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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>West Papua environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/west-papua/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Mining threat persists in Raja Ampat, Indonesia’s ‘Amazon of the Seas’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mining-threat-persists-in-raja-ampat-indonesias-amazon-of-the-seas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mining-threat-persists-in-raja-ampat-indonesias-amazon-of-the-seas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2026 14:31:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Laura Oliver]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/04142911/GP0SU7TV6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325289</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Birds, Business, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Ecosystems, Energy Transition, Environmental Policy, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mining, Natural Resources, Oceans, Pollution, Protected Areas, Sedimentation, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Raja Ampat, one of the world&#8217;s most biodiverse marine regions, remains under pressure from Indonesia&#8217;s expanding nickel industry as three companies continue to seek permission to develop nickel projects in the archipelago, according to a new Greenpeace report. Located in the heart of the Coral Triangle, in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua region, Raja Ampat [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Raja Ampat, one of the world&#8217;s most biodiverse marine regions, remains under pressure from Indonesia&#8217;s expanding nickel industry as three companies continue to seek permission to develop nickel projects in the archipelago, according to a new Greenpeace report. Located in the heart of the Coral Triangle, in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua region, Raja Ampat hosts some of the planet&#8217;s richest marine biodiversity, including around 75% of the world&#8217;s known coral species, earning it the nickname &#8220;the Amazon of the Seas.&#8221; Public concern over nickel mining in Raja Ampat erupted in 2025 after images showing forest clearing and environmental damage were shared widely on social media. A subsequent backlash prompted the Indonesian government to suspend mining operations and later revoke four of the region&#8217;s five nickel mining permits, leaving only the state-owned PT Gag Nikel mining company in operation in the region. But Raja Ampat remains vulnerable to future mining, according to Greenpeace. Its latest report identifies three companies PT Raja Ampat Nikel Abadi (RANA), PT Waegeo Mineral Mining (WMM), and PT Eka Kurnia Baru (EKB) — pursuing projects on Waigeo Island, the archipelago&#8217;s largest island and home to endemic wildlife including Wilson&#8217;s bird-of-paradise (Cicinnurus respublica), the Waigeo brushturkey (Aepypodius bruijnii), and the Waigeo spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus papuensis). In June 2025, Mongabay reported on WMM and EKB, as both companies filed lawsuits contesting the government’s refusal to officially recognize permits they have held for mining on Waigeo Island since 2023. RANA is the latest company pursuing nickel mining in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mining-threat-persists-in-raja-ampat-indonesias-amazon-of-the-seas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mining-threat-persists-in-raja-ampat-indonesias-amazon-of-the-seas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325289</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nickel mining threatens Raja Ampat ecosystems, communities &#038; conservation: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/nickel-mining-threatens-raja-ampat-ecosystems-communities-conservation-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/nickel-mining-threatens-raja-ampat-ecosystems-communities-conservation-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2025 01:43:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/12105323/Copy-of-DJI_20241223084456_0019_V-min-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307396</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Fisheries and Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Electric Cars, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mining, Nikel, Renewable Energy, and UNESCO World Heritage Site]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In a new report, marine activists are demanding restoration efforts from nickel miners and the Indonesian government for affected areas of Raja Ampat while also urging authorities to enforce the ban on mineral extraction in coastal and small island regions. The recently published paper combines geospatial analysis with field evidence to reveal mounting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In a new report, marine activists are demanding restoration efforts from nickel miners and the Indonesian government for affected areas of Raja Ampat while also urging authorities to enforce the ban on mineral extraction in coastal and small island regions. The recently published paper combines geospatial analysis with field evidence to reveal mounting ecological risks from expanding nickel mining in Raja Ampat, known as the “Crown Jewel of Marine Biodiversity.” The research maps how concessions overlap with vital coral reefs, forests and community territories within the UNESCO Global Geopark. The findings point to growing pressure on both ecosystems and the livelihoods of Indigenous and local people across the archipelago. “Our research shows that nickel mining in Raja Ampat creates a domino effect of destruction, from direct forest clearing to sediment runoff that suffocates coral reefs to the displacement of marine species that local communities depend upon,” Timer Manurung, chair of the environmental organization Auriga Nusantara, which collaborated with mining watchdog Earth Insight in the research, said in a press statement published Sept. 25. Nickel mining on Manuran Island. Image courtesy of Auriga Nusantara. The research, supported by recent field photos, has revealed how more than 22,000 hectares (54,000 acres) of nickel mining concessions continue to threaten the UNESCO Global Geopark in Raja Ampat. Using the latest geospatial analysis, the researchers mapped overlaps between mining concessions and critical ecosystems, showing risks to 2,470 hectares (6,100 acres) of coral reefs and 7,200 hectares (17,800 acres) of forest, as well as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/nickel-mining-threatens-raja-ampat-ecosystems-communities-conservation-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/nickel-mining-threatens-raja-ampat-ecosystems-communities-conservation-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307396</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Just as Raja Ampat fetches UNESCO Biosphere Reserve title, nickel mining looms</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/just-as-raja-ampat-fetches-unesco-biosphere-reserve-title-nickel-mining-looms/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/just-as-raja-ampat-fetches-unesco-biosphere-reserve-title-nickel-mining-looms/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2025 05:29:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/31195437/raja-ampat_240120005104_0355-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306953</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Electric Cars, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mining, Nikel, Renewable Energy, and UNESCO World Heritage Site]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Even as UNESCO hails Raja Ampat as a global conservation model, nickel mining threatens to carve up its forests and coral reefs. On Sept. 27, UNESCO designated 26 new biosphere reserves across 21 countries — the highest number in 20 years. Among them is Raja Ampat, strengthening its place as a flagship site [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Even as UNESCO hails Raja Ampat as a global conservation model, nickel mining threatens to carve up its forests and coral reefs. On Sept. 27, UNESCO designated 26 new biosphere reserves across 21 countries — the highest number in 20 years. Among them is Raja Ampat, strengthening its place as a flagship site of global biodiversity conservation and adding to its recognition as a UNESCO Global Geopark earned in 2023. The “dual designation” makes Raja Ampat one of the very few places on Earth honored both for its geological heritage and its biodiversity. Located off the western tip of New Guinea’s main island, the new Raja Ampat Biosphere Reserve spans 13.5 million hectares (33.4 million acres) — about the size of New York state — and encompasses some 610 islands, only 34 of them inhabited. UNESCO calls the archipelago a “living laboratory” of conservation, citing its 400-million-year-old rock formations and extraordinary marine life. Known as the “Amazon of the Seas,” Raja Ampat sits at the heart of the Coral Triangle and hosts 75% of the world’s coral species, more than 1,300 reef fish species and five species of rare or endangered turtles, including the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). A coral reef and marine life in the waters off Raja Ampat in Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Econusa. Mining threat But this international acclaim comes as mining concessions advance in the same waters and forests. A new report from Indonesian NGO Auriga Nusantara and U.S.-based Earth Insight&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/just-as-raja-ampat-fetches-unesco-biosphere-reserve-title-nickel-mining-looms/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306953</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study spotlights West Papua habitat as whale sharks face increased pressures</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/study-spotlights-west-papua-habitat-as-whale-sharks-face-increased-pressures/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/study-spotlights-west-papua-habitat-as-whale-sharks-face-increased-pressures/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Sep 2025 06:07:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/26085143/ws_Edy-Setyawan_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306620</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Fisheries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Megafauna, Oceans, Protected Areas, Saltwater Fish, Sharks, Whale Sharks, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study reports that the Bird’s Head Seascape off Indonesia’s West Papua serves as a vital habitat for juvenile male whale sharks, but lift-net fisheries, tourism boats and emerging mining activities in the region underscore the urgent need for stronger protection and management. The population demographics of the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) within the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study reports that the Bird’s Head Seascape off Indonesia’s West Papua serves as a vital habitat for juvenile male whale sharks, but lift-net fisheries, tourism boats and emerging mining activities in the region underscore the urgent need for stronger protection and management. The population demographics of the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) within the four key BHS regions (Cendrawasih Bay, Kaimana, Raja Ampat, and Fakfak) showed a dominance of juvenile males that use these habitats as nursery or foraging grounds and reducing predation risk while growing, according to the research published Aug. 28 in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. The international group of researchers also found that more than half of the whale sharks in the study had injuries from preventable human causes. “The scars and wounds we see on whale sharks are like a diary of their encounters with people,” Edy Setyawan, lead conservation scientist at the Elasmobranch Institute Indonesia who is the lead author of the paper, told