The Ecological Tragedy of Resource Extraction in West Papua

(Image: Freeport McMoran's Grasburg mine near Timika is the largest gold and copper mine in the world)

West Papua is a land of astounding ecological diversity. Its ecosystems range from mangroves in the lowland swamps to mountain glaciers 5,000 meters above the coral reefs. Teeming with wildlife and vegetation, it is home to at least 100,000 species of plants and animals found nowhere else on earth. Most have never been studied, including a vast array of medicinal plants used for centuries by the indigenous people.

Three quarters of the island is covered by the world's second largest rainforest, sometimes called "the lungs of Asia". But foreign companies now hold concessions to log or mine more than 75% of the forestland. In addition, illegal logging operations are rampant and unchecked. Clear-cut logging is prevalent and replanting, if attempted, is often impossible. The end result is a rapid and unceasing rate of species extinction, soil erosion and desecration of sacred homelands.

In the words of a local woman, "We feel bitter. They destroy the sago and damar trees, the wood and the water. There are no fish, there are no birds, there is nothing left at all."

Industrial logging devastates the Papuans" traditional sources of food and medicine. Tens of thousands have died of starvation and disease. After an area is cleared, the thin layer of topsoil usually washes away under the heavy tropical rain. On the coast where the canopy and a tangled network of roots once held the soil together for centuries, huge tracts of land disappear as they are washed into the sea. Parts of West Papua's coast are being lost forever, at an alarming rate.

In the words of another West Papuan, "We the people of West Papua are a people of nature. We flourish in harmony with nature. Where can we thrive in future?"

Military presence has been increased in areas where local tribes dare to resist the destruction of their forest homes and food sources. This is to be expected, as most large businesses in West Papua are engaged in major contracts with the Indonesian military, or are directly owned and operated by the military itself. This is no secret. It is estimated that up to two thirds of the Indonesian military's operating budget is funded by business ventures. The most lucrative of these by far are based in West Papua.

One of these ventures is a contract to provide protection for Louisiana-based Freeport McMoran, which operates an open-pit mine on the biggest gold and third-largest copper deposit in the world. Freeport reported to the SEC that it paid "security fees" to the Indonesian military of $5.6 million in 2002 and $4.7 million in 2001.

(Image: Tailings from Freeport McMoran's Grasburg mine)

The company has been mining in Papua since the occupation started in the 1960s. Most years since then, its annual taxes ($329 million US in 2003) have made it the Indonesian government's biggest taxpayer. While it is also the largest private employer in Papua, less than a third of its employees are Papuans, and they are typically assigned the lowest-paying jobs.

Freeport McMoran's environmental record has been abysmal, challenged by its own shareholders since 1994. Yet only a few years ago, the Papua mine increased its dumping of untreated tailings into the Aghawaghon River system to 285,000 tonnes per day - the equivalent of a ten-tonne dump-truck load every three seconds. Industrial waste pollutes the river and surrounding ocean, poisoning fish and eliminating an important source of protein for local tribes. This adds insult to injury, as the mine was built on land appropriated from the indigenous people, who now receive none of the financial returns.

BP (formerly 'British Petroleum') is another controversial multinational operating in Papua. BP is investing $2? $7? billion (US) in a gas project at Bintuni Bay and in a production-sharing contract with Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina. The gas wells and processing plant are to be located in 600 hectares of rainforest, one of the largest remaining mangroves in SE Asia. Many villages along the coast will need to be relocated, forfeiting their land and likely also losing their fisheries and rivers to pollution. Despite the fact that the gas facility is expected to earn BP and the Indonesian government over $800 Million per year, only $60,000 has been offered to the hundreds of local villagers for use of their traditional lands and sea-ways.

Fifty percent of the Indonesian government's income is from oil exports, and one third of the oil comes from West Papua. Other multinational oil companies who have operated or continue to operate in West Papua include Amoco, Chevron, Esso, Mobil, Shell, Texaco, as well as others.

Is this 'development' or plunder? However you might view it, Canada has supported these initiatives politically over the last thirty years and Canadians have provided much of the expertise and financing as project consultants or business partners. Recently when Canadian diplomats toured Indonesian provinces, they applauded the industrial development taking place - the modernization of "less advanced" cultures.

In the words of a West Papuan refugee, "We have a message for the so-called 'developed' nations. We have a wonderful culture, a culture that can cope with ecology. We doubt whether what you want us to learn is a better way of life."