THERE IS NOTHING ‘NEO’ ABOUT THE COLONIALIZATION OF WEST PAPUA

https://intercontinentalcry.org/there-is-nothing-neo-about-the-colonialization-of-west-papua/

THERE IS NOTHING ‘NEO’ ABOUT THE COLONIALIZATION OF WEST PAPUA

by Isabela TorresMay 23, 2019

Last month, a small group of West Papuan prisoners attempted to escape Indonesia’s Abepura prison before being caught and brutally tortured. In the end, two men, Maikel Ilinmaton and Selyus Logo, were killed and eight others were hospitalized in critical condition. This level of brutality has been a common occurrence in West Papua for decades, which the Indonesia government makes sure the world doesn’t see.

West Papua has been under non-stop military occupation by Indonesia since 1969. On August 2, 1969, 1,026 Indigenous West Papuans were held at gunpoint and forced to vote for Indonesian rule. Ironically, the process of colonization was facilitated by the United Nations and called an ‘Act of Free Choice’. This travesty is now known by West Papuans as the ‘Act of No Choice’ – which is both an accurate description of what occurred and a rallying cry for the independence movement demanding actual free choice in determining who their sovereign power will be.

The U.N. claims there are only 17 Non-Self-Governing-Territories in the world– a diplomatic way to refer to colonized peoples. The U.N. classification excludes West Papua, pretending that the problem of colonialism was settled back in 1969 when West Papuans voted to join the Indonesian state – as if people would freely vote against their own self-determination. This ongoing erasure of Indigenous peoples and their fights for sovereignty is not unique to West Papua – instead it is symptomatic of the ongoing global colonial agenda to silence and eliminate Indigenous peoples.

Indonesian occupied Papua is divided into the two provinces of West Irian Jaya (light green) and Papua (dark green).

Colonialism and neocolonialism can be difficult to identify to the untrained eye. While both structures are practices of economic, political, and social domination over another people, they differ in practice. Colonialism is an explicitly violent process of extermination, assimilation, and physical occupation of the lands of another people. Neocolonialism is a master of disguise that hides behind the cloak ‘economic development’, aide provided to countries in distress, foreign land acquisition by transnational corporations, and other fabrics that can’t be easily identified.

But in the case of West Papua, blatant colonialism is easy enough to spot. The Indigenous peoples of West Papua were not consulted in who would be their sovereign power. They have been massacred for decades by the Indonesian army, who used the most brutal means to justify its ends: to control the colonized. West Papuans have been forced from their ancestral lands to create space for agribusiness to move in and reshape the island to serve as the ‘Food Basket’ of Indonesia.

THE FIGHT FOR WEST PAPUAN INDEPENDENCE

The Indigenous peoples of West Papua – which includes the Armung, the Asmat, the Bauzi, the Dani, the Ekari, the Fayu, the Kombai, the Koteka, the Korowai, the Lani, the Marind, the Mek, the Moni, the Sawi, the Wolamni, and the Yali among other nations– have been fighting for self-determination and independence from Indonesia for the last 50 years. Resistance occurs both through non-violence tactics and armed resistance.

Non-violent tactics, currently led by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) have included the raising of the Morning Star Flag, petitions for another independence referendum, the boycott of elections, and protests against multinational corporations developing extractive industries and destructive infrastructure throughout West Papua.

The Free Papua Movement (OPM) and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) are the two well-known guerilla military operations fighting back against the violence wrought by the Indonesian Army. The Indonesian state claims all attacks by the freedom fighters are unprovoked acts of terrorism against innocent civilians causing needless violence and death that would not be taking place otherwise.

What Indonesia so conveniently fails to mention is the genocide they have wreaked on the Indigenous peoples of West Papua for the last 50 years that has claimed upwards of 500,000 lives while raping, torturing, imprisoning, and disappearing countless more. Over time, it has become clear that resistance is not a choice for the people of West Papua – it is their only chance for survival.

West Papuan independence is fought by all peoples in the name of self-determination and the safety that will provide – but will West Papuan governance actually mean safety for all?

