The 'richest black nation': Papua New Guinea sets audacious goal

Yahoo – AFP, June 16, 2019

Violent crime and corruption are endemic in Papua New Guinea, reliable electricity
is rare, and population centres are isolated (AFP Photo/ARIS MESSINIS)

Papua New Guinea's new prime minister has an ambitious -- cynics would say far-fetched -- objective of turning one of the world's poorest countries into the "richest black nation" on earth in just a decade.

If national economies were like football teams, then Papua New Guinea would be near the bottom of the table struggling to avoid a relegation dogfight.

Violent crime and corruption are endemic, reliable electricity is rare, and population centres sit like isolated city-states, surrounded by trackless jungle and mountain ridges that soar into the equatorial sky.

As rich as Papua New Guinea is in culture, language and beauty, it is the 153rd most developed country in the world out of 189, according to the United Nations -- doing slightly better than Syria, marginally worse than Myanmar.

New prime minister James Marape wants to change that. He has promised that within ten years his compatriots will live in "the richest black Christian nation" in the world.

That is not going to be easy. The current titleholder is the highly industrialised economy of Trinidad and Tobago, where the average resident earns around 833% more than Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea is rich in culture, language and beauty, but is way down
the UN development rankings (AFP Photo/SAEED KHAN)

If the British territory of Bermuda were also included in the rankings, the task would be even more daunting.

Papua New Guinea's economy would have to grow at a world-beating rate of around 30 percent per year, every year for the next ten years just to catch up.

"PNG has never experienced 30 per cent growth in the past; nor has any other country for that matter, at least not for any sustained period of time," said Maholopa Laveil, a lecturer in economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.

To reach his lofty goal, Marape appears to be betting on a surge in gas revenues and more of that cash staying in the country.

He has hinted that he may look to renegotiate a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract with Total and ExxonMobil that would double national production to better benefit the local economy.

He has also promised to stop the export of unprocessed hardwoods and tackle corruption.

But the strategy comes with risks.

New prime minister James Marape has hinted he may look to renegotiate a massive
LNG contract with Total and ExxonMobil (AFP Photo/SAEED KHAN)

Dashed expectations

The World Bank has warned that even before a second LNG project comes online, the economy has "become increasingly concentrated in petroleum and gas-related activities".

That, the bank warned, raises Papua New Guinea's vulnerability to the vagaries of international energy markets and natural disasters -- like the 7.5 magnitude quake that froze production and stalled the economy in 2018.

Even the country's existing PNG LNG project -- which started to flow in 2014 -- has failed to live up to expectations.

It required a controversial public loan worth more than a billion Australian dollars ($700 million) and helped national debt spike.

The project was forecast to increase GDP by over 97 percent, but according to Paul Flanagan -- a former Australian government official who runs the influential PNG Economics blog -- the increase has been closer to six percent.

The World Bank has warned PNG's vulnerability to earthquakes is increasing along 

with its reliance on petrol and gas (AFP Photo/Melvin LEVONGO)

"Overall, the PNG LNG project massively over-promised and then failed to deliver," one of his recent blog posts read. "For household disposable income, the prediction was an 84 percent improvement. The outcome is a decline of 9 percent."

Flanagan believes that regardless of any energy boom, Marape -- a former finance minister -- will need to undertake difficult currency and trade reforms if the country has any hope of growing sustainably.

"Time will tell if the new government will tackle such difficult political economy challenges, challenges that must be addressed to make PNG a much richer black Christian nation," he said.

Govt Recognizes Communal Rights of Nine Local Indigenous Communities in Papua

Jakarta Globe, Yeremia Sukoyo, June 24, 2016

Nine communities were noted in the address. (Antara Photo/Andika Wahyu)

Jakarta. Minister of Land and Spatial Planning Ferry Mursyidan Baldan has declared the government's recognition of communal rights of nine indigenous communities in Papua.

The declaration was held at the closing of the 9th Sentani Lake Festival at the province’s Khalkhote region in East Sentani on Thursday (23/06).

“We want to affirm how Jayapura becomes the living space for indigenous communities. No more actions against the living and cultural spaces of indigenous communities,” Ferry said.

The state has supported available space for Papua's indigenous communities so no more people are evicted or forced from their native land, Ferry said.

“On behalf of the country, we affirm that in all Papuan regions, the entire space, mountain, beaches and others are owned by Papua’s indigenous communities. Whoever wishes to take benefits, to develop, should recognize the presence of indigenous communities within."

“There should no longer be the elimination of indigenous communities rights,” Ferry said.

