Reiner Brabar, Jayapura – The timber industry in Sorong regency, Southwest Papua, generates billions of rupiah in profits from merbau wood, but indigenous communities who own customary land only receive around 0.6 percent of the export value.
This extreme inequality was revealed in a collaborative research project between the government's National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and the People's Earth Heritage Foundation (Pusaka), which was presented during a research discussion and dissemination on Wednesday January 28 in Jakarta.
The research, which was conducted in 2025 in the districts of Klamono, Moisegen, East Sayosa and Maudus, highlighted the impact of the timber industry's expansion on the Moii indigenous people who now live under pressure from logging, customary land grabbing and a customary rights crisis.
Desmiwati, a researcher at BRIN's Centre for Community and Cultural Research, stated that Papua is currently positioned as the last frontier for logging – the last region for exploitation after the forests of Sumatra and Kalimantan have been depleted.
Locally, merbau wood is valued at only around 150,000 to 200,000 rupiah per cubic meter, while the export price can reach 25 million rupiah per cubic meter, she said.
Under this scheme, indigenous communities receive only a very small share, while most of the profits are enjoyed by companies and the state, through taxes, Forest Resource Rent Provisions (PSDH), reforestation funds and profit-sharing funds (DBH).
Forced signatures
During their research, the research team discovered the practice of pseudo-approval in the release of customary land. Company socialisation activities were often held in hotels, not in villages, so only certain individuals were included.
"Residents' signatures on attendance lists were used as the basis for claiming approval for land release", said Desmiwati.
According to the research team, state and corporate power operate through administrative mechanisms that appear legal, but ultimately result in the systematic undermining of indigenous communities' rights.
"For the Moi community, the forest is more than just timber. It is a living space, a cultural identity and a source of life", emphasised Desmiwati.
Workers from outside Papua
The entry of the timber industry also triggered inter-clan conflicts, disputes over customary land boundaries and weakened customary solidarity. Kinship values have shifted to an economic orientation, while social pressures increased.
"As industrial operations progressed, kinship values, once based on custom and mutual cooperation, slowly shifted. Social pressures in surrounding villages also increased, especially as the influx of workers from outside Papua increasingly dominated the job market", she said.
On the other hand, the company's promise to employ indigenous Papuans (OAP) was not realised, even though Special Autonomy (Otsus) regulations require that 80 percent of the workforce come from the indigenous Papuans.
"Indigenous Papuans were only involved in the survey phase, after which they were pushed aside from core work", said Desmiwati.
Intimidated
The Moi indigenous community resisted by blocking logging roads and protesting. However, the authorities' response was often intimidating, even accompanied by political stigmatisation of residents who opposed the expansion of the timber industry.
Several residents claimed to have been labelled provocateurs, anti-development and even infiltrated with certain political labels just for defending their customary forests.
Yet, she said, indigenous people's opposition is based on the belief that forests are sacred spaces, sources of life and cultural identities, not business commodities.
"Communities often incur negative stigma from the state when they resist", she said.
Desmiwati revealed that researchers found that in fact the state appears to be leaving indigenous peoples to struggle for themselves.
"The state should protect indigenous peoples, but instead appears to support corporate interests", she continued.
These findings reinforce criticism that development based on natural resource exploitation in Papua benefits corporations more than indigenous peoples while deepening deforestation, poverty, social conflict and the loss of living space for Indigenous Papuans.
Recommendations
The researchers submitted several recommendations to the government, including:
- Independent timber industry audits
- Regulatory revisions
- The establishment of an indigenous peoples' complaint task force
- Strengthening participatory mapping of customary territories
In Southwest Papua province, to this day residents still complain about massive logging activities and weak law enforcement.
From the information gathered by Suara Papua, these kind of logging activities not only took place in Sorong regency, but also in other areas such as Raja Ampat, Tambrauw, South Sorong and Maybrat.
Residents also suspect that there is backing from officials and government officials, enabling these activities to proceed smoothly.
"Logged timber from Moswaren, South Sorong, is loaded onto trucks, covered with tarpaulin and transported along public roads", said a resident who did not want their identity published.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Kayu Dijual Miliaran, Orang Moi Cuma Dapat Recehan".]
Source: https://suarapapua.com/2026/01/29/kayu-dijual-miliaran-orang-moi-cuma-dapat-recehan/
Jayapura – The People's Earth Heritage Foundation (Pusaka) says there are four patterns used by the government to "rob" Papua of its natural resources.
This statement was made by the Pusaka Foundation's Tigor Hutapea during a discussion on the foundation's 2025 end of year notes tilted "As Usual, We're Not Considered to Exist: A Year Full of Plundering Papua's Natural Resources", which was held by the Pusaka Foundation and broadcast online on the Pusaka Foundation YouTube channel on Thursday January 29.
Hutapea said that the land of Papua was become a region that is sacrificed on the grounds of achieving self-sufficiency in food and energy, which seems to illustrate that the country lacks food and energy, so there had to be a region that is to be sacrificed, namely the land of Papua.
"That's what happened in 2025 and this is a tragedy that continues to be repeated in (the land of) Papua, the plunder of its natural resources. We call this the robbery of nature, because there are four patterns used by the government", said Hutapea.
According to Hutapea, the first pattern used by the government to 'rob' Papua's natural resources is autocratic legalism (the use of laws to legitimise an action). He said there were various problems that conflicted with legislation in implementing the national strategic projects or PSN in Papua.
"But government [just] changed the laws, as if there is no legislative problem. For example, in the case of building a self-supporting roads in Merauke, South Papua. There is no Amdal (environmental impact analysis). When the public criticises it, an Amdal is made and the government regulations are changed so that the Amdal can be done later. As if work that is wrong is justified through legislation, also by means of weakening supervisory institutions", he said.
Hutapea said that another method used by the government to grab territory in Papua is legal colonisation. He said that customary law exists in Papua, but the government uses state legal instruments to colonise customary law. It's as if customary law is ineffective.
The third pattern, Hutapea continued, is by means of militarisation. In areas where big government projects are located, units called Territorial Development Battalions (BTP) are always established. He said that many new battalions are being established solely to ensure the success of government-sponsored development programs.
"The government is planning 450 [new] battalions [across Indonesia], and that's around 450,000 new soldiers to manage livestock, agriculture and other things", he said.
The fourth method is through state corporations. The government established the sovereign wealth fund Danantara which is considered a state corporation because it aims to profit from the "plunder" of nature.
The Pusaka Foundation has received information that in Papua, rice paddy and biofuel projects will be supported by Danantara, along with state-owned enterprises like PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara and other companies.
"So, we look at this there's pattern being used to seize Papuan territory which is sacrificed for food and energy self-sufficiency. We see this as a president's ambition", said Hutapea.
He said that amidst the ongoing problem of natural resource plunder, the Pusaka Foundation has also found numerous acts of resistance by communities.
There is also maintenance work, particularly carried out by mama-mama (traditional Papuan women traders), fighting against this extractive industry. However, this of course requires solidarity because Papua as a conflict zone requires solidarity from many parties to observe and monitor conditions in the land of Papua.
On the other hand, the Pusaka Foundation has also written 11 articles divided into four parts. First, how natural resource robbery occurs, second, how communities are fighting back, third, how communities maintain it, and fourth, data on the state of deforestation in Papua.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Pemerintah Disebut Gunakan Empat Pola 'merampok' Alam Tanah Papua".]
Source: https://jubi.id/lingkungan/2026/pemerintah-disebut-gunakan-empat-pola-merampok-alam-tanah-papua/