Travellers flying over Merauke, on West Papua’s southern coast, have long been treated to a sight that’s hard to find remaining anywhere in the world: an expansive lowland filled with natural forests, savannahs, and vast wetlands. But these days, they’re also likely to see a landscape in the midst of change. Excavators turning green cover and blue creeks into brown mud. Felled logs piling up in rows.
In the forests and riverside villages, Indigenous Marind, Yei Nan, and Muyu communities are anxious. This new destruction stalks their livelihoods and threatens land passed down through generations. Companies are even encroaching upon the customary territories of Indigenous Peoples who refuse to surrender their land.
In the Marind homeland, land grabbing and forest destruction are taking hold in the name of the Indonesian government’s program for food and energy self-sufficiency – designated as a National Strategic Project (PSN). President Prabowo Subianto has framed this ambition as strengthening national resilience to legitimize massive military involvement. A new Regional Military Command has been established in Merauke, estimated to house over 5,000 combat personnel. On the roads of Merauke, military vehicles and soldiers passing by have become a common sight. But for Indigenous West Papuans, given the military’s long history of brutal violence, their presence is a terror in itself.
The government’s rhetoric is harshly ironic, because in reality the project enhances neither food security nor political security. For many Marind, food security and political freedom means moving through their natural forests, savannas and wetlands, encountering abundant wild foods. Converting those landscapes into intensive monocultures such as sugar or oil palm plantations amounts to enslaving living organisms. As Marind woman Rafaela explained to environmental anthropologist Sophie Chao: “Free beings make free food. Forest foods taste of freedom. And nothing tastes as good as freedom.”
Greenpeace Indonesia investigated one of these government food and energy projects in West Papua, namely the Merauke Sugarcane PSN, which targets an area of 560,000 hectares – the size of the island of Bali. A consortium of ten companies is set to work on the project. Nine out of the ten are connected to two corporate groups with long track records in the palm oil industry.
If this sugarcane plantation project is not stopped, it will sow disaster through the destruction of West Papuan forests, which now serve as a global climate and biodiversity shield. Greenpeace Indonesia invites you, the reader, to join us in urging the government to stop the Merauke Sugar PSN and save Papua’s forests. As West Papuans say, ‘Papua bukan tanah kosong’ – Papua is not an empty land.
Read the Inside the Merauke Sugarcane Project report here (also available in Indonesian).
Key points:
- A consortium of ten companies is seeking to develop more than 560,000 hectares of land – an area the size of Bali – for sugarcane plantations in Merauke.
- Clearing this natural vegetation could produce emissions equivalent to 221 million tonnes of CO₂, or as much as the annual emissions of 48 million cars.
- More than 23,000 hectares of forests, savanna, and wetlands were cleared within the last 18 months by two of the companies.
- The Kwipalo Clan, part of the Yei Indigenous People in Blandin Kakayo Village, continue to be forced to release customary rights, putting them in conflict with other clans in the vicinity; the Muyu People in Senayu Soa Village are threatened with eviction; and the Marind People in Domande Village are continuously harassed. The company employs every means necessary to obtain the release of customary territories for sugarcane land.
- Militarism is intensifying and makes Indigenous communities fearful. The military assists companies in obtaining customary right releases, even establishing new battalions inside company concessions.
Links:
- Inside the Merauke Sugarcane Project report
- Photo and videos from Merauke
- West Papuan Protest Against Merauke Sugarcane Nat. Strategic Project
Media contact:
Igor O’Neill, Greenpeace Indonesia, ioneill@greenpeace.org +61 414-288-424
Refki Saputra, Greenpeace Indonesia, +62 852-6351-5392
The target will be pursued through the development of new rice fields and the optimization of local staple food production, particularly sago, he told a press conference in Jakarta.
"We will realize food self-sufficiency in Papua within three years at the latest. If possible, we can complete it within two years," Sulaiman said.
He noted that Papua's annual rice demand stands at around 660,000 tons, while local production is estimated at about 120,000 tons, leaving a shortfall of approximately 500,000 tons.