Daniel Toto, head of Jayapura's indigenous communities, has called on the central government to strengthen the practical presence of indigenous communities.

Tiny village becomes Indonesian anti-smoking champion

Yahoo – AFP, Andi Cora Uleng, With Dessy Sagita in Jakarta, 11 March 2016

Bone-Bone village looks like any other rural hamlet in Indonesia, but it is an unlikely

 champion in the fight against smoking in one of the world's most tobacco-addicted 

countries (AFP Photo/Cening Unru)

Bone-Bone (Indonesia) (AFP) - Nestled amid mountains in remote central Indonesia, Bone-Bone looks like any other rural hamlet in the archipelago, with a modest collection of houses, shops and mosques and people quietly going about their daily lives.

But it is an unlikely champion in the fight against smoking in one of the world's most tobacco-addicted countries, after it became the first village in Indonesia to impose a total ban on smoking.

"Thank you for not smoking, say no to cigarettes" reads a sign at the entrance to the settlement to Sulawesi, one of the archipelago's main islands, while another says "Please enjoy the scenery and fresh air in our village".

Children play football in Bone-Bone, the
first village in Indonesia that has imposed
a total ban on smoking (AFP Photo/
Cening Unru)

The move has inspired other villages around the country to follow suit and take the law into their own hands as the central government shows little sign of launching a determined, nationwide fight against tobacco.

Such bans are just a small step in a country where 30 percent of the adult population are smokers, and more than 200,000 die every year due to tobacco-related illnesses, according to public health experts in Indonesia.

More than two thirds of adult males in Indonesia use tobacco, the highest rate in the world, according to the World Health Organisation's Global Adult Tobacco Survey, although far fewer women smoke.

In recent decades, many countries in the developed world have launched campaigns to cut tobacco use, ramped up prices, restricted cigarette advertising and banned smoking in public places, leading to sharp falls in smoking rates.

While Indonesia is not alone among developing countries in lagging behind in efforts to tackle tobacco use, even by regional standards it fares poorly.

Tobacco adverts remain highly visible around Indonesia, on billboards and posters, it is the only country in Southeast Asia that still allows cigarette advertising on television, and the only one in the Asia-Pacific region not to have ratified a key UN treaty on tobacco control.

The domestic tobacco industry remains hugely lucrative and powerful, and it is common to see children smoking a sweet-tasting clove cigarette -- an extremely popular Indonesian speciality, which dominates the local market.

Village head Abdul Wahid stand next to an anti-smoking campaign poster that 
reads "Cigarettes are a killer" and "You the one who smoke, we the one who 
die" at his house in Bone-Bone village (AFP Photo/Cening Unru)

'I can save money'

But in Bone-Bone, it is a different story. Smoking has almost entirely disappeared among the population of around 800 inhabitants since the ban came into force a decade ago.

Rather than worries about villagers contracting cancer, economic concerns were what prompted then village head, Muhammad Idris, to implement the ban through a local bylaw.

He said that many poor families in the area could not afford to send their children to school because their fathers were spending too much on smoking, and the youngsters themselves got addicted to the costly habit at a young age.

While cigarettes are cheap by international standards in Indonesia -- with a packet of a local brand costing around the equivalent of a dollar -- a heavy habit can strongly impact the finances of poor families with meagre incomes.

"I went to college with 13 other students from this village, only six graduated, the rest dropped out because they spent their tuition money on cigarettes," Idris told AFP.

The ban was implemented in stages. In 2000, local authorities prohibited the sale of cigarettes in Bone-Bone, smoking in public places was forbidden from 2003, and then a full ban on both smoking and selling tobacco products -- for residents and visitors -- came into force in 2006.

A family works at a house in Bone-Bone village in Enrekang, South Sulawesi (AFP

Photo/Cening Unru)

Punishments for those caught breaking the rules include community service, such as cleaning up mosques in the staunchly Muslim village and their neighbourhood, while some have even been forced to issue a public apology to the entire village through a loudspeaker.

Amir, a blacksmith and father of nine in Bone-Bone, was forced to end his 40-a-day habit by the ban, but has found himself much better off.

"I can save money, I can buy what my family needs and -- most importantly -- I can pay for my children's education," said Amir, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

About 10 villages across the country have followed Bone-Bone's example by imposing a smoking ban, a move made possible by the heavy decentralisation of power introduced in the archipelago after the end of authoritarian rule in 1998.

Government backsliding

But the numbers of people affected out of a population of 250 million remain tiny, there is little sign of an effective, national strategy to tackle the problem, while activists accuse the government of backsliding in the fight against tobacco.