SELF DETERMINATION OF WEST PAPUAN WOMEN

A report from 2012 authored by the Documentation Working Group on Violence and Human Rights Violations Against Papuan Women (2009-2010) heard stories from 128 victims of state violence (murder, disappearance, detention, torture, rape, slavery, etc) and 98 victims of domestic violence (economic neglect, non-sexual violence, rape of child, forced marriage, marital rape, contraction of HIV/AIDS, etc).

The reality for women fighting for independence in West Papua is they must fight two simultaneous battles: an external battle against the Indonesian state and an internal battle against patriarchy within the independence movement and their own communities.

In the 1980s, women like Johana Regina Rumadas, Elsye Ayamseba, Dorcas Hanasbey, and Greet Jolmend founded the Working Group on Women (KKW) which worked to empower women and help them to achieve greater access and success within the economic and social spheres of society.

In 1997, riding the wave of social and electoral reform in West Papua at the time, women became more outspoken on the issue of violence against women. Women activists worked with organizations like the Women’s Health Network in Eastern Indonesia (JKPIT) to connect violence against women with the broader narrative of human rights violations in West Papua and Indonesian attacks on the land as one story of colonial extractivism in all facets of West Papuan lives.

The 2000s found West Papuan women fighting for involvement and representation in the Great Council of Indigenous People of Papua. They also founded the Mamta Alliance of Papuan Women (Mamta APP) which held the Annual Conference of Papuan Women – an event focused on raising awareness on issues like violence against women and gender justice. Outside of the political sphere, women worked to create communities that supported survivors of violence via counseling, prayer, and the development of solidarity.

And yet, despite its façade of public support of decolonization and women’s rights, the UN has done nothing for West Papua. The UN blocked Benny Wenda, and exiled Papuan leader, from presenting a petition signed by 1.8 million West Papuans (70% of the population) that demanded an uncoerced referendum on independence back in 2017. In January of 2019 the nation of Vanuatu helped Wenda deliver the petition to Michelle Bachelet, UN Commissioner for Human Rights, who continued to follow the company line: West Papua is part of Indonesia, it is not a colony, and thus the issue was closed in 1969 and that decision stands today.

Of course, this has not stopped the fight for independence. Most recently, multiple court cases have been filed by West Papuans against the Indonesian state. The National Committee for West Papua (KNBP) is suing the Indonesian police for $100,000 in damages to their headquarters following a raid on December 31, 2018. A second group is fighting for a judicial review of the ‘Act of No Choice’ in an attempt to create a legal precedent to delegitimize the Indonesian claim to West Papua.

COLONIAL COMPLICITY AT THE UN

All of these different methods of resistance have contributed to a rising international awareness of the West Papuan fight for independence. In a world full of neocolonial structures that are difficult to oppose because of their inherently hidden agenda, West Papua is the red herring of the UN colonial agenda.

The U.N. talks a good game with its promotion of women and girl’s rights internationally, but as long as the United Nations denies that West Papua is a colonized state, they are actively supporting colonial systems of power that brutally repress and subjugate women on a global scale. While Indonesia is able to get away with blatant genocide and military occupation, the U.N. is complicit in every murder, assault, rape, disappearance, torture, and violation of any and every West Papuan.

The first step towards ending neo/colonialism is to end the most blatantly violent and dangerous manifestations of it. You can join the fight for West Papuan independence at Free West Papua. You too can raise the Morning Star Flag, and stay up to date on the fight for independence by following @FreeWestPapua and #FreeWestPapua.

Each of us has a choice on whether or not to be complicit in the global project of colonialism.

Choose resistance.

Choose West Papua.

WAFFLING ON WEST PAPUA

http://dailypost.vu/news/waffling-on-west-papua/article_0786808a-9a61-562d-99de-dcb906f02184.html

WAFFLING ON WEST PAPUA

• By Dan McGarry
 
• May 22, 2019

Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu (background) and UN Secretary General Anotnio Guterres during a visit to Port Vila's seafront. Mr Regenvanu confirmed that he had raised the issue of West Papua during a bilateral meeting, but little seems to have come from it.

During his visit to Port Vila last weekend, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres was confronted with questions about West Papua. The matter was on the agenda during a bilateral meeting held between Mr Guterres and key Government officials, including Prime Minister Charlot Salwai and Foreign Affairs Minister Ralph Regenvanu.

