West
Papua's great natural resources have attracted some
of the world's largest oil and mineral corporations.
They include Mobil, Esso, Shell, BP, BHP and Freeport.
In addition it has one of the largest tracts of tropical
rainforests left in the world. Even in the 1930's the
Dutch were extracting high quality oil from the Sorong
area and Dutch geologists discovered the deposits which
were later developed by the Freeport mine. These resources
were also known the Indonesian government and foreign
mining interests. Indeed the dispute over Papua between
1949 and 1962 and US support for Indonesian control
can be partly understood as a struggle for these resources.
Mining
and Freeport
The
largest mining company in West Papua is the New Orleans
based Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. Freeport
first came to West Papua in 1967 when they received
the very first mining contract issued by the Suharto
government. The construction of the mine required moving
millions of tons of earth from the top of the Jayawijawa
mountain. They also built a giant aerial tramway to
carry the ore to a concentrator that converts it into
a liquid slurry which then flows down a 100 km pipeline
to a specially constructed export port at Amamapare
on the Arafura Sea. Freeport's
operations have grown from an initial 10,000 hectares
to the most recent 2.6 million hectare mine at Grasberg.
This expansion was sustained by investment from another
transnational Rio Tinto which now has a 40% interest
in Freeport operations. Freeport is now the world's
largest gold mine and third largest copper mine. In
2001 it produced 1.4 billion pounds of copper and 2.6
million ounces of gold with estimated reserves of 52
billion pounds of copper and 64 million ounces of gold.However
this production has cost the local people dearly in
terms of loss of land, environmental destruction and
human rights abuses.
Freeport's
environmental and social impact
Large
areas of rainforest had to be cleared to establish the mine
and important rivers are being polluted by the 200,000 tons
of tailing sand produced by the mine each day. By the time
the mine ceases production the adjacent Wanagong valley
will be filled to a depth of 450 metres and the 114 hectare
Carstensweid meadow will be covered by 250 metres of waste
rock. Downstream the tailings cause severe flooding and
erosion and the toxic minerals in the water contaminate
fish and molluscs. Large
tracts of mangrove were also cleared at the mouth of the
Timika river to create the Amamapare seaport and mine tailings
are now polluting nearby coral reefs. The
Amungme people are deeply affronted by the destruction of
the Jayawijaya mountain (also called Mt Grasberg). In their
cosmological beliefs, Jayawijaya is the head of their sacred
mother. To them Freeport has already cut off their mother's
head by reducing the top of the mountain to a plateau and
it is now digging into her heart.
Logging
and deforestation
.West
Papua contains 30% of Indonesia's remaining forests and, with
the over-logging of Kalimantan and Sumatra, it is rapidly
becoming the main source of Indonesian timber. By 2002, the
Indonesian Government had given out potential forestry concessions
over 22 million hectares - 30% of West Papua's land. Besides
these areas where companies can officially log there are many
areas where illegal logging occurs. Indeed an estimated 70%
of all timber exported in Indonesia is cut illegally and even
though the export of unprocessed logs was officially banned
in the 1980s unsawn logs are still exported from Papua.The
Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned in May 2001 that "overexploitation
and poor management imperils Indonesia's forestry resources"
while Indonesia's largest donor group, the Consultative Group
on Indonesia (CGI), has linked the payment of billion-dollar
loans to reform in the forestry industry.Under
Suharto tribal communities had no legal claim on their land
and logging concessions were entirely controlled by the government.
Logging companies often employed the police and army to suppress
local protests. The army itself and retired officers are heavily
involved in running logging companies - an example is P.T.
Hanurata which is still jointly controlled by the Suharto
family and Kopassus. In one notorious case people in the Asmat
area were forced by the army to log trees in the early 80s
for no payment.More
recently Korean, Malaysian and Chinese logging companies have
moved into Papua. China is a major market for Papuan timber
since it has already reduced its own logging to prevent future
environmental problems.Relatively
little has changed after Suharto but the autonomy law for
Papua does say that any future use of customary land requires
a permit granted by the affected community and also allows
Papuan communities to challenge permits granted by previous
governments. However as of early 2003, the autonomy law has
not been implemented.
Impact
of logging on the people and their environment.