In August, the industry ministry set a target for domestic producers to produce around 130 billion cigarettes a year over the coming four years, around fifty percent higher than the previous four-year target.

In 2000, local authorities prohibited the sale of cigarettes in Bone-Bone, smoking

 in public places was forbidden from 2003, and then a full ban on both smoking and

selling tobacco products came into force in 2006 (AFP Photo/Cening Unru)

"The government want our people to smoke as many cigarettes as possible," said prominent tobacco control activist Kartono Muhammad.

Indonesia's health ministry has produced a roadmap to fight smoking but officials admit implementation has been poor, with a lack of coordination between different branches of the notoriously bloated and ineffective bureaucracy undermining efforts.

In the face of growing evidence that smoking is affecting Indonesians' health and making them poor, the tobacco industry remains defiant.

Ismanu Sumiran, chairman of the association of Indonesian cigarette producers, most of whose members produce clove cigarettes, insisted smoking rates were falling and that "kretek" cigarettes are part of local culture.

"Even before this country was formed, kreteks already existed and were used in traditional ceremonies," he told AFP.

End Death Penalty, Adopt Anti-Drug Policies That Work, Experts Tell Jokowi

Jakarta Globe, Jun 05, 2015

Flowers are placed outside the Indonesian consulate in Sydney on April 29,
 following the execution of two Australian drug convicts Andrew Chan and Myuran
 Sukumaran in Indonesia. Indonesia executed seven foreign drug convicts
 including two Australians by firing squad on April 29, causing Canberra to
withdraw its ambassador over the 'cruel' punishment. (AFP Photo/Saeed Khan)

Jakarta. Prominent academics and experts have called on the Indonesian government to end the death penalty for drug offenses and commit to proven public health approaches to address drug use.

In an open letter to President Joko Widodo published in the June 6 edition of the British health journal The Lancet, the group called for the discontinuation of “strategies which have been found to be counterproductive such as involuntary rehabilitation and the death penalty.”

“A close examination of the nature and extent of drug use in Indonesia reveals substantial gaps in knowledge and a scarcity of evidence to support forced rehabilitation and the punitive, law enforcement-led approach favored by the government,” the letter said.

“The Indonesian government has shown increased commitment to addressing drug use and guaranteeing the well-being of its citizens, but in order to achieve this it must choose public health and harm reduction strategies,” Prof. Dr. Irwanto of the HIV and AIDS Research Center at Jakarta’s Atma Jaya University and a veteran drug and HIV researcher, one of the signatories of the letter, said in a statement.

“The current drug war approach has been a proven failure around the globe, even causing more harm than good,” he added.

Dr. Ignatius Praptoraharjo, a researcher at the Center for Health Policy and Management at the School of Medicine at Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University, said the government had sidelined effective approaches to drug use in favor of a more punitive stance.

“We know what works: we already have the evidence and have been implementing health-focused programs that work in Indonesia since the early 2000s,” he said. “We have an ethical obligation to provide our citizens with options that save lives, such as needle syringe programs, opioid substitution therapy and community-based, voluntary drug treatment.

“But despite the proven success of these interventions, political commitment and funds are lacking, and current punitive strategies in Indonesia do not provide enough space for meaningful health programs. Our limited funds are instead being used to bolster fear-based approaches, which effectively drive people in need further away from health programs,” Ignatius said.

The letter said there was “evidence that criminalization of people who use drugs and punitive law-enforcement approaches have failed to reduce the prevalence of drug use and are fueling the HIV epidemic.”

The group also raised “serious concerns about the validity” of the figures for drug use and drug-related deaths frequently cited by the president and other officials to justify their hard-line approach to anti-narcotics enforcement, and urged the president to invest in more accurate data collection.

The group said it was concerned that the government was using the estimates as the basis for national policies without providing sufficient opportunity for independent peer review.

“Obtaining valid estimates of drug use is not an easy, straightforward process, yet we need to make sure that national policies are based on evidence that is thoroughly peer-reviewed and transparent,” Atma Jaya’s Irwanto said. “Each human life matters. Productive human lives may be compromised by misguided policies.”

Dr. Kemal Siregar, the secretary general of the National AIDS Commission, warned that drug users faced increasing stigma, discrimination and human rights violations as punitive drug control measures trumped public health.

“HIV infections will continue to rise as long as drug users continue to live in fear of arrest or placement in involuntary rehabilitation,” he said.