In a joint press conference, Mr Salwai was unequivocal about Vanuatu’s continued commitment to support and help drive the decolonisation process globally, and especially in West Papua.

The UN head did little more than acknowledge the PM’s words in his own prepared remarks.

Mr Guterres also responded to questions on the topic from the media. The following exchange occurred during an interview with Agence France Presse. He had little more to offer there.

The most serious deforestation, the most serious ecological trouble, as well as the most serious human rights abuses in the whole Pacific are happening in West Papua, the interviewer said. Shouldn’t the UN be doing more to try and stop the human right abuses, and the ecological disaster that is unfolding there?

Mr Guterres did little to raise expectations of a resolution to this crisis any time soon.

“There is a framework in the institutions, namely the human rights council… there are special procedures, there was a panel, That recently made a report on those issues, a report that was then presented internationally. Indonesia also responded. So the UN is doing its job, with a major concern that there and everywhere, human rights are respected.”

The problem is, he was told, that Indonesia is blocking Pacific island delegations, and they also appear to be blocking the UN Human Rights Commission from visiting West Papua. At the moment, all international media is banned. Again, shouldn’t the UN be doing more to open up West Papua?

The Secretary General appeared to grant that there were indeed concerns about access to the area.

“The Human Rights High Commissioner has reaffirmed availability to visit the territory, and that remains our concern, and our objective.”

So, if Indonesia says no, he was asked, there’s nothing anyone can do, even the UN?

“As I said, we had the institutions working, we have a panel of experts, but there are also from our side strong commitments there and everywhere.”

Little evidence of those commitments was on display in Port Vila.

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1) KPU Completes Official Vote Count With Jokowi-Ma'ruf on 55.5%

2) To pacify Trump, Indonesia seeks American arms

3) Papua gov't urged to follow up on convicted civil servant dismissal

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https://jakartaglobe.id/context/kpu-completes-official-vote-count-with-jokowimaruf-on-555

1) KPU Completes Official Vote Count With Jokowi-Ma'ruf on 55.5%

BY : BERITASATU TEAM & TELLY NATHALIA

MAY 21, 2019 

Jakarta. The General Elections Commission, or KPU, has completed the tabulation of ballots in the 2019 presidential election on Monday evening.

The official tally shows the incumbent, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, and his running mate Ma'ruf Amin having won most of the votes in 21 of Indonesia's 34 provinces.

Rival pair Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno won the remainder.

The real count was widely expected to only be finalized on the May 22 deadline.

Jokowi-Ma'ruf also received most of the votes at polling stations abroad.

Any further objections to the election result must now be filed in the Constitutional Court.

Of the 154.26 million valid votes that were cast, 55.5 percent were in favor of Jokowi-Ma'ruf.

However, the KPU's website had not been updated by Monday night and still showed progress in the real count at 91.86 percent, with 55.51 percent of the vote in favor of Jokowi-Ma'ruf.

Indonesia held its first simultaneous presidential and legislative elections on April 17.

"We will finalize documents in the total tabulation from 34 provinces and overseas polling stations to complete the process," KPU chief commissioner Arief Budiman said early Tuesday morning.

Jokowi-Ma'ruf won in Gorontalo, Central Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Bangka Belitung, Bali, West Sulawesi, Yogyakarta, East Kalimantan, Lampung, North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, East Java, East Nusa Tenggara, Central Java, Riau Islands, West Papua, Jakarta, North Sumatra, Maluku and Papua.

Prabowo-Sandiaga won in Bengkulu, South Kalimantan, North Maluku, Jambi, South Sumatra, Banten, Southeast Sulawesi, Aceh, West Nusa Tenggara, West Sumatra, West Java, Riau and South Sulawesi.

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https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/05/article/to-pacify-trump-indonesia-seeks-american-arms/

2) To pacify Trump, Indonesia seeks American arms

ByJOHN MCBETH, JAKARTA

Jakarta is weighing big-ticket US weapons purchases to rebalance trade relations and maintain privileged access to US markets

Indonesia is quietly talking to the United States about the purchase of 32 new Lockheed Martin F-16 Viper jets and six C-130J cargo aircraft in what may partly be an effort to remove the country from any possible sanctions as the US-China trade 

war returns to a boil.

