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From Oil Palm to Corn Estate

Name: From Oil Palm to Corn Estate
Uploaded: 2022-01-14T03:41:04Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: The customary forest of the Mpur ethnic community in Tambrauw, has been converted into a corn estate. The residents are despondent because their customary land, which was the source of their livelihood, is gone.

The customary forest of the Mpur ethnic community in Tambrauw, has been converted into a corn estate. The residents are despondent because their customary land, which was the source of their livelihood, is gone.

HARIS FIRDAUS

· 10 minutes read

Veronika Manimbu, 35, stood in an open-backed car with four-wheel drive, looking at an expanse of cornfield not far ahead. It seemed that Veronika was unable to hide her sadness.

“There used to be a forest here. Lots of ironwood (merbau), matoa (Pometia pinnata), sago palm and other trees were everywhere. But the company removed them all, planting corn here,” said Veronika on meeting Kompas in the Kebar Valley of Tambrauw regency, West Papua province.

At noon that Sunday (18/4/2021), Veronika was in one section of the former forest area in the Kebar Valley, located on the Bird’s Head Peninsula in West Papua. From the West Papua capital of Manokwari, it takes around four hours to reach the Kebar Valley by land. The indigenous people of the Kebar Valley are the Mpur, comprising several clans.

“They were cutting down trees in the forest. In fact, there were sago palms in the forest and the community grew crops there. That was when the local people began to feel that they had been tricked.”

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Veronika is a member of the Arumi clan of the Mpur community, which lives in Arumi village, East Kebar district, Tambrauw. The cornfield Veronika pointed out stands on the customary land of the Arumi clan. each clan has customary land in the Kebar Valley that they cultivate to meet their daily needs.

However, over the last few years, part of the forest in the Kebar Valley has been damaged. Veronika said the damage had taken place after the entry of PT Bintuni Agro Prima Perkasa (BAPP) that planted corn in Kebar Valley. According to Veronika, the company had torn down the forest that was the customary land of the Arumi clan, converting it into the corn estate.

The forest damage later led to tensions between the indigenous people and PT BAPP, because the forests of the Kebar Valley had long provided the resources that the local community depended on to live.

From oil palm to corn

The presence of PT BAPP in the Kebar Valley is inseparable from Forestry Minister’s Decree No. SK.873/Menhut-II/2014 issued on 29 Sept. 2014. The decree regulates the provision of a production forest area covering 19,368.77 hectares for an oil palm plantation managed by PT BAPP. This decree provided the legal basis for PT BAPP to enter the Kebar Valley.

According to Semuel Ariks, 57, a member of the Ariks clan who lives in the Kebar Valley, PT BAPP representatives visited the area in 2015. To the local community, they conveyed the company’s intention to develop oil palm plantations in the Kebar Valley.

But the indigenous peoples in the Kebar Valley rejected the oil palm estate development plan, fearing its negative impacts. Some time later, the PT BAPP representatives returned to meet with the local people. On that occasion, Semuel said, PT BAPP said that it was piloting corn cultivation over two years on a field of cogon grass in the Kebar Valley.

The leaders of several clans agreed to PT BAPP’s plan to trial cultivating corn on a field of cogon grass. In the Kebar Valley There was indeed a plain in the Kebar Valley where cogon grass and rumput kebar (Biophytum petersianum) were endemic.

Semuel revealed that the land PT BAPP had selected for the trial belonged to six clans in the Kebar Valley: the Amawi, Ariks, Arumi, Kebar, Wanimeri and Wasabiti. PT BAPP later gave money ranging from Rp 50 million to Rp 100 million to the six clans as a gesture of friendship.

Yet in developing the land, PT BAPP reportedly planted corn on not only the plain of corn grass but also in the forest production area located on customary lands that belonged to the Mpur ethnic community.

Semuel said that after the forest had been destroyed, the community tried to speak to representatives of PT BAPP, but no consensus was reached. Therefore, he said, the Kebar Valley people held a meeting and agreed to ask PT BAPP to halt its activities in the Kebar Valley.

Blockage

On 30 Aug. 2018, the Mpur ethnic community and several other groups blocked access to the PT BAPP office in the Kebar Valley. Semuel said this happened after a member of the Arumi clan had been beaten up a few days earlier by one of the company’s security officers who was guarding the area.

Three months later, a number of Mpur representatives traveled to Jakarta to present the problem they were facing, visiting the Environment and Forestry Ministry along with representatives from other traditional communities in Papua.

Aser Aruam, 51, a representative of the Amawi clan, said after holding a demonstration and blocking the PT BAPP office blocking on 30 Aug. 2018, the indigenous community thought the company would stop its operations. But PT BAPP continued its activities, planting corn in the Kebar Valley.

Wasabiti clan representative Melvin Wasabiti, 37, said that six clans of the Kebar Valley traditional community felt that the operations of PT BAPP was harming their livelihood. This was because the company had destroyed the forest that had been the source of living of the Mpur ethnic group in the Kebar Valley, he said.