"Indigenous
peoples have the right to determine priorities and strategies
for the development or use of their land, territories and
other resources, including the right to require that States
obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval
of any project affecting their lands, territories and other
resources, particularly in connection with the development,
utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.
Pursuant to agreement with the indigenous peoples concerned,
just and fair compensation shall be provided for any such
activities and measures taken to mitigate adverse environmental,
economic, social or spiritual impact."4.
Logging affects the Papuan people's culture and health in
many ways·
local people are rarely consulted or compensated for their
loss of land and forests - often they are forcibly removed·
in January 2002, the head of Papua's Social Welfare office
stated that 51 nomadic tribes in the Waropen region were being
pushed towards extinction by excessive logging·
the forced removal of Papuans from forestry areas is often
to poorer terrain, far removed from traditional staple foods.
Traditional hunting and fishing grounds are now out of bounds
and anyone returning can be charged with trespassing.·
people moved to low lying areas are much more susceptible
to diseases such as malaria·
numerous rainforest species found only in West Papua are at
risk of extinction because smuggling of birds to Java and
Singapore is a thriving business.·
logging roads are often carelessly constructed and lead to
substantial soil erosion and the silting of rivers. Roads
often cut through small streams producing a string of stagnant
ponds where disease carrying mosquitos can breed·
bulldozers and other heavy machinery destroy trees and plants
used by indigenous people for food and traditional medicine.
Skidding logs out of the forest also damages the environment
by creating a dense network of bulldozer tracks.·
indigenous people get no long-term benefit from the large-scale
accommodation and infrastructure created for the workforce
in mining and logging ·
they have also received relatively little employment from
these projects - indeed a UN report prepared soon after Indonesia's
takeover explains how well-qualified Papuan forestry officers
were made to train Indonesian officials and were then sacked
Resistance
to mining and deforestation
Predictably
areas around mining concessions are associated with Papuan
uprisings and Indonesian repression. The most prominent example
is the Freeport mine located in the Western Highlands. The
first resistance against Freeport was in 1977 when the Amungme
people protested against the loss of their hunting grounds.
With the aid of the OPM, the Amungme cut the pipeline carrying
copper slurry down to the coast. The Indonesian airforce retaliated
by bombing and strafing local villages.Today
resistance to Freeport has become more organized under LEMASA,
the Amungme Foundation. After large demonstrations in 1996
Freeport has been forced to deal with the traditional landowners
and to form a trust fund for their use. However the terms
and monetary value of the fund are still in dispute. Many
regard the fund as an attempt to buy off local people.One
leading critic of Freeport is Mama Yosepha Alomang, an Amungme
leader. Yosepha has organized her community for over 20 years
to resist Freeport's environmental destruction and the Indonesian
government's complacency.. In 1994 she was imprisoned and
tortured by the Indonesian army for 6 weeks. Her leadership
has attracted international attention - the Wall Street Journal
described her as one of Freeport's "most strident foes"
and in April 2001 she was honoured with the Goldman Environmental
Prize in San Francisco. Accepting the prize Mama Yosepha criticized
the administration of the Freeport fund and demanded that
the company 'help us to organize structures to use the money
for local development.' She gave Freeport four years to see
if they could change - otherwise, she said, 'they must leave'.Successful
protests against logging companies are rare but in January
2002, a community near Jayapura forced P.T. Hanurata to hand
back 10,000 hectares of land.
Legal
challenges
The
Amungme have filed several class actions against Freeport's
environmental practices in US courts. Unfortunately, despite
the obvious ecological destruction, these attempts failed
due to the lack of definitive international environmental
laws. Nevertheless it is significant that US courts can deal
with lawsuits brought by foreigners against US companies operating
overseas. These court cases also generate valuable continuing
scrutiny of Freeport's activities. Within
Indonesia, the environmental group WALHI has also taken Freeport
to court after heavy rain caused a tailings dam to collapse
- four workers were killed by the resulting wave. In February
2000, Indonesian Environment Minister Sonny Keraf threatened
Freeport with closure after reports that Freeport waste was
contaminating widely eaten molluscs in local rivers and destroying
mangroves and forests. However neither action had a substantial
effect.