Well-placed Washington sources speculate that the Indonesians are seeking to protect their Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) access, as well as to ward off possible US congressional retaliation against friendly countries that have recently

 purchased Russian military hardware. Indonesia does not appear to be prominent on US President Donald Trump’s radar. But a US$12.6 billion bilateral trade imbalance and a rising trend of protectionism in Washington could change that, despite 

Indonesia just reporting its largest monthly trade deficit since 2013. Two-way US-Indonesia trade last year hit $28.2 billion, a 7% increase over the previous year, with Indonesian exports outweighing US imports by $20.8 billion to $8.2 billion. 

Those flows only slightly closed the US’ deficit gap compared to 2017. During a visit that year, US Vice President Mike Pence made it clear to President Joko Widodo that he had to do a lot more to “level the playing field and break down barriers” to ensure US exporters can fully participate in the Indonesian market.

While there is no timeline, Indonesia received another reminder of what is at stake with a visit last week by Bart Thanhauser, US Trade Representative Office director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. His visit was part of an ongoing year-long 

GSP eligibility review related to Indonesia’s presence on a list of 16 trading partners with which the US has big trade deficits.

“I don’t think Indonesia is more on the radar than anyone else,” says one executive familiar with the talks. “I don’t think Trump actually knows where Indonesia is. But the State Department is certainly putting more emphasis on private sector trade 

and investment and overall economic growth.”  “There are large differences in how regulations are written and applied,” says one US government commercial guide. “Domestic interests often take advantage of the non-transparency of the legal 

and judicial systems to undermine regulations to the detriment of foreign partners.” Indonesia’s protectionism has always been a sticking point. But while the resolution of the ownership battle over Phoenix-based Freeport McMoRan Copper and 

Gold’s Grasberg mine in Papua province has taken at least one irritant off the table, it has since been replaced by the de facto nationalization of the oil and gas industry. State-owned oil company Pertamina took over the Mahakam block, the country’s second largest gas field, from French giant Total in 2017 and now has plans to assume control of Chevron’s 200,000-barrel-a-day Rokan oilfield in 2021, in addition to many other smaller producing blocks. Overall, Trump and his advisers won’t find many US manufacturers have moved significant jobs and operations to Indonesia, which is still struggling to rationalize its nationalist economic policies with a desire for more foreign investment to revitalize its faltering manufacturing base. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and other key figures in the Widodo administration clearly understand the contradiction, but it will take a dramatic change of policy direction by the president for foreign investors to start taking notice.

The latest target of Trump’s ire, blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei, has made major inroads into the Indonesian market over the past eight years, supplying low-cost equipment to state-run Telkomsel and most of the other mobile phone providers. 

Industry sources say that has been accomplished through generous financial packages, targeted inducements and the company’s proclivity for agreeing to most of the terms of a contract, including often rigid service performance indicators. Indonesia 

is still five years away from making the transition to 5G, with government regulators wisely delaying the issuance of spectrum until they are satisfied existing 3G and 4G networks have been brought up to an acceptable standard. That will also save the 

government from having to make any difficult decisions that could rile the US or China. On the military front, it is still not clear whether Indonesia’s plans to buy 11 advanced Su-35 FlankerE multi-role fighters from Russia will run into the Countering 

America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which penalizes procurers of Russian military systems. The air force has said it will have no option but to terminate the deal if US sanctions are enforced, but as a spokesman has noted: 