Mongabay in an email. The Bird’s Head Seascape is a vital nursery for juvenile male whale sharks. Image courtesy of Edy Setyawan. Most whale shark sightings occurred in Cenderawasih Bay and Kaimana. Image courtesy of Edy Setyawan. From 2010-23, the researchers tracked 268 whale sharks across the BHS — a region hosting a network of 26 marine protected areas and a hotspot for marine megafauna and tropical marine biodiversity — using photos from scientists and citizen divers. Nearly all sightings were in Cenderawasih Bay and Kaimana, where the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/study-spotlights-west-papua-habitat-as-whale-sharks-face-increased-pressures/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/study-spotlights-west-papua-habitat-as-whale-sharks-face-increased-pressures/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Religion at a crossroads in Indonesia as Islamic groups bid to operate large-scale mines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/religion-at-a-crossroads-in-indonesia-as-islamic-groups-bid-to-operate-large-scale-mines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/religion-at-a-crossroads-in-indonesia-as-islamic-groups-bid-to-operate-large-scale-mines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Sep 2025 07:29:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ramadani Saputra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/25122338/nickel-mining-raja-ampat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306503</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Illegal Mining, Mining, Nikel, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s two biggest Islamic organizations usually seize the country’s attention twice a year, when they gather to determine when the religious holidays of Idul Fitri and Idul Adha will be celebrated. But for the past year, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah have caught the spotlight for a different reason: their decision to operate large-scale [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s two biggest Islamic organizations usually seize the country’s attention twice a year, when they gather to determine when the religious holidays of Idul Fitri and Idul Adha will be celebrated. But for the past year, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah have caught the spotlight for a different reason: their decision to operate large-scale mines in the Southeast Asian nation. Indonesia, home to 270 million people, is a top producer of coal and nickel. In 2024, then-President Joko Widodo’s administration issued a regulation enabling religious organizations to manage mines, saying it would foster economic equality. Jokowi, as he is popularly known, said at the time that “many [religious organizations] have complained to me, why is mining only delegated to big companies? We, too, would be ready to accept a concession if it were given.” Observers in civil society criticized the policy, saying it looked like payback to the organizations for supporting Jokowi’s chosen successor, Prabowo Subianto, in the February 2024 election, and that it made no sense to put management of complex industrial enterprises in the hands of faith groups. The controversy has continued with the recent uproar over a plan to mine nickel in Raja Ampat, Indonesia’s premier diving destination and coral reef hub. In a televised debate over the issue, Ulil Abshar Abdalla, the chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama’s central governing body, derisively labeled environmental groups like Greenpeace as “environmental wahhabists,” a reference to the Wahhabi sect of Islam seen as puritanical for its literal interpretation of scripture.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/religion-at-a-crossroads-in-indonesia-as-islamic-groups-bid-to-operate-large-scale-mines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/religion-at-a-crossroads-in-indonesia-as-islamic-groups-bid-to-operate-large-scale-mines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306503</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia reopens Raja Ampat nickel mine despite reef damage concerns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesia-reopens-raja-ampat-nickel-mine-despite-reef-damage-concerns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesia-reopens-raja-ampat-nickel-mine-despite-reef-damage-concerns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2025 11:04:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/12104620/GP0SU5JZQ-min-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305817</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Electric Cars, Environment, Forests, Marine Conservation, Mining, Nikel, Oceans, Pollution, Protected Areas, Supply Chain, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has allowed a controversial nickel mine to resume operating in the marine haven of Raja Ampat, despite a company-commissioned study finding the project has harmed the environment and community health in one of the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystems. State-owned miner PT Gag Nikel resumed working on Sept. 3 on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has allowed a controversial nickel mine to resume operating in the marine haven of Raja Ampat, despite a company-commissioned study finding the project has harmed the environment and community health in one of the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystems. State-owned miner PT Gag Nikel resumed working on Sept. 3 on Gag Island, a small island in the Raja Ampat archipelago, after the government lifted a moratorium imposed in June. Officials said the company had complied with environmental requirements, citing its “green” rating on the environment ministry’s annual assessment of companies’ environmental and social performance. Tri Winarno, head of mining and coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said the decision was made jointly with the environment ministry and the marine affairs ministry. A green rating, he noted, means a company is “comply[ing] with all environmental governance plus community empowerment.” Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq echoed this, adding Gag Nikel would still undergo increased monitoring. “As directed by the president, even though we did not revoke Gag’s license, the supervision must be layered. We have done this, so we will regularly increase the intensity of visits to Gag,” Hanif said as quoted by Bisnis.com. He added his ministry has introduced “additional components and variables of oversight” into the company’s environmental permit. Deforestation for nickel mining in Gag Island, Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Auriga Nusantara. But this official assessment contrasts sharply with a 2024 study funded by Gag Nikel itself, which found environmental&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesia-reopens-raja-ampat-nickel-mine-despite-reef-damage-concerns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305817</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sharks didn’t rebound—so Mark Erdmann is putting them back</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/sharks-didnt-rebound-so-mark-erdmann-is-putting-them-back/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/sharks-didnt-rebound-so-mark-erdmann-is-putting-them-back/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jul 2025 12:42:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/11183735/Mark-recovery-swim-thresher-17-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302225</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carnivores, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Ecosystems, Ecotourism, Elasmobranchs, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Green, Hope and optimism, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Restoration, Rewilding, shark finning, Sharks, Species Discovery, Technology, Tourism, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For more than three decades, Mark Erdmann has worked where many only dream of diving—on the reefs and in the tangled mangroves of Indonesia’s farthest reaches. A marine biologist by training and a conservationist by necessity, Erdmann has spent much of his life documenting new species, persuading local communities to back marine protection, and fighting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For more than three decades, Mark Erdmann has worked where many only dream of diving—on the reefs and in the tangled mangroves of Indonesia’s farthest reaches. A marine biologist by training and a conservationist by necessity, Erdmann has spent much of his life documenting new species, persuading local communities to back marine protection, and fighting off the encroachment of extractive industries. His career, by his own account, has spanned more than 220 species discoveries, a handful of close encounters with crocodiles, and the creation of a new model for shark rewilding. Erdmann’s journey began in a remote island village off the coast of South Sulawesi in 1991, where he arrived as a Ph.D. student studying coral reef ecology. His neighbors, he quickly realized, were bomb fishers and shark finners. The shift from science to action was swift. “It was clear that more than science was needed; active protection was critical,” he recalls. That realization became a life’s work. As Vice President of Asia-Pacific Marine Programs at Conservation International and now Executive Director of ReShark and Shark Conservation Director at Re:wild, Erdmann has been at the forefront of efforts to transform marine protection from a top-down regulatory exercise to a bottom-up, community-owned endeavor. Few places showcase this as clearly as Raja Ampat, the archipelago off West Papua that has become the crown jewel of Indonesian marine conservation. Wayag lagoon release site in Indonesia&#8217;s Raja Ampat. Photo by Mark Erdmann. When Erdmann first visited Raja Ampat in 2001, the coral reefs were&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/sharks-didnt-rebound-so-mark-erdmann-is-putting-them-back/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/sharks-didnt-rebound-so-mark-erdmann-is-putting-them-back/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302225</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No respite for Indonesia’s Raja Ampat as nickel companies sue to revive mines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/no-respite-for-indonesias-raja-ampat-as-nickel-companies-sue-to-revive-mines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/no-respite-for-indonesias-raja-ampat-as-nickel-companies-sue-to-revive-mines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2025 16:07:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/13160047/GP0SU5K06_Low-res-800px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300780</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, Energy, Environment, Forests, Illegal Mining, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A stormy saga over nickel mining in one of the most biodiverse marine regions in the world appears to be far from over, even after the Indonesian government revoked the permits of most of the companies involved. In the latest development, Greenpeace has revealed that three companies hit by earlier permit infractions are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A stormy saga over nickel mining in one of the most biodiverse marine regions in the world appears to be far from over, even after the Indonesian government revoked the permits of most of the companies involved. In the latest development, Greenpeace has revealed that three companies hit by earlier permit infractions are currently challenging the government in court to allow them to mine on islands in the Raja Ampat archipelago. At the same time, the government itself is planning to build a nickel processing plant nearby, according to the Greenpeace report. PT Anugerah Surya Pratama (ASP) is one of four mining companies whose permits were revoked on June 10 for alleged environmental and zoning violations, among other cited reasons. It had its permit