Irian Jaya (West Papua) Faces Green Pressures

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

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11/29/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

Indonesian style intensive tropical land management is poised to

reach the boom period in the occupied western half of the Island of

New Guinea. The following article is a bit elementary. Nonetheless,

it represents some of the first media coverage of the huge challenge

faced in conserving, and fostering ecologically sustainable

development, of this tropical forest wilderness for the benefit of

its inhabitants.

g.b.

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Title: INTERVIEW-Indonesia's green Irian faces pressures

Source: Reuters

Date: November 29, 1999

Byline: Chris McCall

JAYAPURA, Indonesia, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Irian Jaya is Indonesia's last

great reserve of untouched rainforest, but on a planner's map it is a

checkerboard of mining and logging concessions.

In the 1990s fires and unchecked logging have devastated the jungles

and wildlife of Borneo, Indonesia's other great wilderness. A top

environmental activist says Irian Jaya, the western half of New

Guinea, may be heading for the same fate.

``If all these logging companies are operating then you will have a

problem with the forest, like in Borneo,'' said Augustinus Rumansara,

local director of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

``If you lose your habitat then all this biodiversity is gone like in

Borneo or anywhere else where logging is very intensive.

``There are a lot of development projects that will create a negative

impact on the environment. In Indonesia, if someone wants to build a

hotel, you can sacrifice the environment.''

Distance, human disease and lack of infrastructure have been the

saviours of Irian Jaya's forests so far, by deterring exploitation.

Most of the concessions were handed out years ago under former

president Suharto and few are yet active.

POLITICAL CHANGES AFOOT

But Rumansara says plans for greater autonomy may inadvertently change

this, by forcing the province to look for more of its revenue from its

own resources.

``All these regions will have to try to find their own income and what

is in fact left is they will go back to their natural resources,''

Rumansara told Reuters in an interview.

``It will be worse. Our question is are there any checks and

balances?''

WWF has recently made it a priority to lobby local politicians hard to

make them aware of the risk.

In Irian Jaya, WWF is one organisation whose name carries some clout.

Irianese say a letter from WWF will often gain you a warm welcome in

areas where even Indonesia's security forces hesitate to go.

Seen from the air -- the only way to travel around most of the vast

province -- Irian Jaya is still a sea of green forest.

Where exploitation has begun, however, it has had the same severe

effects seen elsewhere in Indonesia. Crushed waste rock or 'tailings'

from the major mining operation, PT Freeport Indonesia's copper and

gold mine near the southern town of Timika, has denuded large

stretches of forest.

CAMPAIGN TO HELP TURTLES

A handful of logging firms are active, particularly around the western

town of Sorong. WWF recently successfully campaigned to save a nesting

beach used by the rare leatherback turtle near there, which was

threatened by plans to build a log pond, to store logs floated

downriver before being shipped.

``We think there are only three or four important nesting beaches in

the world and this is one of them,'' said Rumansara.

WWF persuaded the local people, who traditionally revere the turtle,

to declare the beach for conservation.

It is not an isolated case but fighting to save Irian's forests is an

uphill struggle. Until a few decades ago most of Irian Jaya's people

were living in the stone age and still lead hard and poor lives.

The temptation to cut down their forests' valuable hardwoods for

short-term gain is hard to resist.

Rumansara said WWF tries to work with them to make them understand

they can make money from their forests without cutting them down and

still have them for generations to come.

In the meantime, the loggers are running out of other rainforests to

cut.

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