The signatories to the open letter, ranging from public health experts and researchers, to theologists and human rights activists, argued in favor of establishing an independent, multi-sectoral committee on drug use comprising relevant government agencies, ministries, researchers, service providers and community leaders tasked with reviewing available drug-related data, setting priorities, recommending evidence-informed actions and monitoring progress.

“As people who use drugs, we have seen and experienced for ourselves that repressive and punitive approaches have exacerbated drug-related deaths and harms such as HIV and hepatitis C transmission,” said Edo Agustian, the national coordinator of the Indonesian Drug Users Network.

“We urge the government to work together with drug-using communities, academics and other stakeholders to build a more effective response before any more lives are lost,” he said.

Further coverage

Editorial: Deal With the Drug Issue the Right Way

Related Article:

Indonesia,Netherlands Organize Harm Reduction Talks at UNODC

Joko Heads to Papua to Kick Off Slate of Developments

Jakarta Globe, Roberth Vanwi, May 03, 2015

President Joko Widodo will visit Papua and West Papua next weekend for
the second time since taking office. (Antara Photo/Prasetyo Utomo)

Jayapura. President Joko Widodo is slated to make a second visit to the restive provinces of Papua and West Papua next weekend to launch several development projects.

Joko will be in the region for four days. The upcoming visit will be the second since he took office last October, following his tour of Papua in December in conjunction with Christmas celebrations.

“The president is slated to arrive in Papua on May 8,” said Brig. Gen. Supartogi, the chief of the military command in Merauke district, one of the places that Joko will visit in Papua.

He added that Joko would tour Indonesia’s easternmost provinces after a visit to Ambon, the capital of the nearby Maluku islands province.

As part of his Papuan tour, the president will visit two traditional markets in Jayapura, including Pasar Prahara in Sentani, which he also visited in December and which is currently undergoing a revamp. He said then that he wanted to support traditional markets.

In Jayapura, Joko is also slated to launch the construction of a bridge and facilities for the 2020 National Games, or PON, which will be held in Papua.

He will also attend the opening of a new public administration school in the provincial capital.

In Merauke, Joko will join a harvest festival and will depart for West Papua’s capital, Manokwari, later the same day, May 10, to launch the construction of a petrochemical factory and a power plant.

On the fourth day, Joko will be in Sorong to kick off the installation of fiber optic cables by state-owned telecommunications firm Telkom and to inaugurate Sorong’s new status as a National Strategic Tourism Zone.

Sorong is best known as the main departure point for visitors to the Raja Ampat islands, an increasingly popular and upmarket diving destination for international tourists.

Joko is scheduled to fly back to Jakarta on May 11.

In Mataram Declaration, Belated Recognition of Indigenous Rights

Jakarta Globe, Kennial Caroline Laia,  Apr 23, 2015

The government is finally getting serious about recognizing Indigenous
groups’ forest rights. (Antara Photo/Ahmad Subaidi)

Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara. Proponents of the rights of indigenous groups have hailed a pledge by the Indonesian government to do more to recognize their stewardship of forests, seen as crucial in efforts to stave off deforestation.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar made the so-called Mataram Declaration last weekend in a belated response to a May 2013 Constitutional Court ruling relinquishing the state’s default claims to forested areas settled and used by indigenous groups.

“Long before this, civil society organizations and local communities were struggling for the recognition and protection of customary land,” said Abetnego Tarigan, the executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, or Walhi. “Now the government has shown good faith, and we really appreciate it.”

He said the central and local governments often violated indigenous people’s land rights because the latter lacked title deeds to their land. In many cases, he noted, the people were disenfranchised of their rights, and their land given over to logging, plantation or mining operators.

“There are a few policies that regulate the rights of local communities to the land, such as the 2012 law on customary forests, but they don’t cover the recognition of people’s customary territory, so we need another framework to guarantee it,” Abetnego said. “This declaration should really be a form of political will for all stakeholders to push the recognition and protection of customary forests managed by the people.”

Civic-centered development

At the signing of the declaration on Saturday in Mataram, in West Nusa Tenggara province, Siti said the government and other stakeholders were committed to expediting the process to craft policies that improved the welfare and protection of local communities and conserved the environment.

“These policies are really important,” she said. “President Joko Widodo’s government has indicated that the citizenship concept is a democratic one, in which we seek to bring welfare to the people.”

She said the government was making efforts to involve people, especially indigenous groups, in environmental protection.

“Here, our development must be civic-centered,” Siti said. “This issue has been echoed by the people and environmental organizations, and now the government is listening.”