to another concession in the archipelago, located on Waigeo Island, revoked in 2022, and earlier this year filed a lawsuit against the government over that revocation. Two other miners, PT Waegeo Mineral Mining (WMM) and PT Eka Kurnia Baru (EKB), also have lawsuits pending in court over the government’s refusal to officially recognize their permits on Waigeo Island since 2023. “These concessions could be reactivated if they won in court,” Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaign team leader Arie Rompas said in Jakarta on June 12 at the launch of the report. He added that Greenpeace is therefore calling for a complete revocation of all nickel mining permits across Raja Ampat, and for the government to not issue further licenses. “That’s why we need a legally&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/no-respite-for-indonesias-raja-ampat-as-nickel-companies-sue-to-revive-mines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/no-respite-for-indonesias-raja-ampat-as-nickel-companies-sue-to-revive-mines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300780</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia halts most nickel mining in Raja Ampat, but allows one controversial permit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/indonesia-halts-most-nickel-mining-in-raja-ampat-but-allows-one-controversial-permit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/indonesia-halts-most-nickel-mining-in-raja-ampat-but-allows-one-controversial-permit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2025 11:17:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/10112229/Greenpeace-Raja-Ampat-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300496</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Illegal Mining, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mining, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has revoked four out of five nickel mining permits in the Raja Ampat archipelago following a public outcry over mining in one of the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystems. Environmental groups have welcomed the decision, but criticized the decision not to revoke the permit for the remaining concession in Raja [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has revoked four out of five nickel mining permits in the Raja Ampat archipelago following a public outcry over mining in one of the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystems. Environmental groups have welcomed the decision, but criticized the decision not to revoke the permit for the remaining concession in Raja Ampat, held by the company PT Gag Nikel (GN). On June 10, the minister of mines, Bahlil Lahadalia announced the government had revoked the permits for four nickel mining concessions in Raja Ampat: PT Anugerah Surya Pratama (ASP), PT Kawei Sejahtera Mining (KSM), PT Mulia Raymond Perkasa (MRP), and PT Nurham. He cited environmental violations, including pollution, sedimentation and deforestation, as among the reasons for the decision. Map that shows the location of the five companies operating nickel mining in Raja Ampat, Southwest Papua, Indonesia. Situated within the Pacific Coral Triangle, Raja Ampat is widely recognized as a global epicenter of marine biodiversity, harboring 75% of all known coral species and more than 1,700 species of reef fish. The four revoked concessions were located on islands within the Raja Ampat archipelago that were designated by UNESCO as global geopark in 2023 due to their exceptional geological, ecological and cultural significance. The region boasts the oldest exposed rock formations in Indonesia, dating back some 400 million years. These ancient rocks, particularly prominent on Misool Island, represent nearly one-tenth of Earth&#8217;s geological history, offering invaluable insights into the planet&#8217;s evolution. “Based on our own inspections, these areas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/indonesia-halts-most-nickel-mining-in-raja-ampat-but-allows-one-controversial-permit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/indonesia-halts-most-nickel-mining-in-raja-ampat-but-allows-one-controversial-permit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300496</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pushback grows against nickel mining in Indonesian marine paradise of Raja Ampat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pushback-grows-against-nickel-mining-in-indonesian-marine-paradise-of-raja-ampat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pushback-grows-against-nickel-mining-in-indonesian-marine-paradise-of-raja-ampat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2025 16:57:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/07035830/6-pt-ksm-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300436</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Electric Cars, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Mining, Pollution, Rainforests, Rays, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has suspended nickel mining in the Raja Ampat archipelago, citing multiple environmental violations by companies operating in the ecologically sensitive islands. The move follows viral social media posts highlighting the expansion of nickel mines and the attendant environmental degradation in the region famous for its picturesque islets and turquoise waters, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has suspended nickel mining in the Raja Ampat archipelago, citing multiple environmental violations by companies operating in the ecologically sensitive islands. The move follows viral social media posts highlighting the expansion of nickel mines and the attendant environmental degradation in the region famous for its picturesque islets and turquoise waters, spurring a public outcry and scrutiny. Located in the heart of the Coral Triangle, Raja Ampat is globally renowned for its marine biodiversity, home to about 75% of the world’s known coral species — earning it the nickname of  the “Amazon of the seas.” A coral reef off the coast of Raja Ampat, Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Ronal Mambrasar/Konservasi Indonesia. But the archipelago now faces increasing pressure from Indonesia’s rapidly expanding nickel industry. The country is the biggest producer of the metal, a key component in the batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage applications. The government has billed its nickel policy as a push toward building a clean-energy future. But critics argue that the rapid development of the nickel industry has driven deforestation and pollution on small islands like those in the Malukus, and warn that Raja Ampat will become the next victim of the government’s ambitions. There are at least five companies with approved nickel mines in Raja Ampat: PT Gag Nikel (PT GN), PT Kawei Sejahtera Mining (PT KSM), PT Anugerah Surya Pratama (PT ASP), PT Mulia Raymond Perkasa (PT MRP) and PT Nurham. Together, they control at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pushback-grows-against-nickel-mining-in-indonesian-marine-paradise-of-raja-ampat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pushback-grows-against-nickel-mining-in-indonesian-marine-paradise-of-raja-ampat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300436</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With rare mammal tourism, observing means conserving (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/with-rare-mammal-tourism-observing-means-conserving-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/with-rare-mammal-tourism-observing-means-conserving-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Nov 2024 00:27:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles FoleyJon Hall]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/10/03142525/FEATURED-echidna-444x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289522</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Indonesia, Latin America, New Guinea, Oceania, South America, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Funding, Mammals, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the turn of this century, seeing a wild jaguar was exceptionally difficult. People driving through the Jaguar Ecological Reserve in the Pantanal in Brazil would very occasionally get a glimpse of one crossing the road, but photographing them in the wild was considered almost impossible. The same was true for other large iconic cat [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the turn of this century, seeing a wild jaguar was exceptionally difficult. People driving through the Jaguar Ecological Reserve in the Pantanal in Brazil would very occasionally get a glimpse of one crossing the road, but photographing them in the wild was considered almost impossible. The same was true for other large iconic cat species including snow leopards and puma, but just 20 years later all three species can be easily seen in a few days, in the right areas. Visitors to the Pantanal can now see multiple jaguars in just one day, and behaviors previously seldom witnessed or photographed, like hunting and mating, or mothers interacting with their cubs, are now regularly recorded. And excellent puma sightings are practically guaranteed in Chile, while snow leopards – once named the ‘grey ghost’ – are regularly seen in various locations in the Indian Himalayas, Mongolia and China. What changed? The answer is tourism. Wildlife-based tourism has long been an important income earner for many governments: think of Africa’s safari industry centered around viewing iconic large mammals or visitors to Borneo seeking mammals including orangutans, while in Madagascar, lemur watching is a vital part of the  poor country’s tourism industry. But, today, many other places – and mammals – are starting to get in on the act. The Onçafari Project in the Pantanal of Brazil caters to visitors eager to see jaguars, even in mundane places like outside of this caiman farm. Image by Onçafari Project guide Mario Nélson Cleto, who&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/with-rare-mammal-tourism-observing-means-conserving-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289522</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Past failures can’t stop Indonesia from clearing forests, Indigenous lands for farms</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/past-failures-cant-stop-indonesia-from-clearing-forests-indigenous-lands-for-farms/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/past-failures-cant-stop-indonesia-from-clearing-forests-indigenous-lands-for-farms/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Oct 2024 14:36:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/03143054/20240809_122233-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288151</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Food, food security, Forests, FPIC, Global Environmental Crisis, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rice, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indigenous Papuans say they’ve been caught off guard by helicopters flying over their villages and excavators tearing down their forests in their area, all while accompanied by the Indonesian military. What they’re being subjected to is one of the largest deforestation projects in the world, which will see the development of 1 million [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indigenous Papuans say they’ve been caught off guard by helicopters flying over their villages and excavators tearing down their forests in their area, all while accompanied by the Indonesian military. What they’re being subjected to is one of the largest deforestation projects in the world, which will see the development of 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of rice fields in Merauke, a district in Indonesia’s Papua region that borders Papua New Guinea. The military is involved in the project because it’s led by the Ministry of Defense and has been designated a project of national strategic importance. Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, who will be sworn in as Indonesia’s next president on Oct. 20, has appointed the hugely controversial Jhonlin Group to help administer the project. The military’s involvement, coupled with the lack of free, prior, informed consent (FPIC) from Indigenous communities living in the area, have fueled concerns that the project will create new conflicts in the region. Indonesia has maintained a heavy military presence in the Papua region since annexing it in 1963, with security forces frequently accused of committing human rights violations under the justification of cracking down on a low-level independence movement. The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Agriculture disseminate information regarding the food estate program at the Uli-Uli village in Ilwayab sub-district, Merauke, South Papua, Indonesia, in August 2024. Image courtesy of JhonlinMagz. ‘A war zone’ In the early months of the rice project, Indigenous Papuans living in the project area&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/past-failures-cant-stop-indonesia-from-clearing-forests-indigenous-lands-for-farms/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288151</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cost-benefit analysis exposes ‘bogus’ promises of palm oil riches for Papuans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/cost-benefit-analysis-exposes-bogus-promises-of-palm-oil-riches-for-papuans-4/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/cost-benefit-analysis-exposes-bogus-promises-of-palm-oil-riches-for-papuans-4/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Oct 2024 03:08:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/11/14225229/web_3_0167-768x411.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288149</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Palm Oil, Plantations, Pollution, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A study by an Indonesian NGO challenges government claims that oil palm cultivation is a driver of economic welfare and development, showing that the environmental and social damage from plantations in the country’s Papua region vastly outweigh any benefits. Researchers at the Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Foundation carried out a cost-benefit analysis to determine [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A study by an Indonesian NGO challenges government claims that oil palm cultivation is a driver of economic welfare and development, showing that the environmental and social damage from plantations in the country’s Papua region vastly outweigh any benefits. Researchers at the Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Foundation carried out a cost-benefit analysis to determine economic impact of the palm oil industry in Papua, the latest frontier for Indonesia’s top commodity crop. They found that palm oil investments had brought 17.64 trillion rupiah ($1.15 billion) in economic benefits and tax revenues to the region. However, the social and environmental damage from the loss of ecosystem services due to extensive deforestation and habitat loss associated with these plantations amounted to 96.63 trillion rupiah ($6.30 billion). “This translates to a cost-benefit ratio of 5.48, meaning that [palm oil] investment [in Papua] doesn’t bring benefit as much as damage,” said Wiko Saputra, an economist who led the study. “We can conclude that this is a bogus investment as proven by the cost-benefit ratio.” Indonesia’s Papua region, which makes up the western half of the island of New Guinea, is home to the largest tract of intact rainforest left in Asia. But deforestation has increased in recent years as oil palm growers who are running out of land on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo look to forge a new frontier here. Over the past two decades, the Papua region has lost 663,443 hectares (1.6 million acres) of natural forest cover, with 71% of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/cost-benefit-analysis-exposes-bogus-promises-of-palm-oil-riches-for-papuans-4/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288149</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World’s biggest deforestation project gets underway in Papua for sugarcane</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/worlds-biggest-deforestation-project-gets-underway-in-papua-for-sugarcane/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/worlds-biggest-deforestation-project-gets-underway-in-papua-for-sugarcane/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2024 16:57:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/19165137/5647Tanam_Tebu_Perdana_di_Merauke__Presiden_Jokowi_Pemerintah_Fokus_Kembangkan_Ketahanan_Pangan-768x452.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287611</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Food, food security, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Grasslands, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Land Rights, Plantations, Rainforests, Savannas, Sugar, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Excavators have begun clearing land in the Indonesian region of Papua in what’s been described as the largest deforestation undertaking in the world. A total of 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of forests, wetlands and grasslands in Merauke district will be razed to make way for a cluster of giant sugarcane plantations, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Excavators have begun clearing land in the Indonesian region of Papua in what’s been described as the largest deforestation undertaking in the world. A total of 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of forests, wetlands and grasslands in Merauke district will be razed to make way for a cluster of giant sugarcane plantations, part of the Indonesian government’s efforts to boost domestic sugar production. Five consortiums, consisting of Indonesian and foreign companies, are confirmed to be participating in the 130 trillion rupiah ($8.4 billion) project, with roles ranging from developing sugarcane plantations and processing mills, to building the power plants to run them. At least one of the companies, PT Global Papua Abadi (GPA), has already seeding its concession, with President Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, planting the first seeds in a ceremony on July 23. “I see that the land here is flat and there’s plenty of water. I think this is an opportunity to turn Merauke into Indonesia’s food barn,” the president said at the ceremony. Satellite monitoring by technology consultancy TheTreeMap has detected large land clearings inside GPA’s concession since June 2024. Using alerts data from Nusantara Atlas, a forest monitoring platform run by TheTreeMap, the organization found at least 356 hectares (880 acres) of forest cleared during that time. Timelapse of deforestation within PT Global Papua Abadi&#8217;s concession. Image courtesy of TheTreeMap. This is contrary to the government’s claims that it will mitigate the environmental impact of the sugarcane project by avoiding forested areas as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/worlds-biggest-deforestation-project-gets-underway-in-papua-for-sugarcane/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/worlds-biggest-deforestation-project-gets-underway-in-papua-for-sugarcane/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287611</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>#AllEyesonPapua goes viral to highlight threat to Indigenous forests from palm oil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alleyesonpapua-goes-viral-to-highlight-threat-to-indigenous-forests-from-palm-oil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alleyesonpapua-goes-viral-to-highlight-threat-to-indigenous-forests-from-palm-oil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jun 2024 10:02:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/07094358/GP0SU0TGD_Medium-res-1200px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283043</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Business, Climate Change, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Culture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Resource Conflict, Social Conflict, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A campaign calling for the protection of Indigenous peoples’ customary forests in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has gone viral, with the campaign’s poster shared nearly 3 million times on Instagram. The poster contains a link into an online petition that calls for the revocation of an oil palm concession threatening to clear [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A campaign calling for the protection of Indigenous peoples’ customary forests in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has gone viral, with the campaign’s poster shared nearly 3 million times on Instagram. The poster contains a link into an online petition that calls for the revocation of an oil palm concession threatening to clear the ancestral forests of the Awyu tribe (also spelled Auyu). As of June 7, the petition has garnered more than 225,000 signatures, exceeding the campaigners’ initial goal of 200,000 signatures and nearing the new goal of 300,000. A video of a demonstration by the Indigenous Papuans outside Indonesia’s Supreme Court has been widely shared on social media as well. Made by the nonprofit WeSpeakUp.org, the video has been viewed more than 3.9 million times and shared nearly 15,000 times on TikTok. The campaign uses the hashtag #AllEyesonPapua, a riff on the #AllEyesonRafah hashtag used as a rallying cry to draw attention to Israeli attacks on civilian refuges in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. https://www.tiktok.com/@wespeakuporg/video/7374034516425411846 The Papua campaign aims to raise awareness of the risk to tribal forests from clear-cutting inside four oil palm concessions in Boven Digoel and Sorong districts. The four companies plan to establish more than 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres) of plantations — an area twice the size of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta — that will overlap with the tribes’ lands. Three of the concessions are in Boven Digoel district, where they form part of the Tanah Merah mega plantation project; the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alleyesonpapua-goes-viral-to-highlight-threat-to-indigenous-forests-from-palm-oil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283043</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Beyond deforestation, oil palm estates pose flood and water contamination risks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/beyond-deforestation-oil-palm-estates-pose-flood-and-water-contamination-risks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/beyond-deforestation-oil-palm-estates-pose-flood-and-water-contamination-risks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2024 10:58:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/05135821/20210919_135411-scaled-e1633443446640-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282326</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Chemicals, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Fertilizers, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Palm Oil, Plantations, Pollution, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Water, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Briantama Asmara first visited the village of Kais in Indonesian Papua, on the island of New Guinea, in 2017 as an university researcher. The village lies two time zones away from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, but it takes a four-hour flight, followed by a four-hour car ride and a three-hour boat trip to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Briantama Asmara first visited the village of Kais in Indonesian Papua, on the island of New Guinea, in 2017 as an university researcher. The village lies two time zones away from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, but it takes a four-hour flight, followed by a four-hour