“We need to operate a combination of East-made and West-made fighters. Politics is uncertain, and we need balance because if we have problems with the West, we can use aircraft made in the East.” Ironically, the Indonesian military only went 

shopping in Russia in the early 2000s because of a US arms embargo which began with the Dili, East Timor, churchyard massacre by Indonesian troops in 1991 and was only strengthened following East Timor’s bloody separation from Indonesia 

eight years later. Although Indonesia already has a squadron of twin-engine Sukhoi Su-27/30 jets, the subsequent lifting of the embargo has seen the delivery in the last two years of 24 refurbished US-made F-16s and eight Boeing AH-64E Apache 

attack helicopters worth an estimated $1.4 billion. Indonesia’s intended purchases, including the $1.1 billion Su-35 deal, fit with an ambitious air force modernization plan, announced in June 2018, to bring its force level up to eight fighter squadrons 

and six refreshed transport squadrons by 2024. It currently has six fighter squadrons spread across Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, with an inventory that includes 25 F-16C/Ds, 16 Su-27/30s and 24 British Aerospace BAE Hawk 200s. Government sources say the C-130 workhorses are a higher priority than the costly, state-of-the-art Vipers because of the steady depletion of its current 18-strong fleet, invaluable in flying troops and relief supplies to remote parts of the archipelago. Apart from its normal transport role, the Super Hercules C-130 can also be quickly configured for prolonged maritime surveillance duties with belly-mounted radar and roll-on, roll-off sensor stations in place of cargo.

The Indonesians have yet to publicly announce their interest in the F-16V, which was first demonstrated at the Singapore Air Show in 2012 and only went into service with Taiwan’s Air Force this year. Developed to inter-operate with Lockheed’s 

fifth-generation F-35 and F-22 fighters, the latest F-16 variant can be deployed against enemy air defenses and also in air-to-air, air-to-ground and deep interdiction and maritime missions. US analysts advise Indonesia to continue conducting business 

as usual and say there is no need for Jakarta to make any major announcements on military procurements or highlight joint military exercises or other unilateral endeavors. High-level US visits in the recent past by Pence and then Defense Secretary James Mattis 

went a long way, they say, to establishing Indonesia’s value to the US as a democracy of strategic importance. But whether that assessment extends to the mercurial and unpredictable Trump is a different matter.

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https://en.antaranews.com/news/125823/papua-govt-urged-to-follow-up-on-convicted-civil-servant-dismissal

3) Papua gov't urged to follow up on convicted civil servant dismissal

4 hours ago

Jayapura (ANTARA) - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) encourages the Provincial government of Papua to follow up on the imposition of disrespectful dismissal on the state civil servants who have been sentenced based on a court decision that has permanent legal force for committing criminal offenses  related with their positions.

KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah told Antara here on Monday that based upon available data, only 12 local governments had submitted the imposition of sanctions.

"This was carried out as a follow-up to the joint decree of the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister of Administrative Reforms and Bureaucratic Reforms, and Head of the National Civil Service Agency (BKN)," he said.

Previously, the Assistant for General Affairs of the Regional Secretariat of Papua, Elysa Auri, said that the Papua Provincial government claimed 10 state civil servants  in the local area were involved in corruption cases and 

would be dealt with immediately.

"In Papua, 146 state civil servants have been involved in corruption cases and 10 of them are listed as employees at the provincial level," she said.

According to Elysa, 10 of these employees were under the authority of the Governor of Papua as personnel promotion officials who carried out the processes and mechanisms according to regulations.

"We have prepared the required files, just sign," she said.

The Head of the Regional Civil Service Agency (BKN) of the Papua Civil Service Agency, Paulus Dwi Laksono, said that out of 146 state civil servants in his region involved in corruption cases, only 29 were officially dismissed 

and one was set free.

Reporter: Eliswan Azly
Editor: Bambang Purwanto
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In Indonesia, a flawed certification scheme lets illegal loggers raze away

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/in-indonesia-a-flawed-certification-scheme-lets-illegal-loggers-raze-away/

Mongabay Series: Indonesian Forests

In Indonesia, a flawed certification scheme lets illegal loggers raze away

by Hans Nicholas Jong on 16 May 2019

• he seizure of more than 400 containers of illegally logged timber in a series of busts since last December has shone a spotlight on Indonesia’s mechanism for certifying legal timber.
• Some of the wood has been traced back to companies certified under the country’s SVLK scheme. That’s the same scheme that the EU relies on to ensure that its imports of Indonesian timber are legally harvested.
• The seizures and findings by activists highlight increased illegal logging in the relatively pristine eastern Indonesian regions of Maluku and Papua.
• Companies engaged in illegal logging exploit a variety of methods, from cutting in abandoned concessions to using farmers’ groups and indigenous communities as fronts for harvesting in areas that would otherwise be off-limits for commercial logging.