Under Joko’s 2015-2019 National Mid-Term Development Plan, the administration plans to designate 12.5 million hectares of land for “social forestry,” in which indigenous groups and local communities will commit to sustainable forestry practices, and nine million hectares for agriculture.

“These [social] forests can be developed as community forests, village forests and customary forests,” Siti said, adding that the agricultural land, to be staked out from former logging concessions, would go primarily to subsistence farmers.

Collaborative effort

Siti said it was important for all stakeholders — the central government, regional administrations, civil society organizations and local communities — to work closely together.

“The policy is ready to go, but we can’t do it alone. We need help from other stakeholders to cooperate. For example, I hope the Home Affairs Ministry will help us identify indigenous communities and their problems to ensure that all land is distributed rightly and fairly,” she said.

“We also need civil society organizations to work with the people on mediation, community building and others. Access to welfare for all Indonesians is our responsibility.”

Zudan Arif Fakrulloh, an adviser to the Home Affairs Ministry, said the institution was open to cooperating with the other stakeholders.

“But the identification process isn’t easy. There are a few requirements to meet before we can definitively say that a given community is an indigenous one,” he said. “The process must be really selective. And this is the task of regional leaders.”

Zudan said that for a forest community to qualify, it would have to show some kind of environmentally sustainable practice in its interactions with the forest.

“Here we need experts and help from civil society organizations,” he said.

People first

Siti said the new policy, unlike previous ones, prioritized the role of people in economic development through the exploitation of forests and other natural resources.

“I believe the system will be no longer like the past, when government didn’t put the people at the front of its development plans. Now, we must use dialogue in our approach to developing the economy of this country,” Siti said.

West East Nusa’s Deputy Governor Muhammad Amin welcomed the declaration, but said further talks on the issue were still needed between the central government and regional administrations.

“We realize there hasn’t been a regional policy that recognizes the territorial rights of indigenous people. However, with this declaration, we hope that the people will receive greater consideration in the policy-making process,” he said. “Should the synergy run smoothly, we may be able to achieve an environment-oriented development framework.”

Yansen T.P., the head of Malinau district in North Kalimantan, who was among the more than 30 regional heads attending the Mataram Declaration, said an increasing number of regions across the country were beginning to prioritize land rights protections when crafting new policies.

“We’ve been done a lot for several years now to show our support for our environment,” he said. “We have vast areas of natural resources and considerable local wisdom. The forest we have is the forest we must hold on to. We understand that people depend on the forest and they will try to maintain it. But to do that, we in the regional government have to provide them with legal certainty.”

Yansen said he hoped that future investments would “take the side of the people.”

“We don’t need to exploit all of our natural resources right away. We have to think about our children, grandchildren and our future generations,” he said. “Hopefully the central government’s policy will accelerate the recognition of indigenous people’s right to the forest.”

Test cases

Adi Rozal, the head of Kerinci district in Sumatra’s Jambi province, said his administration had designated 12 swaths of forest as customary forests.

“Now we’re waiting for coordination from the central government to issue a policy that fully mandates the forests for use by the local community,” he said.

Mathius Awoitauw, the head of Jayapura district in Papua province, agreed that while the central government had a key role to play, it was local governments that would serve as the test cases for various frameworks on the issue.

“All we need to do to establish nationwide synergy is to hold regular dialogues to test how capable regional governments and people are in managing their forests. In addition, there should be a regulation that truly guarantees the rights of each region to map its own customary forests,” he said.

In prioritizing the rights of forest-dwelling communities, the government has switched from an earlier paradigm that served large corporations, said Chalil Muhammad, the chairman of the Association for Community and Ecology-Based Law Reform, or Perkumpulan HuMa.

“There’s a need to create a scheme to build rights coordination between the central government, regional governments and the people in an effort to prevent forests from rampant exploitation,” he said. “These stakeholders need to change their mind-set. We need to increase human resource capacity and fix existing forestry policies.”

Edited by Hayat Indriyatno

Indigenous Communities Embracing Ecotourism

Jakarta Globe, Ryan Dagur, Apr 06, 2015

In an effort to preserve their ancestral rainforests, indigenous settlements across
the archipelago are turning to eco-tourism initiatives driven by non-profit
organizations. (Ucanews.com Photos/Barmen Simatupang)

Sui Utik, West Kalimantan. When Lukas Alfario Surya Dewanto arrived at the remote Sui Utik hamlet deep in the forests of West Kalimantan last year, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

A student at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Lukas and his friends had little understanding of indigenous culture and life.

After two months of living with local families, however, Lukas has come to appreciate the unique site. The hamlet, which borders the northern part of Malaysia’s Sarawak state, is a stunning place: ancient trees and the forest canopy; birds, bears, snakes, and deer roam freely alongside fresh streams.