car ride and a three-hour boat trip to get there. The Indigenous Kais people are named after the river that flows through their land, and rely on its water for bathing, washing, drinking and fishing. Back then, Briantama says, the river water was still relatively clean and the villagers weren’t complaining. But by the time he returned in 2022, there had been dramatic changes to the region’s watershed. Several companies had moved into the area and started clearing the forests for oil palm plantations. At least one-quarter of the watershed, about 61,200 hectares (151,200 acres), has been allocated for three private oil palm concessions held by a single conglomerate. As of 2021, it had cleared nearly 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) to plant oil palms. “The villagers had started to feel the impact, such as flooding and a decrease in water quality,” Briantama, who now works as a GIS analyst at the World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia, told Mongabay. “The villagers go fishing every day. Now they have to go further into the river mouth to catch fish.” Map of the Kais River watershed of West Papua, Indonesia. Oil palm plantations have long been known to cause biodiversity loss when they’re established by clearing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/beyond-deforestation-oil-palm-estates-pose-flood-and-water-contamination-risks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282326</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rewilding program ships eggs around the world to restore Raja Ampat zebra sharks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/rewilding-program-ships-eggs-around-the-world-to-restore-raja-ampat-zebra-sharks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/rewilding-program-ships-eggs-around-the-world-to-restore-raja-ampat-zebra-sharks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2024 17:21:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/08163229/53136044389_48d065eff2_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280731</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Australia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, United States, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Illegal Trade, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Protected Areas, Rewilding, Saving Species From Extinction, shark finning, Sharks, Species, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Rehabilitation, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RAJA AMPAT, Indonesia — Nearly a million people visit the Shark Reef Aquarium on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada every year. There’s a chance they see zebra sharks (Stegostoma tigrinum) among the more than 15 shark species roaming the aquarium. But they might not be aware that those zebra sharks are a part of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RAJA AMPAT, Indonesia — Nearly a million people visit the Shark Reef Aquarium on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada every year. There’s a chance they see zebra sharks (Stegostoma tigrinum) among the more than 15 shark species roaming the aquarium. But they might not be aware that those zebra sharks are a part of a rewilding project that tries to save the shark from extinction — the first of its kind in the world. In 2023, eggs from the aquarium sharks were shipped more than 12,100 kilometers (7,500 miles) to the Raja Ampat archipelago in eastern Indonesia. A couple of them recently hatched, with two new sharks emerging, named Buddy and Marshal. Both sharks are now being kept in a nursery on the island of Kri, hosted by the Raja Ampat Research and Conservation Centre (RARCC), a nonprofit of Papua Diving. When Mongabay visited the hatchery at the end of January, the two juvenile sharks were kept in separate tanks. They were being fed daily, with food that is naturally available in their habitat, to the point where they would be strong enough to be released into the wild. A Zebra shark named Buddy swimming in a tank at a hatchery in Raja Ampat. Image by Ridzki R. Sigit/Mongabay. The shark rewilding project, called StAR (Stegostoma tigrinum Augmentation and Recovery) project, is an initiative that focuses on restoring zebra shark populations back to their natural habitat. Only 20 zebra sharks are estimated to remain in Raja Ampat due to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/rewilding-program-ships-eggs-around-the-world-to-restore-raja-ampat-zebra-sharks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280731</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Raja Ampat, pearl farming balances business and ecological sustainability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/pearl-farming-raja-ampat-indonesia-marine-fisheries-pacific-business-sustainability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/pearl-farming-raja-ampat-indonesia-marine-fisheries-pacific-business-sustainability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Mar 2024 13:55:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/19121612/9-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279998</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Fisheries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Crime, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fisheries, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Illegal Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Sedimentation, Sustainability, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RAJA AMPAT, Indonesia — Tucked in the curve of a bay in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, a floating structure appears like the tip of an iceberg. Below the surface, it’s teeming with oysters bearing pearls. Marina de Olivera Kaesnube, 27, is about to start her workday on a January morning. Her office is the floating [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RAJA AMPAT, Indonesia — Tucked in the curve of a bay in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, a floating structure appears like the tip of an iceberg. Below the surface, it’s teeming with oysters bearing pearls. Marina de Olivera Kaesnube, 27, is about to start her workday on a January morning. Her office is the floating cage that holds thousands of Pinctada maxima pearl oysters. She has one job to do, but it’s arguably the most important: injecting a bead, known as the nucleus, into each oyster’s tissue. It’s around this nucleus that the oyster will secrete layer after layer of nacre, eventually yielding a highly prized pearl. “Besides earning a living, I decided to join because I was interested in learning about pearl oyster farming, especially in this surgery process,” Marina tells Mongabay. The marine ecosystem of the Raja Ampat Islands in the Indonesian province of West Papua forms a global biodiversity hotspot, with much of its waters still healthy. This tiny archipelago is a natural habitat for pearl oysters in Southeast Asia, where pearling has a long history. In the nearby Sulu and Celebes Seas and Aru Islands, harvesting of pearls from oysters in the wild is the main form of the pearling industry. Throughout centuries of pearling, there was little thought given to the long-term sustainability of grabbing oysters from the seafloor, shucking them open to get the pearl, and killing them in the process. It was commonly believed that depleted oyster populations would replenish quickly from untouched&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/pearl-farming-raja-ampat-indonesia-marine-fisheries-pacific-business-sustainability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279998</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil deforestation makes comeback in Indonesia after decade-long slump</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/palm-oil-deforestation-makes-comeback-in-indonesia-after-decade-long-slump/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/palm-oil-deforestation-makes-comeback-in-indonesia-after-decade-long-slump/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2024 07:33:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/02122034/linus_kaltim_DJI_0116-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278801</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Deforestation by the palm oil industry in Indonesia increased in 2023 for the second year in a row, bucking a decade of gradual decline, according to an analysis by technology consultancy TheTreeMap. Palm oil companies in Indonesia, the world’s top producer of the commodity, cleared 30,000 hectares (about 74,100 acres) of forest last [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Deforestation by the palm oil industry in Indonesia increased in 2023 for the second year in a row, bucking a decade of gradual decline, according to an analysis by technology consultancy TheTreeMap. Palm oil companies in Indonesia, the world’s top producer of the commodity, cleared 30,000 hectares (about 74,100 acres) of forest last year to make way for plantations, up from 22,000 hectares (54,400 acres) in 2022. These increases mark the end of a declining trend that began after the record 227,000 hectares (561,000 acres) — an area nearly twice the size of Los Angeles — of deforestation in 2012. Expansion of industrial oil palm plantations in Indonesia by year from 2001 to 2023 with emphasis on forest conversion. White bars represent the oil palm-driven deforestation or the areas of forest cleared and converted to plantations in the same year. The black bars represent areas of non-forest converted to oil palm. The sum of white and black bars represents the area of plantation added each year. Here, ‘Forest’ is old-growth, high carbon and high conservation value. ref to Gaveau et al. 2022 for methods and definitions. France-based TheTreeMap used plantation concession data from Greenpeace to identify 53 companies behind the plantation expansion and resulting deforestation, of which 20 had cleared carbon-rich peatlands. The single biggest deforester was the company Ciliandry Anky Abadi (CAA), whose three subsidiaries deforested 2,302 hectares (5,688 acres) across their concessions. A recent investigation by The Gecko Project has linked CAA to Indonesian conglomerate First&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/palm-oil-deforestation-makes-comeback-in-indonesia-after-decade-long-slump/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278801</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In first for Indonesia, government recognizes Indigenous Papuans’ ancestral forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/in-first-for-indonesia-government-recognizes-indigenous-papuans-ancestral-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/in-first-for-indonesia-government-recognizes-indigenous-papuans-ancestral-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Dec 2022 06:32:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Asrida ElisabethHans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/01062254/KMAN-4-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263144</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has recognized community claims to ancestral forests in the country’s eastern Papua region for the first time in history, a move that environmentalists say could help preserving one of most biodiverse regions on the planet. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry on Oct. 24 handed over decrees that recognized customary forests [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has recognized community claims to ancestral forests in the country’s eastern Papua region for the first time in history, a move that environmentalists say could help preserving one of most biodiverse regions on the planet. