,” Timer said. “That’s the parameter of protected forests. The steeper they are, the more eligible they are for protection.

“Merauke is flat as far as the eye can see,” he added. “This makes it seemingly OK for us to establish industrial plantations there.”

The forest-clearing moratorium, meanwhile, doesn’t extend to secondary forests, which, in the case of Merauke, can be virtually pristine and harbor rich biodiversity, but have traces of human activity.

An analysis by environmental NGO Madani shows there are at least 9.5 million hectares (23.5 million acres) of natural forests across Indonesia that aren’t covered by the moratorium, including 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of primary forests.

Timer said the lack of meaningful distinctions showed the need to issue a blanket moratorium on clearing of all natural forests in Indonesia.

“We will send a letter to the president to ask for this protection,” he said, “whether it’s inside forest areas or outside, inside concessions or outside.”

The peatland predicament 

Edy Sutopo, the industry ministry’s plantations director, played down concerns that the expansion of the pulpwood industry would lead to greater deforestation. He said the government is focusing on increasing the output of existing plantations rather than expanding their size.

“For the pulp industry, what we do is research with the aim to increase productivity,” he said.

Many of those existing plantations were established on cleared and drained peatlands. In total, the pulpwood industry operates on 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of peatlands across Indonesia, according to the Trase data set. The top two pulp producers, Sinar Mas and Royal Golden Eagle, which together accounted for 95% of Indonesia’s pulp exports from 2015-2019, operate on 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of peatlands.

Although both have pledged to refrain from any further clearance of peatlands, and to stop buying raw materials from other companies clearing peat, Trase data show both conglomerates continue to source from plantations established on drained peat. To date, neither company has committed to phasing out its existing plantations on peatlands.

Asia Pulp and Paper and APRIL, the pulp and paper arms of Sinar Mas and Royal Golden Eagle respectively, said they only operated on peatlands that have been licensed and designated for cultivation by the government.

APRIL said it has “a legal obligation to manage those concessions for commercial use” and does so “in the most responsible way possible.” APRIL said it’s striving to achieve net zero emissions from its land use activities by 2030, in line with its sustainability goals, called APRIL2030.

APP said it’s also committed to no new development on peatland.

Both companies cited their peat restoration initiatives as evidence of their commitments to manage peatlands in a sustainable manner, with APP saying “any existing plantations located on peat dome peaks will be retired and restored once their current cycle is completed.”

Besides future retirement and restoration plans, APP said it’s been restoring degraded peat in protected areas within the company and its suppliers’ concessions.

“To date, we have been able to restore close to 19,000 ha [47,000 acres] of degraded peatland in these areas,” APP told Mongabay.

This represents 3% of the total size of APP’s peat concessions, which cover 600,000 hectares (1.48 million acres).

APRIL touted its commitment to conserve and restore a fifth more peatland than it operates on, as well as its program to restore 150,693 hectares (372,371 acres) of peat forest on Riau’s Kampar Peninsula.

Robert Heilmayr, an assistant professor of environmental and ecological economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, however, said this continued reliance on peatlands means the pulpwood industry remains unsustainable even as its deforestation rate continues to decline.

Past deforestation also contributes to the unsustainability of the sector, since today’s Indonesian pulp exports include a great deal of wood fiber grown on plantations established during the most recent boom of pulpwood-driven deforestation from 2004-2012, the Trase data show.

“Although the sector has made significant progress towards reducing deforestation, pulp exports maintain a large environmental footprint due to past clearing and continued production on drained peatlands,” Heilmayr said.

Timer said it’s important for the government to put an end to the pulpwood industry’s operations on peatlands.

“Don’t let there to be new clearing of peatlands. And [think about] how to phase out from industrial plantations on peatlands,” he said. “If there’s still a push for expansion [of the industry], it will make Indonesia collapse.”

 

Correction 3/23/2021: The article has been revised to attribute the data of six new mills to the Ministry of Industry.

 

Banner image: Excavator working in an acacia plantation in Riau, Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

 

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Article published by Hans Nicholas Jong

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