“We came here to feel how to live in the middle of ancestral forests and to get to know the local people that have protected the forests for years,” said the 23-year-old. “I want to go back there someday,” Lukas added.

Whether that is possible depends on the indigenous Dayak Iban’s ability to protect their sacred land. Already, Sui Utik is the only community in Kapuas Hulu district’s Batu Lintang village that hasn’t sold their trees or turned their land into palm oil plantations.

Instead, the villagers have banked on eco-tourism, hoping that by attracting students, locals and foreigners alike, they can convince the world of the importance of protecting their land.

Strong commitment

Over the past decade, a number of companies have come to the hamlet and surrounding areas to collect woods. With them, they brought Malaysian ringgits to lure the indigenous residents.

“We refused it. It was only the Sui Utik hamlet that rejected it. Almost all other communities living in other hamlets of the village as well as other villages accepted it,” said Raymundus Remang, 42, a community leader.

For the indigenous Dayak Iban living in Sui Utik, it has been a tradition that they only use about a third of their 9,500-hectares of ancestral forests for crop planting. They let the rest of the ancestral forests grow as they are — making it an appealing locale for loggers.

“Although we are told that we will be given money, we don’t want it,” he said.

Thanks to their strong commitment, massive trees such as gaharu or agar wood and ulin or Borneo ironwood can only be seen in Sui Utik.

Neighboring hamlets and villages only have few small trees. Worse, they are covered with palm oil plantations.

“We need money, indeed. But we don’t need to sell our ancestral forests. We love our ancestral forests so much,” Reymundus continued.

Unlike many of their neighbors, the villagers have held on to their traditional beliefs, including one that says destroying nature will only create a catastrophe.

“If any activity of illegal logging comes in, the existing order will vanish. We don’t want our next generation to see damaged nature because of their parents’ deeds,” Raymundus said. “We bring our children and grandchildren to our ancestral forests. We teach them how to protect our ancestral forests. We also tell them how important the effort is,” he added.

The community also calls on every member to plant trees starting as a young child. This has become an obligation. It’s hoped that this will allow for an ample supply of wood when they grow up and need to build houses.

For young indigenous men like Verdianus Muling, 23, such an obligation is never a burden.

“We will take care of our ancestral forests,” Verdianus said. “If we destroy our forests, we will have to face the impact,” Inam, 31, added.

Customary law

To protect the forest, indigenous villagers institute a complex traditional law — violations of which entail sanctions.

The customary law regulates, among other things, the correct time for planting trees, growing rice and cutting timber.

Traditionally, before cultivating their land between September and October, the Dayak Iban hold a ritual in which they slaughter a chicken to be given to so-called guardians of the land.

A similar ritual is held before cutting down trees, which includes the prayer: “Have mercy on us, we have to cut down trees as we need woods.”

Sanctions, meanwhile, depend on the gravity of the violation. If someone steals fruit from trees planted on a neighbor’s land, for example, he must give at least one sack of rice to the owner of the land.

A tribal leader is the one who decides the sanction.

“We respect this customary law. We even introduce it to our children and grandchildren,” Apay Janggut, a 44-year-old tribal leader, said.

Apay is a common honorific in the Iban language.

The 304 people living in Sui Utik adhere to the rules closely. Each of the hamlet’s 30 families is allowed to cultivate at least three hectares of land during a three-year period.

After that, they must move to another piece of land and leave the old one, a strategy that protects and preserves the ancestral forests.

The forests, in turn, provide all that the community needs. Its people hunt for animals, go fishing, and search for herbal medicine.

“Our forests have everything that we want and need,” assured Apay Salim, another tribal leader.

Deforestation

Forest comprises 60 percent of Indonesia’s land area, which makes it the third largest area of tropical rainforest in the world.

However, deforestation is an ongoing threat. Recent reports have found that Indonesia may have the highest rate of forest loss in the world.

Between 2000 and 2012 more than 6 million hectares of forest was lost, according to a University of Maryland study published last year and headed by a former Indonesian forestry official.

When it comes to deforestation, indigenous people comprising more than 500 communities across the archipelago play a significant role in protection and prevention.

And what the Sui Utik hamlet community has achieved received praise from Zenzi Suhadi, a forest campaigner with the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, or Walhi.

“Sui Utik shows that indigenous people make an effort to protect their ancestral forests for generations,” he said.

According to Zenzi, 58 million out of 130 million hectares of forest in the country — Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua islands — have been turned into palm oil plantations or gold and manganese mines.