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry on Oct. 24 handed over decrees that recognized customary forests for seven Papuan Indigenous groups. The groups are the Syuglue Woi Yansu (who received title to 16,493 hectares, or 40,755 acres), Yano Akrua (2,226 hectares, or 5,500 acres), Yano Meyu (501 hectares, or 1,238 acres), Yosu Desoyo (3,394 hectares, or 8,387 acres), Yano Wai (594 hectares, or 1,468 acres), Yano Takwobleng (405 hectares, or 1,468 acres), and Ogoney (16,299 hectares, or 40,276 acres). The Ogoney forests are in West Papua province, while the rest are in Papua province’s Jayapura district. Together, they span 39,911 hectares (98,622 acres), an area half the size of New York City. Indigenous rights activists and agrarian experts say official acknowledgment of their customary forest rights has been a long time coming for communities in Papua. “It’s about time Papuans get recognition,” Rina Mardiana, head of the agrarian studies program at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), told Mongabay. “Since colonial times, Indigenous peoples have been sidelined, and it has only gotten worse after Indonesia gained independence. Their identities are decaying and their lands are turned into objects for [economic] development.” The recognition came nearly a decade after the nation’s highest court ruled in 2013 that customary forests should not be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/in-first-for-indonesia-government-recognizes-indigenous-papuans-ancestral-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263144</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Indonesian Papua, a one-time gun trafficker now preaches permaculture</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/in-indonesian-papua-a-one-time-gun-trafficker-now-preaches-permaculture/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/in-indonesian-papua-a-one-time-gun-trafficker-now-preaches-permaculture/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Aug 2022 00:23:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tantowi Djauhari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/29161157/Mbah-Gimbal-planting-with-care-for-nature-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259703</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Education, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Happy-upbeat Environmental, and Subsistence Agriculture]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SORONG, Indonesia — Thriving across half a hectare in the hills of West Papua’s Mariat district are mustard greens, long beans, spinach, chilies and tomatoes. There’s also fruit such as watermelon and soursop, and tubers including taro, cassava and sweet potatoes. These bountiful crops have all been planted by Mbah Gimbal, who once sold illegal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SORONG, Indonesia — Thriving across half a hectare in the hills of West Papua’s Mariat district are mustard greens, long beans, spinach, chilies and tomatoes. There’s also fruit such as watermelon and soursop, and tubers including taro, cassava and sweet potatoes. These bountiful crops have all been planted by Mbah Gimbal, who once sold illegal firearms but now shares the principles of permaculture in one of Indonesia’s poorest regions. When he established the farm in 2018, on land next to a graveyard, Mbah Gimbal first planted porang, a type of tuber commonly found in the area. Since then, 2,500 porang seeds have grown into seedlings. Originally from Malang in East Java province, Eko Task Kusno Setio, who goes by Mbah Gimbal (a nod to his prominent dreadlocks, known in Indonesian as rambut gimbal, or “messy hair”), practices permaculture, a model of farming that prioritizes balance and sustainability and is supported by patterns of permanent agriculture. “This is the culture of our ancestors that was lost, and which must be developed again,” he said in an interview. “These days, so-called modern agriculture, modern farming, doesn’t use conservation principles. In permaculture, it is these principles that are most important.” For Mbah Gimbal, agricultural modernization is “nonsense” and exacerbates environmental damage. Directly or indirectly, farmers are taught to depend on chemicals. That means all their needs, from seeds to fertilizers and medicines, can’t be separated from industrial production methods, Mbah Gimbal said. This, he added, all boils down to capitalist business interests. With&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/in-indonesian-papua-a-one-time-gun-trafficker-now-preaches-permaculture/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/in-indonesian-papua-a-one-time-gun-trafficker-now-preaches-permaculture/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259703</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ray care center: Indonesia’s Raja Ampat a key nursery for young reef mantas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/ray-care-center-indonesias-raja-ampat-a-key-nursery-for-young-reef-mantas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/ray-care-center-indonesias-raja-ampat-a-key-nursery-for-young-reef-mantas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2022 15:22:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/09082633/1653951580974-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256998</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Fisheries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Megafauna, Oceans, Protected Areas, Rays, Saltwater Fish, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Researchers have confirmed that a lagoon in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, a popular dive site, is a nursery for newborn and juvenile manta rays, cementing the area’s status as a key sanctuary for the species. In a recently published study, scientists in Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand concluded that Wayag Lagoon in Raja [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Researchers have confirmed that a lagoon in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, a popular dive site, is a nursery for newborn and juvenile manta rays, cementing the area’s status as a key sanctuary for the species. In a recently published study, scientists in Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand concluded that Wayag Lagoon in Raja Ampat, in West Papua province, is a globally rare nursery for juveniles of the reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi). Identified nurseries for the rays typically lack proof of long-term and continuous stays by juveniles, which is one of three requirements — described in a 2007 study — for confirming a nursery. The other requirements include common encounters of young rays and repeated use by juveniles of the site. Wayag is just one of four areas in the Raja Ampat archipelago that have been identified as potential M. alfredi nurseries, and is the most studied one. If the other three are also confirmed by scientists, it would solidify the status of at least two Indonesian protected areas — Raja Ampat and Komodo National Park — as key sanctuaries for manta rays. “Around the world, there’s much work to be done in confirming and protecting manta ray nurseries, and hopefully this study will encourage researchers and conservationists to take on more of these projects,” study lead author Edy Setyawan, a marine scientist at the University of Auckland, said in a press release. Wayag Lagoon in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago. Image courtesy of the University of Auckland. For&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/ray-care-center-indonesias-raja-ampat-a-key-nursery-for-young-reef-mantas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/ray-care-center-indonesias-raja-ampat-a-key-nursery-for-young-reef-mantas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256998</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Legal defeats pile up for palm oil companies stripped of permits in Papua</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/legal-defeats-pile-up-for-palm-oil-companies-stripped-of-permits-in-papua/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/legal-defeats-pile-up-for-palm-oil-companies-stripped-of-permits-in-papua/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 May 2022 10:26:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/21131949/palm-oil-company-clearing-forest-Papua-Indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256511</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Business, Conflict, Corporations, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A court in Indonesia has dismissed lawsuits filed by two palm oil companies against a district head who revoked their permits over various violations. The May 23 rulings mark the latest in a string of legal defeats for palm oil companies who lost their licenses to operate in Indonesia’s West Papua province. PT [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A court in Indonesia has dismissed lawsuits filed by two palm oil companies against a district head who revoked their permits over various violations. The May 23 rulings mark the latest in a string of legal defeats for palm oil companies who lost their licenses to operate in Indonesia’s West Papua province. PT Anugerah Sakti Internusa (ASI) and PT Persada Utama Agromulia (PUA) had filed separate lawsuits on Dec. 29, 2021, against Samsuddin Anggiluli, the head of South Sorong district in West Papua province. But the judges hearing the cases in the Jayapura State Administrative Court ruled that the revocations ordered by Samsuddin, on the basis of various legal and administrative violations by the companies, was justified. “This ruling highly upholds the sense of justice, especially for the preservation of the environment in Papua,” Pieter Ell, a lawyer representing Samsuddin, told local media. The lawyer representing both companies, Iwan Niode, said that the judges’ argument that the lawsuits were submitted after the deadline had passed was not valid. “It’s clear that we will appeal the verdict because the judges didn’t take into account our administrative objections,” he told local media. In December 2021, the same court threw out similar lawsuits against the head of neighboring Sorong district that had been filed by two other companies whose licenses were also revoked. A month later, the court also rejected two lawsuits filed by a third company against the Sorong district head. The permit revocations were carried out in May 2021 following a province-wide audit&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/legal-defeats-pile-up-for-palm-oil-companies-stripped-of-permits-in-papua/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/legal-defeats-pile-up-for-palm-oil-companies-stripped-of-permits-in-papua/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256511</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fisher groups are the marine militia in Indonesia’s war on illegal fishing</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/fisher-groups-are-the-marine-militia-in-indonesias-war-on-illegal-fishing/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/fisher-groups-are-the-marine-militia-in-indonesias-war-on-illegal-fishing/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2022 15:25:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/06101340/IMG_3063-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255538</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Fisheries and Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Crime, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fisheries, Gender, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Illegal Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RAJA AMPAT, Indonesia — Esterlita Jabu says she still remembers the gut-wrenching horror of hearing explosions from blast fishers near the beach where she played as a child with her friends. “Not only you could hear it, but also you could feel the vibrations,” she tells Mongabay during a visit to her village on the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RAJA AMPAT, Indonesia — Esterlita Jabu says she still remembers the gut-wrenching horror of hearing explosions from blast fishers near the beach where she played as a child with her friends. “Not only you could hear it, but also you could feel the vibrations,” she tells Mongabay during a visit to her village on the island of Mutus in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago. Today, 