JAKARTA — A massive series of seizures of timber from rare tree species has thrown into question the effectiveness of Indonesia’s existing mechanisms to tackle illegal logging.

Officials have in recent months confiscated 422 containers packed with illegally harvested timber from the eastern regions of Papua and Maluku. The latest seizure, in February, comprised 38 containers filled with highly prized merbau, also known as Borneo teak and Moluccan ironwood, from the Aru Islands of Maluku province.

Prior to that, officials seized 384 containers loaded with timber from Papua worth an estimated 105 billion rupiah ($7.2 million) in four separate sting operations since last December.

None of the shipments carried valid documentation, said Rasio Ridho Sani, the head of law enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which coordinated the seizures.

“This brings the total number of containers we’ve seized to 422. This is a huge number,” Rasio told reporters in Jakarta.

Illegal logging cost Indonesia 170 trillion rupiah ($11.7 billion) between 2004 and 2010, according to a study by the NGO Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW). Historically the illegal timber trade has targeted the precious hardwoods of Borneo, Sumatra and Java, in particular teak. But as the forest cover on those islands fast diminishes, illegal loggers are increasingly turning to the less-developed eastern regions of Maluku and Papua.

Mufti Barri, a campaign manager with the NGO Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI), says the recent seizures signal an increasing trend of illegal logging in those regions.

“Illegal logging in Papua and Maluku isn’t something new. In North Maluku, illegal timber has been sent out of the islands since 2014,” he told Mongabay. “But in terms of quantity, there’s indeed been an increase in the past few months.”

Rasio confirmed a similar trend out of Papua. “We handled around 21 cases [of illegal logging] in Papua in the past three years, but they were small in terms of quantity, usually just three to four containers at a time,” he said. “The recent ones were big.”

Working with prosecutors, the ministry has charged at least 21 individuals from various companies in connection with the illegally logged timber.

Forest in West Papua. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay

Certification shortcomings

These cases provide strong evidence that Indonesia’s timber legality certification system, or SVLK, approved for timber exports to the European Union, isn’t working, says Syahrul Fitra, a legal researcher with the environmental NGO Auriga Nusantara.

The SVLK system aims to track the chain of custody of timber products and ensure that timber is harvested in compliance with Indonesian law. Introduced a decade ago, it’s been criticized for its apparent shortcomings since then. In 2013, Auriga and a coalition of forestry NGOs identified what they said were a host of loopholes in the certification system.

“We found some industrial plantation companies in Riau [province, in Sumatra] which were implicated in corruption to be certified [under the SVLK system],” Syahrul said. “There were also problematic companies in West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan [in Indonesian Borneo] which got certification. That means their timber is perceived as legal.”

Since then, the NGOs have been pushing for the government to improve the system to prevent illegal logging.

When the EU approved of the SVLK in 2016 as the basis for importing timber into its market, after years of intense negotiation, the NGOs monitoring the implementation of the scheme expressed hope that there would be an improvement in the system.

“But to date, the system has never been revised,” Syahrul said. “And the loopholes are huge. Illegal logging keeps happening and there’s no change at all. Maybe now the SVLK system is perceived to be more stringent because it has already been approved by the EU, but in reality there’s no change.”

One of the loopholes is the lack of what’s known as chain of custody verification. This means that sawmills that are SVLK certified aren’t required to source their timber exclusively from similarly certified logging concessions.

This allows ostensibly certified companies to essentially launder products from uncertified operations through their certified concessions, making it likely that illegally logged wood is being shipped abroad as legal exports.

An official in the environment ministry’s sustainable forest product department said separately that his office had found evidence of this loophole being exploited by at least three logging companies.

Farming out certificates

Auriga’s Syahrul also questioned the credibility of the certification agencies responsible for issuing SVLK certificates to timber companies. He said investigations by Auriga and other NGOs between October 2017 and December 2018 had found timber firms involved in illegal logging were still being certified.

In March this year, Auriga reported five such timber companies operating in the Papua region; two of them were among those whose shipments were caught up in the recent seizures. Even so, their SVLK certification hasn’t been revoked, according to Syahrul.