“I don’t know the exact number of permits for the plantations and mining. But it’s more than 10,000,” he added.

In having avoided such fates, the hamlet serves as a correction tool for the local government.

“People living in Sui Utik show that indigenous people have a local wisdom, which can help them survive if it is preserved well,” said Agapitus from the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), an umbrella of indigenous communities in the country.

Development of eco-tourism

The indigenous people’s effort in protecting their ancestral forests in Sui Utik has driven GreenIndonesia and AMAN to jointly develop an eco-tourism initiative.

Besides the hamlet, the initiative involving six communities of indigenous people from across the country is also developed in other areas with indigenous communities such as Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, Jambi and Maluku.

Through the program, women weavers from all over Indonesia connect, share knowledge, and keep their traditions alive. The communities work with many local plants to create unique colors and pay close attention to maintaining the environment where the vegetation grows.

According to Yopie Basyarah, program manager at GreenIndonesia, the initiative aims to re-enliven the culture of the indigenous people.

“We try to develop everything purely coming from the indigenous people in Sui Utik. We don’t want to do things that we want, but we always ask the indigenous people about what they want,” he said.

In January, GreenIndonesia joined a tourism program held in Oslo, Norway, to introduce the initiative.

“We wanted to introduce Sui Utik hamlet to the world. What impressed us during the program was that so many people said they wanted to visit Sui Utik,” he added.

Dozens of Norwegians have promised to visit the hamlet in June.

Support for the development of eco-tourism in the hamlet also comes from the local Catholic Church.

“The initiative is in line with the indigenous people’s effort in making nature their best friend,” said Father Marchadius Markus Golo of Benua Martinus.

The community sees nature as something which cannot be separated from their Catholic faith, he said.

Nearly all members of the indigenous community are Catholics.

“They see nature like they see the body and the blood of Christ. The land is like the body of Christ, and the water is like the blood,” Marchadius said.

The indigenous people have such way of seeing things because they view nature as something given for free by God.

“This is their faith, and with this faith they have the commitment to protecting their ancestral forests,” he added.

In Kapuas Hulu district, 51.6 percent of its 3.1 million hectares of land is a conservation area. Only 20 percent is given to palm oil plantation companies.

“We don’t want to force the indigenous people like those in Sui Utik hamlet to accept palm oil plantation companies. They already have a commitment to protecting their ancestral forests,” deputy district head Agus Mulyana said.

But eco-tourism is far from a guaranteed salvo.

Konkordius Kanyan from Lembaga Bela Banua Talino, a local NGO dealing with agrarian issues, stressed that indigenous people would likely face challenges with the development of eco-tourism.

“Eco-tourism will bring changes when everything is measured with money. The indigenous people in Sui Utik must be able to maintain their cultural values which they have kept for so long,” he said.

Residents, however, remain hopeful that their chosen path will succeed.

“We feel happy [with eco-tourism] as we can earn money from so many visitors coming here. This helps [our community],” Raymundus said.

For him and other members of the hamlet, turning their protected forests into an eco-tourism attraction may well be the best way to improve their lives.

“People come to Sui Utik, and it makes us believe that what we have chosen so far isn’t wrong,” Raymundus said.

This story is a publication of Ucanews.com and is edited for style by the Jakarta Globe.

Ryan Dagur is a special correspondent for Ucanews.com.

Garuda to Expand Papua Routes in April

Jakarta Globe, Feb 01, 2015

Garuda Indonesia plans to add three more routes to the two that it
currently operates out of Biak district in Papua. (ID Photo)

Jakarta. Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia plans to extend its network of routes in Papua, the country’s easternmost province, as part of a push to open up the region to greater development.

The airline has agreed to a request from its office in Biak district to fly three new routes as of April from Biak to Nabire, Serui and Wamena, local Garuda manager Wayan Supatrayasa told Kompas.com.

“The facilities at [Biak’s] Frans Kaisepo Airport very much allow for planes operating from Biak to serve passengers from around the Cendrawasih Bay region,” he said.

“I’m optimistic that the new routes will help improve access to isolated areas and improve those areas’ development,” he added.

Garuda currently operates just two routes from Biak: one to Jayapura, the Papua provincial capital, and another to Jakarta via Makassar in South Sulawesi.

Susi Air operates routes from Biak to other points around the region, including Serui and Manokwari.