33-year-old Esterlita is a member of the island’s community volunteer group that patrols the waters for illegal and destructive fishing. Methods such as blast fishing and cyanide fishing flourished in the waters of Raja Ampat since the 1980s in response to rising commercial seafood demand. By 2006, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing accounted for 20% of the total reef fish catch. These practices have also been blamed by local fishers for causing declines in fish catch and posing the greatest threat to fisheries resources. Esterlita Jabu, left, is a member of the Pokmaswas, a community-run marine surveillance group, on Mutus Island in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago. Image by Basten Gokkon/Mongabay. Indonesia’s marine area covers 5.8 million square kilometers (2.2 million square miles) and is home to the highest coral reef fish diversity in the world. High levels of monitoring, surveillance and enforcement are needed to effectively prevent destructive fishing and protect marine resources, experts say. However, regular patrols are costly and limited due to lack of infrastructure and human resources, especially for a massive archipelago like Indonesia with its thousands of islands. The fisheries ministry&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/fisher-groups-are-the-marine-militia-in-indonesias-war-on-illegal-fishing/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255538</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A seagrass restoration project to preserve the past may also protect the future</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/a-seagrass-restoration-project-to-preserve-the-past-may-also-protect-the-future/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/a-seagrass-restoration-project-to-preserve-the-past-may-also-protect-the-future/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2022 06:23:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/02075141/20220325_103037-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255357</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Fisheries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mongabay Data Studio, Oceans, Seagrass, Sedimentation, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[WEST YENSAWAI, Indonesia — Linani Arifin says she never thought the flapping seagrass growing along the beach in her hometown in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago would be key to protecting the graveyard of her ancestors. Seagrass, an underwater flowering plant, covers much of the 45,300-hectare (112,000-acre) Batanta Island, where Linani was born and raised. “We [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[WEST YENSAWAI, Indonesia — Linani Arifin says she never thought the flapping seagrass growing along the beach in her hometown in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago would be key to protecting the graveyard of her ancestors. Seagrass, an underwater flowering plant, covers much of the 45,300-hectare (112,000-acre) Batanta Island, where Linani was born and raised. “We call it andoi here,” the 40-year-old tells Mongabay during a visit in March to her village of West Yensawai. Like many in the village, Linani had noticed the gradual erosion spreading along the island’s coast. The seagrass meadows were becoming patchy, while the mangrove thickets were slowly thinning. The biggest red flag, Linani says, was when the coastline had clearly crept close to the only graveyard on Batanta. Linani Arifin, 40, is the leader of a seagrass restoration group in West Yensawai village, on the island of Batanta. Image by Basten Gokkon/Mongabay. Globally, seagrasses are disappearing at rates that rival those of coral reefs and tropical rainforests, losing as much as 7% of their area each year, according to the IUCN. Threats to seagrass meadows come from climate change, pollution, coastal development, and the spread of invasive species. More than 70 species of seagrass worldwide cover a global area estimated at up to 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) — an area larger than the island of Madagascar. Indonesia is widely considered an important country for seagrass conservation. Researchers in 1994 estimated that the country housed 30,000 km2 (11,600 mi2) of seagrass, perhaps the world’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/a-seagrass-restoration-project-to-preserve-the-past-may-also-protect-the-future/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/a-seagrass-restoration-project-to-preserve-the-past-may-also-protect-the-future/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255357</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plan to carve up Indonesian Papua rings alarm over fate of people and forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/plan-to-carve-up-indonesian-papua-rings-alarm-over-fate-of-people-and-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/plan-to-carve-up-indonesian-papua-rings-alarm-over-fate-of-people-and-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Apr 2022 14:01:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/05135821/20210919_135411-scaled-e1633443446640-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254846</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government’s plan to administratively split the country’s easternmost region of Papua into five provinces, from the current two, has raised concerns that its forests and natural resources will be at higher risk of being plundered. The idea has been floated for several years, and picked up steam this year, with lawmakers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government’s plan to administratively split the country’s easternmost region of Papua into five provinces, from the current two, has raised concerns that its forests and natural resources will be at higher risk of being plundered. The idea has been floated for several years, and picked up steam this year, with lawmakers throwing their support behind the idea. During a parliamentary hearing on April 6, lawmakers officially endorsed the plan by agreeing to proceed with the discussion of three bills that would serve as the legal basis for the new provinces. Under the plan, the map of the western half of the island of New Guinea, currently comprised of the provinces of Papua and West Papua, would be redrawn to include the provinces of Central Papua, Central Mountains Papua, and South Papua. The rationale from parliament and the government is that this administrative remapping will speed up development and reduce economic disparity. Having five smaller provinces rather than two big ones will “serve Papuans better,” Puan Maharani, the parliamentary speaker and a senior member of President Joko Widodo&#8217;s ruling party, said as reported by local media. Map of the Papua region, which is divided into two provinces: Papua and West Papua. Development rationale Despite being rich in natural resources, the Papua region has the highest levels of poverty in the country and scores the lowest on human development parameters such as health and education. This is partly due to Papua’s remoteness from Indonesia’s economic heartland in Java&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/plan-to-carve-up-indonesian-papua-rings-alarm-over-fate-of-people-and-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/plan-to-carve-up-indonesian-papua-rings-alarm-over-fate-of-people-and-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254846</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Spurred by investor-friendly law, palm oil firms sue to get licenses back</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/spurred-by-investor-friendly-law-palm-oil-firms-sue-to-get-licenses-back/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/spurred-by-investor-friendly-law-palm-oil-firms-sue-to-get-licenses-back/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jan 2022 08:58:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/25083523/WhatsApp-Image-2022-01-08-at-1.21.51-PM-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251957</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Reform, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Palm oil companies in Indonesia’s West Papua province are suing a local district head for revoking their permits, the second such case filed since authorities last year rescinded licenses for concessions covering an area twice the size of Los Angeles. Concession holders PT Anugerah Sakti Internusa (ASI) and PT Persada Utama Agromulia (PUA) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Palm oil companies in Indonesia’s West Papua province are suing a local district head for revoking their permits, the second such case filed since authorities last year rescinded licenses for concessions covering an area twice the size of Los Angeles. Concession holders PT Anugerah Sakti Internusa (ASI) and PT Persada Utama Agromulia (PUA) filed separate suits on Dec. 29, 2021, against Samsuddin Anggiluli, the head of South Sorong district in West Papua province. The companies are asking the state administrative court in Jayapura, in neighboring Papua province, to restore their permits after they were scrapped by Samsuddin and his administration for a litany of violations. In response to the filing, Samsuddin said the permit revocation was entirely justified. “We’re ready to face the lawsuits,” he said as quoted by local media. “We, as district heads, of course have clear proof and basis for revoking the oil palm companies’ permits.” The filing comes weeks after the same court threw out similar lawsuits against the head of neighboring Sorong district that had been filed by two other companies whose licenses were also revoked. Earlier this month, the court also rejected two lawsuits filed by a third company against the Sorong district head. The permit revocations were carried out in May 2021 following a province-wide audit of oil palm plantation licenses, which was started in 2018 and found widespread administrative and legal violations by the concession holders. According to the audit, PUA had secured a location permit for 12,100 hectares (29,900&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/spurred-by-investor-friendly-law-palm-oil-firms-sue-to-get-licenses-back/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251957</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Papua court ruling a win for local government, Indigenous groups against palm oil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/papua-court-ruling-a-win-for-local-government-indigenous-groups-against-palm-oil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/papua-court-ruling-a-win-for-local-government-indigenous-groups-against-palm-oil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2021 08:14:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/13080851/Foto-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250491</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A court in Indonesia has rejected a bid by two palm oil companies to have their permits restored after they were scrapped by local authorities for a litany of violations. For the Indigenous peoples whose territory fell within the companies’ concessions, the ruling offers a rare chance to finally have their land rights [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A court in Indonesia has rejected a bid by two palm oil companies to have their permits restored after they were scrapped by local authorities for a litany of violations. For the Indigenous peoples whose territory fell within the companies’ concessions, the ruling offers a rare chance to finally have their land rights officially recognized. On Dec. 7, state administrative court in Jayapura, Papua province, dismissed the lawsuits filed by PT Papua Lestari Abadi (PLA) and PT Sorong Agro Sawitindo (SAS) against the decision made by the district government of Sorong in West Papua province to revoke their permits. The Sorong government rescinded the permits of three companies on April 27, after years of struggle by Indigenous communities in the region to get their