"To cover the deficit, around 100,000 hectares of rice fields are needed. These have been allocated across South Papua, Papua, and West Papua, with six provinces requesting similar development," he said.
The government also plans to revitalize the sago industry, a key food commodity in Papua, including reactivating a sago factory in Sorong, Southwest Papua, according to the minister.
"We will complete the work in Sorong. The factory has been built and now needs to be reactivated," he added.
Sulaiman said the government is seeking to achieve food self-sufficiency across all regions as a long-term solution to supply stability and inflation control.
"Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Sumatra are already self-sufficient, while Java has a surplus. Our goal is nationwide food self-sufficiency as a permanent solution to inflation," he said.
Related news: Indonesia plans 100,000 ha land clearing for Papua rice program
Related news: Indonesia's Merauke to get new airport, seaport in food security drive
Translator: Genta Tenri M, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Anton Santoso
As 2025 comes to an end, I would like to thank everyone who has supported a Free West Papua this year, whether through practical contributions or through their spirit.
2025 has been a year of even further escalation in West Papua, as Indonesia has stepped up its campaign of repression and ecocidal development. Our people have suffered massacres in Intan Jaya, Puncak, Kiwirok, Oksibil, Maybrat, and elsewhere. Our land continues to be plundered for Indonesian and corporate profit: Merauke is now home to the largest deforestation project in human history, destroying an area of mangrove forest the size of Belgium. More than 80,000 occupying security forces, 56,000 soldiers and 26,000 police, are currently posted across West Papua’s towns and villages. The result has been a huge increase in both military operations and subsequent internal displacement. While around 80,000 West Papuans were displaced at the beginning of the year, the number of Indigenous refugees is now over 100,000.
Yet we remain strong, our spirit unbroken, and utterly determined to win back our stolen sovereign state. Our peaceful struggle is righteous, blessed by God and our ancestors. They are with us every day.
Despite all the obstacles laid out in front of us, from Indonesia’s military strength to its six-decade long ban on journalists and NGOs, our mission continues to progress. The ULMWP has made big strides forward this year, getting closer than ever to full MSG membership. We continue to advance our campaign for Indonesia to facilitate a visit to West Papua by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Over 110 Member States have now made this demand. And although we have been isolated for a long time, more and more people across the world are learning of our peaceful struggle.
Thank you to all our solidarity groups from around the world; I hope you keep West Papua in your prayers as you celebrate this Christmas. Thank you to the Free West Papua campaign teams in Netherlands, the UK, the United States, and particularly in the Pacific, who do the essential work of pushing our freedom struggle forward and making sure our cries for help are heard. We have few resources and no weapons: your voices are our weapons.
Thank you to the West Papua Council of Churches, the Pacific Council of Churches, and all religious and civil society organisations in the Pacific. Thank you to all Melanesian leaders and those working for West Papua at an intergovernmental level. Thank you to the International Lawyers for West Papua and the International Parliamentarians for West Papua, and of course, thank you to the people and government of Vanuatu, our Wantoks. You have always been our strongest supporters.
Finally, thank you to the ULMWP, the Executive and Legislative Council, and of course to the people of West Papua. To my people, I ask that you continue to stay strong and stand behind the ULMWP as we fight for your right to determine your future. 2025 has been a year of unity for our movement. I acknowledge and thank the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), represented by spokesperson Sebby Sambom and Chief of Staff Terianus Satto, for their endorsement of me as President of West Papua. Unity is what the occupiers fear most: there is no more powerful weapon against Indonesia than West Papuans standing together, calling for their freedom with one voice.
History tells us that no empire lasts forever. Just as Dutch colonialism ended in Indonesia, so too will Indonesian colonialism end in West Papua. As Nelson Mandela said, we are walking our long road to freedom. We have been walking this road for a long time now, but the finish line is in sight. Our dream of freedom will come.
God bless West Papua.
Benny Wenda
President
ULMWP
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