Related Article:

Jokowi: Papua Railway Development to Start in 2015

Indonesians Encouraged to Participate in Mass Debates

Jakarta Globe, Marcel Thee, November 21, 2013

‘We Discuss’ currently runs five programs each with a different topic of debate.
(Photos courtesy of Whiteboard Journal)

The Indonesian education system isn’t exactly known for its encouragement of critical thinking, but a younger generation of Indonesians are breaking barriers. New attitudes to learning are emerging — young people want engagement and debate and to not simply memorize facts.

“We Discuss” is a project that hopes to address these needs and get young people to express their beliefs and opinions.

The project is the brainchild of the Whiteboard Journal website team. Currently it consists of five programs — with specialist topics and locations. Thus far it has been successful in getting creative minds together in a welcoming area to share their thoughts.

The program’s latest discussion “Faces and Places” aims to show how the various interactions we have with the places we live in or frequently visit reveal much about how we act in social situations.

We spoke with Dwiputri Pertiwi, who spearheaded the program about the creation and goals of “We Discuss.”

How did the initial idea for ‘We Discuss’ come to you?

About six months ago, we [the Whiteboard Journal editorial team] were brainstorming ideas for a regular offline event.

Since we already had music-related events such as Cliff Notes and W_Music Sessions at the Goods Diner [a chain of restaurants that partner with the Whiteboard Journal], we thought it would be a great idea to focus on something else that would encourage our readers to directly engage with our online content.

Did you have similar programs prior to this?

In the past, we have had a number of Roundtable events where we would invite guest speakers to converse about topics such as urban planning and entrepreneurship in front of large audiences. While this format has a strong educational value, there is little to no room for dialogue.

Question and answer sessions are not enough to get everyone involved. This is why we think it’s important to hold an open discussion where two-way communication can actually take place. Participants are encouraged to express their opinions; hence the name ‘We Discuss.’

Did you have any particular aspiration or goals with the program?

There is no ultimate goal per se, but we do hope that ‘We Discuss’ can be a platform where people feel free to exchange ideas and opinions. Even if the scale of the event is very small [there are normally around 20 participants], we want to create an environment that makes people want to speak as much as they want to listen. Getting people to talk at each other won’t get anyone very far.

How do you settle on a particular topic?

We usually follow the Whiteboard Journal’s editorial calendar because it makes it easier for us to connect the discussion with our existing articles. About two weeks before each event, we publish two blog posts on our web site.

The first being a sort of guideline that consists of the general theme – for example, education — and three subtopics, such as sources, educators, learners, for the upcoming discussion; and the second being a list of recommended reading material from Whiteboard as well as other sources.

This is another thing about ‘We Discuss,’ we provide such material prior to the event because we don’t want participants to feel lost during the discussion.

What kind of topics have you discussed so far?

To date, beginning in July, we have discussed four topics: education, national identity, fashion and art. This month’s discussion focused on the social aspects of architecture.

The day after each discussion, we always post a brief summary on the Whiteboard Journal blog.

What has running the program done for you, personally?

Personally, I always learn something new every month because of the amount of research I do each time.

I remember being very anxious about the discussion on fashion because I knew almost nothing substantial about the topic.

But that sense of anxiety pushed me to want to find out more, and in the end, I ended up learning a lot of interesting things from the research and the discussion about a topic I was previously unfamiliar with.

I hope that those who participate in ‘We Discuss’ can also feel the happiness of having discovered something new — be it a new way of thinking, or a bundle of new information to process.

How do you see the current generation of young Indonesians differing from their seniors in terms of wanting to be more involved in these kinds of public discourse?

Hmm, that’s a tough question. I think that those who show up at ‘We Discuss’ events are people who do want to speak, so most of them tend to be confident in sharing their opinions.

It’s usually a little quiet in the beginning because not everyone knows each other, but after 15 minutes or so, more and more people start to join the conversation.

Do you see social media playing a lot into how younger people interact?

I think our generation has a lot of ideas. Anyone who spends enough time on Twitter would know that we have a lot to say about a lot of things.

But I suppose this is where the problem lies. Twitter and other forms of social media do allow users to exchange idea or comments but in the end, such platforms encourage people to announce ideas rather than exchange them.

What do you think has caused this passivity in the majority of the younger generation of Indonesians?

It’s hard to say who’s to blame. We are not lacking ideas; we just need more open forums.

I think that when people share their thoughts with an audience they can see and directly interact with, they will be more aware of what they say. And when people are more aware of what they say, they will think carefully before they speak.

‘We Discuss’

Kinokuniya Plaza Senayan Jl. Asia Afrika 8, Sogo Plaza Senayan

Lt. 5 – South Jakarta

For the complete program, visit whiteboardjournal.com