The death toll from flash floods in Wasior, West Papua has now topped 120, reports the Jakarta Post.
110 people are confirmed dead and over 100 are still missing after floods and landslides hit the region around Wasior in the Indonesian part of New Guinea on Monday. Washed out bridges have left some communities isolated and communication is difficult, according to reports. Some of the injured are being evacuated by helicopter.
Indonesian officials say about 80 percent of Wasior was under water.
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Deforestation link?
Environmentalists have linked the damage to widespread logging and mining in upstream areas.
“The ecological disaster in Wasior should serve as serious warning for the government to reassess its policies on massive exploitation of natural resources,” Chalid Muhammad, chairman of the Green Indonesia Institute, an activist group, was quoted as saying during a press conference. “The policies must calculate the environmental impact of forestry activities.”
Logging, mining, and conversion to plantations in the province of West Papua currently accounts for roughly a quarter of Indonesia’s total deforestation, according to some estimates.
Chalid said the West Papua government has granted logging concessions on 3.5 million hectares, mineral and coal mining concessions on 2.7 million hectares, oil and gas exploration licenses on 7.1 million hectares, and plantation concessions on 219,000 hectares.
“If there is no review of existing licenses, the threat of future ecological disasters in West Papua will remain very high,” he was quoted as saying.
Activists say that beyond the ecological damage and threat to downstream populations, expanded industrial activity is exacerbating social conflict between the indigenous Papuan populations and non-native groups, which tend to be see the most benefits from forest extraction activities.
An investigation by the Environment Investigative Agency and Telapak in 2009 found native groups receiving only a pittance for giving up lands to forestry companies in West Papua. In one case, investigators from EIA/Telapak encountered a four year old boy, son of a local landowner, who was asked to sign a contract so that a plantation company could ensure control of the land for decades. “Up for Grabs” reports that communities are inking agreements that pay them below market rates for their land — from $1.50 to $45 per hectare. By comparison a developer can reap hundred to thousands of dollars a year from an oil palm plantation once it reaches maturity in 3-5 years.
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