“All of us from the six clans feel that we have been harmed by PT BAPP and its operations here. Our forest has been cut down, our crops have been uprooted,” said Melvin.

For this reason, Melvin urged PT BAPP to immediately stop its operations in the Kebar Valley. Melvin and a number of other Kebar Valley people told PT BAPP that it must terminate its operations no later than August 2021.

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“We six clans asked that all corporate activities be ended by August 2021 and that the company leave the Kebar Valley,” he said.

Kebar clan representative Sinauw Kebar, 36, said a member of the Kebar clan had agreed that PT BAPP could operate in the Kebar Valley. But this approval was given without the knowledge of the other clan members.

“We have an elder. We have no idea how he discussed it, [but] he agreed [to the deal] without the other clan members knowing it. The rest of us in the clan also complained to him,” said Sinauw.

Sinauw said that except for the one clan member who agreed to the activity, the other members of the Kebar clan disagreed with PT BAPP’s presence in the Kebar Valley. This was because the Kebar people were dependent on local forest resources to meet their daily needs.

“Basically, we don’t agree because the a large number of families live in the [production forest] area, so there is not enough forest to divide it into family plots, let alone for the company. How should we feed our children and grandchildren afterwards?” said Sinauw.

Impacts

According to a Greenpeace Indonesia report titled “The Expansion of Oil Palm Estates, Structural Corruption, and the Destruction of Living Space in Papua” (2020), the presence of PT BAPP in the Kebar Valley has had several impacts on the lives of the Mpur people. The report says that PT BAPP cleared the forest of trees and caused the loss of ironwood, matoa and enau (sugar palm) and other productive trees.

In fact, the Mpur ethnic community often use ironwood and matoa to build their houses. Damage to the Kebar Valley forest also caused the loss of various medicinal herbs and bark that the Mpur people used to make noken (handwoven baskets).

Greenpeace Indonesia also said that the impacts of forest destruction in the Kebar Valley had destroyed the habitats of several endemic birdsm such as the bird of paradise, maleo waigeo (Aepypodius bruijnii), cassowary and the warsia “smart bird” (Mblyornis inornatus).

Besides, the damage to the forest area had also prompted game animals like deer and wild boar to migrate into the mountains. As a result, Mpur hunters had to travel farther to find game.

On the other hand, the corn planted on the plain of cogon grass had reduced the habitat size of the endemic rumput kebar. The Mpur people frequently sell rumput kebar to Manokwari or other cities, where demand for this grass is high among souvenir shops and other commercial businesses. Moreover, the price of rumput kebar is relatively high at Rp 500,000 per kilogram.

Anthropologist Kristofel Ajoi from the University of Papua said that the existence of forest was indeed inseparable from the existence of the Mpur ethnic community. Kristofel added that the Mpur children formed close ties to the forest since birth.

They hunt wild boar, birds and fish in the forest. They also cultivate crops in the forest.

“The forest has been a part of the life of the Mpur people. From birth, the Mpur children are raised close to the forest. Before the existence of hospitals, women used herbal medicines made from forest materials during childbirth,” said Kristofel, who is also a member of the Kebar Valley’s Mpur community.

Kristofel stressed that the Mpur people had two primary sources of livelihood, farming and hunting, both of which depended on the existence of the forest. “They hunt wild boar, birds and fish in the forest. They also cultivate crops in the forest,” he said.

Kristofel believes that Mpur people’s close connection with the forest that prompted their decision to reject the presence of PT BAPP, which was viewed as having destroyed their forest.

Feeling no problem

PT BAPP estate manager Edi Hartono claimed that the company had maintained harmonious ties with the local community.

“I don’t know what is being reported out there, but we feel our relationship with them is harmonious, there’s no problem. The communities may have some constraints, we have no idea,” he said.

Edi said that he had not handled the corn cultivation license for BAPP in the Kebar Valley, because the company had already started planting corn when he came to work in the Kebar Valley. But according to the information he had received, PT BAPP had obtained the approval of several clans in the Kebar Valley to cultivate corn.

In addition, Edi said, PT BAPP had also given money to the communities. “It was agreed by the clans. There are documents and several clan agreements. There was also the ‘friendship money’,” he said on Sunday (18/4/2021), during Kompas’ visit to the PT BAPP office in the Kebar Valley.

I don’t know what is being reported out there, but we feel our relationship with them is harmonious, there’s no problem.

Yet, Edi admitted that part of PT BAPP’s HGU concession belonged to the local ies. He said the company had received around 2,000 hectares of HGU concession in the Kebar Valley. But it had cultivated only around 300 hectares of the land, as the rest belonged to the Mpur community.

Separately, West Papua Governor Dominggus Mandacan promised to prioritize the interests of indigenous communities and use dialogue to develop solutions.

“The West Papua government maintains its stance of prioritizing dialogue and the interests of [indigenous] communities,” he said.

Dominggus added that the West Papua provincial administration was also striving to promote the welfare of indigenous communities through the development of environmentally friendly commodities.

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.

Editor:

Syahnan Rangkuti

West Papua provincial administration papua expedition Arumi village East Kebar district Tambrauw