Environment

Dear Friends,

Please help us help humanity by reading and encouraging other adults to read the graphic novel at www.papuanvoices.com. (Does not yet work on mobile phones.)

The Illustrator and I have chosen to release the first three chapters (60 pages) now, given the urgency of the content but also because we can update and add to this "flip book" over time. (Try your scroll wheel to flip pages.)

If you care about disappearing cultures and biodiversity, you can help raise the world's awareness of West Papua by forwarding this appeal to your friends and colleagues, or by letting them know about this through Facebook, Twitter or word-of-mouth.

If you enjoy the beautiful illustrations in this book and you come to appreciate the global significance and dire urgency of its story, please tell others about papuanvoices.com.

The Author

Resource-Rich West Papua, But Who Benefits?

The Jakarta Post - Friday May 14, 2010
by:Carmel Budiardjo

Indonesia is these days praised as a success story among the countries of Southeast Asia, with growth figures that compare favorably with its neighbors and an absence of conflict. It is also the largest country in the region which enjoys an abundance of natural resources that have lured foreign companies to its shores. Since the fall of Soeharto in 1998 and the end of his dictatorship, economic progress has fostered a growing middle class.

A referendum in East Timor 18 months after his exit secured that country’s independence after 25 years of devastating occupation, while in the other conflict-ridden province, Aceh, where thousands of people died from 1976 till 2004, a peace agreement has secured it an era of reconstruction, thanks largely to the devastating tsunami in December 2004 and to the agreement reached a year later between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and Jakarta.

However, the situation in its most easterly region, West Papua, is far from satisfactory and rarely draws international attention except when shooting incidents take the lives of foreigners employed by a mining company which is recognized as being Jakarta’s largest taxpayer.

Activists say Papua food estate ‘not the answer’
by Arti Ekawati & Fidelis E. Satriastanti
Jakarta Globe – March 04, 2010

Activists warned on Thursday not to put too much hope in the Merauke food estate, saying it would do little to provide food security or eliminate starvation in Indonesia.

“It will eventually decrease our dependence on [importing] food crops, but it does not automatically reduce famine in our own country. It does not work that way,” said Witoro, the head of a food-crop working group from the Prosperity Village Alliance, which comprises 18 nongovernmental organizations focused on implementing sustainable living in villages across the country.

Indonesian Govt Gives Green Thumb-Up To Plant Papua 'Food Estate'
The Jakarta Globe, January 18, 2010
by Arti Ekawati & Muhamad Al Azhari

The government is moving forward with the country’s first integrated food production zone in Merauke, Papua, a minister told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday. “Drafting of the [food estate] regulation has been finished and it is ready to be signed by the president,” Agriculture Minister Suswono said.

The food estates, as they are known, are designed to stimulate large-scale investment in the agriculture sector and beef up food security. The developers will be prevented from exporting any of their produce until the nation’s food needs have been met. If the pilot project, which aims to attract domestic and international investors with a series of tax breaks, is successful, the government hopes to establish similar zones elsewhere in eastern Indonesia. The completion of the food estate regulation was one of the objectives of the government’s program for its first 100 days.

West Papua Report September 2009

Source: West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT)

This is the 64th in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans. This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments, and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN). Back issues are posted online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm. Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com.

West Papua Report August 2009

Source: West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT)

This is the 63rd in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans. This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments, and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN). Back issues are posted online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm. Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com.

West Papuans recently announced a foundational consensus on their legal defence and right to declare national sovereignty, thereby asserting their fundamental human rights and ancestral ownership of land. (The consensus has global significance in that West Papua remains on a scale similar to the Amazon in terms of what is being lost - diversity of local species and tribal societies, and the amount of oxygen produced by the "lungs of Asia".)

A series of powerful earthquakes struck Manokwari, West Papua, on Sunday, January 4th, killing four people and injuring dozens more. Hundreds of buildings were damaged, leaving countless people homeless. The runway of Manokwari's Rendai Airport was split in two while two prominent three-story hotels in the town centre, the Mutiara and Kalidingin, collapsed.

THE UNTOLD STORY: FOOTAGE FROM THE PAPUAN RAINFOREST

EIA Press Release: 28 November 2007

Unique films are launched today showing the impact of forest exploitation upon the people of Papua, Indonesia.

oleh a West Papuan citizen

Masyarakat Papua dan Maluku telah mengkonsumsi sagu dan ubi-ubian seperti betatas, kasbi, keladi serta embal selama berabad-abad. Saat ini makanan tradisional tersebut sedang digantikan oleh nasi lewat kebijakan RASKIN dari Pemerintah Indonesia yang lebih berpihak pada “berasnisasi�.

Sagu, betatas, keladi dan kasbi sudah menjadi bagian dari identitas budaya rakyat Papua dan Maluku. Ada banyak tarian tradisional, istilah bahasa daerah, peralatan masak dan bertani, tari-tarian dan ritual adat serta lagu-lagu rakyat yang berhubungan dengan makanan pokok tradisional tersebut. Bila beras berubah menjadi makanan pokok di Papua dan Maluku maka identitas budaya bangsa-bangsa yang termasuk dalam rumpun Melanesia ini akan ditinggalkan dan dilupakan untuk selamanya.