He said the fact that such companies continued to be certified despite all the evidence of their illegal activity pointed to a serious flaw in the way the certification agencies worked. He cited the case of PT Ayamaru Sertifikasi, a company that was ordered in January by the environment ministry to carry out an audit of 15 certificates it had issued to eight logging companies.

Some of the audited companies, such as PT Sijax Express Unit 2, were found to be repeat offenders, Syahrul said. Sijax was previously audited by Ayamaru after a coalition of NGOs found indications that the company had received illegally logged timber. Based on findings of that earlier audit, Ayamaru froze Sijax’s certificate between January and March 2018. Following the freeze, Sijax applied for another certificate, which Ayamaru duly approved.

Sijax was later among the companies implicated in the recent seizures of illegal timber.

“That means that when the company was reassessed [by Ayamaru], no improvement had been made on the ground,” Syahrul said. “So the reassessment wasn’t comprehensive because the illegal practice was repeated. So how does Ayamaru certify companies? How did something like this go undetected? It’s obvious that the quality of the certification agencies is subpar.”

After Ayamaru audited the 15 certificates as ordered by the ministry, it suspended 14 of them.

Syahrul said that in many of the cases, the SVLK certificates should have been revoked outright. With a simple suspension, the logging companies can reapply indefinitely for another certificate. Some continue to operate regardless of their certificates being operating even though their certificates have been frozen.

“That’s one of the weaknesses of the SVLK system,” Syahrul said, adding that the certification agencies were paid by the companies to certify them, effectively making them beholden to issuing the SVLK papers.

He also said the certification process was flawed because it only checked for the validity and completeness of companies’ documents, instead of being an actual verification of the timber processed by the applicant company.

“These agencies only certify the companies, not the product,” Syahrul said.

Limestone mountains in Papua. Photo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Farmers as a front

The blind spot in monitoring the legality of Indonesia’s timber is in that initial stage of logging, says Mufti of Forest Watch Indonesia.

“Most of the logs coming out of Maluku are disguised as timber owned by locals,” he said. “But in reality, there are cukong [brokers] behind them.”

The trend emerging in Maluku is of these well-connected brokers using farmers as a front to log trees outside designated forest areas.

Under Indonesian law, commercial logging is only permitted on land designated as forest area. But not all forest area holds sufficient tree cover to make logging commercially feasible, while plenty of non-forest areas contain large numbers of commercially valuable timber trees — the case for much of the Malukus.

Logging in non-forest areas is allowed for individuals under what’s known as a timber utilization permit, or IPK.

“A lot of timber outside forest areas in Maluku is extracted using the IPK permit scheme,” Mufti said.

Businesses looking to log such areas on a large scale typically put together a farmers’ association, which is then entitled to apply for an IPK. Mufti said such associations were merely fronts, with the farmers not benefiting from the scheme.

“If these businesses apply for the permit under their own names, there will be resistance from the locals,” he said. “That’s why they hide behind the farmers’ groups. They also enjoy lower taxes.”

Mufti said it was unlikely the farmers would establish their own groups to apply for permits without a business pulling the strings.

“There’s no way these farmers could draw up the timber utilization maps” needed to apply for the permit, he said. “When we did some digging, we found that all of the administrative work is done by the businesses behind these farmers.”

Activists have even unearthed a case in North Maluku where a farmers’ group was established on the basis of falsified signatures, according to Mufti. He added the activists had reported the matter to the local police.

The Aru Islands in eastern Indonesia. Image by M.Minderhoud/Wikimedia Commons.

Irregular origins

Another ploy commonly used by loggers in Papua is to exploit abandoned logging concessions. A lot of timber continues to be generated from concessions that have been neglected by their permit holders for years, according to Auriga’s Syahrul.

There were at least 56,000 square kilometers (21,600 square miles) of selective logging concessions in the Papua region in 2017, according to environment ministry data. A seventh of that area is classed as inactive.

Syahrul said no one was really monitoring these concessions, and that as a result, companies were going in and logging there. He said these companies typically paid off local communities to cover for the logged wood until it could be taken to a sawmill.

“So if there’s a security checkpoint on the road, these indigenous peoples will say that the timber is theirs,” Syahrul said, adding that they were typically paid about $10 per cubic meter (30 cents per cubic foot) of merbau.

The market price for merbau timber is between $200 and $350 per cubic meter, or $5.70 to $10 per cubic foot.

Illegal logs in Papua also come from customary forests managed by indigenous communities. An investigative report by the Indonesian magazine Tempo found a steady stream of logs going from one such forest, in Angkasa Dua village, to the timber company PT Mansiman Global Mandiri (MGM) in 2018.

This flow of wood wasn’t recorded in an official document called the Industrial Material Fulfillment Plan (RPBBI), a part of the SVLK system that’s supposed to identify timber sourced from natural forests. Instead, the document stated only that MGM got the wood from another company, PT Hanurata Unit Jayapura.

Asked by Tempo about the findings, MGM director Daniel Garden acknowledged that his company sourced its timber from Angkasa Dua’s customary forest. He said there wasn’t enough timber from commercial logging concessions in Papua to meet demand from Java, which was why he bought timber from local communities.

“Other companies also [do] the same [thing], taking timber from locals,” he told Tempo.

“Did we steal anything? We paid the porters. We also paid [for other things] during the transportation. We didn’t harm anyone. If [the government] wants to catch [me], then all have to be arrested as well.”

Daniel was among the 21 people charged by the environment ministry in connection with the recent timber seizures. He was one of four suspects who sought to have the charges dismissed in a pretrial motion that was ultimately quashed.

Syahrul said this boded well for the anticipated spate of trials. “The ministry won the pretrial motions, so they have a pretty solid case,” he said. He added it was important that the ministry prosecute each suspect to the fullest extent of the law.

A jungle river in Indonesian Papua. Image by Rhett A. Butler.

Shoring up the system

Simply confiscating shipments of illegally logged timber isn’t a solution unless the government addresses the root causes of illegal logging, activists say.

Concessions in places like Papua need to be closely monitored, and if they were found to be abandoned, the permits revoked immediately to prevent logging taking place under the radar, Syahrul said.

“The government has to make sure that the logging concessions are truly operated [by the permit holders] and monitor them strictly,” he said. “And if there are inactive concessions, then the government should revoke the permits. If not, then cases like this will repeat.”

He also called on the government to provide access to local communities in Papua to selectively log trees in their surrounding forests in a sustainable manner. He said this would make them less likely to be exploited by illegal logging companies while at the same time improve their livelihood.

“That’s the ideal solution,” Syahrul said. “A logging concession managed by indigenous communities means that it’s clear who’s managing the forest. On top of that, the indigenous people will protect the forest as well, they won’t cut down trees carelessly.”

A scheme that allows indigenous peoples in Papua to manage their forests as logging concessions is already in place, known as customary forest concessions. It was introduced by the local government in 2008, aimed at promoting the sustainable management of forests in Papua as well as the protection and management of natural resources by the region’s indigenous peoples.

To date, however, the Papua provincial government has issued just 18 permits for customary forest concessions, covering a combined 780 square kilometers (300 square miles) of forest. Applications for another four permits are being considered.

None of the indigenous communities that received a permit has been able to use it. The local government says they’ll have to wait until the national government, in this case the environment ministry, recognizes the scheme first. The ministry says guidelines need to be drawn up before the scheme can get up and running.

Another thing the government can do is address the weaknesses in the current SVLK system and improve the quality of certification agencies, Syahrul said. This includes the environment ministry conducting its own audits of timber firms suspected of involvement in illegal logging, and following up on audits carried out by certification agencies.

“The ministry could use the certification agencies’ findings as a basis for further audit or to freeze or revoke SVLK certificates,” Syahrul said.

He added there was also a need to hold certification agencies accountable for their work.

“What hasn’t been done is a verification of the certification agencies. How can they issue certificates when the sources of the timber are unclear, like the cases in Papua?” he said.

 

Banner image: A coast in Nechiebe village of Ravenirara district, Papua province. Photo by Christopel Paino/Mongabay-Indonesia.

Article published by Hans Nicholas Jong

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