land rights recognized and defend their territories from palm oil companies. In justifying the decision, the government said the companies had failed to fulfill their obligations as laid out in the plantation permits, such as reporting the progress of their operations, updating changes to their shareholding, and keeping their location permits up to date. The three companies also lacked a right-to-cultivate permit, or HGU, the last in a series of licenses that oil palm companies must obtain before being allowed to start planting. The violations were uncovered during a province-wide audit of oil palm plantation licenses, which was started in 2018 and found widespread administrative and legal violations, including lack of necessary licenses and land abandonment. The audit was jointly carried out by various government institutions,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/papua-court-ruling-a-win-for-local-government-indigenous-groups-against-palm-oil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250491</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Papua clan takes first step toward official recognition of land rights</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/papua-clan-takes-first-step-toward-official-recognition-of-land-rights/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/papua-clan-takes-first-step-toward-official-recognition-of-land-rights/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Nov 2021 10:20:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas JongNatalia Laurensia Carmelia Yewen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/26101512/WhatsApp-Image-2021-10-15-at-1.06.39-PM-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249926</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SORONG, Indonesia — An Indigenous clan in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has had its rights to its ancestral lands and forests recognized by the local government, a key step toward acknowledgment at the national level. On Oct. 15, Sorong district head Johny Kamuru issued a decree recognizing the rights of the Gelek Malak Kalawilis [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SORONG, Indonesia — An Indigenous clan in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has had its rights to its ancestral lands and forests recognized by the local government, a key step toward acknowledgment at the national level. On Oct. 15, Sorong district head Johny Kamuru issued a decree recognizing the rights of the Gelek Malak Kalawilis Pasa clan members to their lands and forests, which span an area of 3,247 hectares (8,023 acres). The decree is the first of its kind in Sorong, West Papua province, and it pushes the Indigenous clan a step closer to having its rights officially recognized by the central government. By issuing the decree, Johny said, the rights of the Indigenous peoples will be better protected and they will be able to manage their lands and forests to improve their welfare. “Don’t take this rights recognition for granted,” he said. Matias Komegi, a member of the West Papuan People’s Assembly, an official state institution comprising tribal chiefs tasked with arbitration and speaking on behalf of Papuan tribal customs, said he appreciated the Sorong district head’s decision to issue the decree. “Indigenous peoples have to have sovereignty on their own lands,” he said. The LMA, the umbrella organization for Indigenous communities in Sorong, said the decree was a long time coming. “Through this recognition, [Indigenous] peoples will be stronger in protecting their ancestral lands and forests,” said Silas Kalami, the chief of the Indigenous Malamoi peoples under the LMA. “If lands and forests are no longer [there],&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/papua-clan-takes-first-step-toward-official-recognition-of-land-rights/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249926</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Papuans won their forest back from a palm oil firm, but still lack land title</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/indigenous-papuans-won-their-forest-back-from-a-palm-oil-firm-but-still-lack-land-title/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/indigenous-papuans-won-their-forest-back-from-a-palm-oil-firm-but-still-lack-land-title/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Oct 2021 14:18:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/27140528/20210919_172131-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248629</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SORONG, West Papua — Indigenous people in Indonesia’s West Papua province are fighting for the rights to their ancestral forests, now that the local government has rescinded licenses for oil palm concessions on their lands. For years, the residents of Segun village in West Papua’s Sorong district feared that their forests would be razed to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SORONG, West Papua — Indigenous people in Indonesia’s West Papua province are fighting for the rights to their ancestral forests, now that the local government has rescinded licenses for oil palm concessions on their lands. For years, the residents of Segun village in West Papua’s Sorong district feared that their forests would be razed to make way for the overlapping concession awarded to PT Sorong Agro Sawitindo (SAS), a palm oil company. So the announcement in April by Sorong district head Johny Kamuru that the concession had been revoked came as a major relief for the villagers. In revoking the company’s permits, Johny’s administration cited myriad violations, including SAS’s failure to obtain a right-to-cultivate permit, or HGU, the last in a series of licenses that oil palm companies must obtain before being allowed to start planting. As a result, the concession had been left uncultivated and abandoned for years. “We are really grateful for the Sorong district head,” Felix Magalik, a Segun village elder, says. “I really support the district head’s [decision] because that’s what’s right for the future of our children and grandchildren.” Yet despite the permit revocation, the villagers’ rights to their ancestral forests still hasn’t been officially recognized by the government. In fact, no ancestral forests in the region have been recognized as such by the national government, and the process to gain this legal recognition is usually a costly and time-consuming one. The Segun villagers are now asking the government to grant them legal recognition to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/indigenous-papuans-won-their-forest-back-from-a-palm-oil-firm-but-still-lack-land-title/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248629</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Loss of oil palm permits leaves Papuan villages uncertain and fearful</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/loss-of-oil-palm-permits-leaves-papuan-villages-uncertain-and-fearful/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/loss-of-oil-palm-permits-leaves-papuan-villages-uncertain-and-fearful/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2021 14:21:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/05135821/20210919_135411-scaled-e1633443446640-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247836</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SORONG, West Papua — With its lush rainforests and long stretches of beaches, Waimon, a coastal village in Indonesia’s West Papua province, seems like an idyllic place. But some residents consider it a hostile, almost inhospitable place due to its remoteness and the heavy rains that can make traveling by boat a deadly prospect. “Living [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SORONG, West Papua — With its lush rainforests and long stretches of beaches, Waimon, a coastal village in Indonesia’s West Papua province, seems like an idyllic place. But some residents consider it a hostile, almost inhospitable place due to its remoteness and the heavy rains that can make traveling by boat a deadly prospect. “Living in Waimon is like  gambling with our lives,” says Hendrikus Malalu, a resident. “God still loves us — if he didn’t, we’d all have perished by now.” The only way for the villagers to travel to other parts of the region is by sea; there’s no road access. The village also only has electricity at night, when the villagers turn on their diesel-powered generators. Amid these restrictions, two of the three clans in the village welcomed a palm oil company that promised them a better life as the only way out. And now that the permits of the company, PT Papua Lestari Abadi (PLA), have been revoked by the government of Sorong district, where the village is located, the Indigenous people there have been left questioning their future and afraid of the fallout of the revocation. Waimon village in West Papua, Indonesia. Image by Hans Nicholas Jong/Mongabay. Permits revoked PLA was one of several palm oil companies that saw their permits revoked following a government audit in West Papua province, which is home to some of the largest swaths of intact forest left in Indonesia. The audit itself was part of a moratorium by the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/loss-of-oil-palm-permits-leaves-papuan-villages-uncertain-and-fearful/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247836</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New Zealand developer denies key role in giant palm oil project in Indonesia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/new-zealand-developer-denies-key-role-in-giant-palm-oil-project-in-indonesia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/new-zealand-developer-denies-key-role-in-giant-palm-oil-project-in-indonesia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Sep 2021 18:32:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bonnie SumnerMelanie Reid]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/25073949/A14I0621-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247509</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia, New Guinea, New Zealand, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From above, the satellite image shows two insignificant dark-colored shapes, like a couple of missing puzzle pieces in a flat sea of green. But on the ground, they represent devastation. This innocuous picture illustrates the beginning of what is earmarked to become the world’s largest palm oil plantation, replacing one of the last remaining rainforests [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From above, the satellite image shows two insignificant dark-colored shapes, like a couple of missing puzzle pieces in a flat sea of green. But on the ground, they represent devastation. This innocuous picture illustrates the beginning of what is earmarked to become the world’s largest palm oil plantation, replacing one of the last remaining rainforests on earth. Two years ago, the Tanah Merah megaproject began clearing just 230 hectares in Papua, the Indonesian controlled half of New Guinea (the other half of the island is Papua New Guinea). That relatively small land area was just a warning of what is predicted to come: 270,000 hectares have been allocated to the project, an area ten times the size of Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges. After halting work due to alleged non-payment of staff salaries, in March this year the bulldozers arrived again and forest clearing resumed. This can be seen using near-real time satellite imagery on Nusantara-Atlas.org, the newly felled sections of rainforest are in pink. Screenshot of interactive deforestation graphic located here. The project is divided into seven concessions – parcels of land – of around 40,000 hectares each in Boven Digoel, a district in Papua’s southeast. Documents obtained by Newsroom show three of those seven concessions are controlled by a company called Digoel Agri Group, whose majority shareholder is listed as a New Zealander. (Read the full response from Digoel Agri Group here.) Environmental experts say the Tanah Merah project is a sign of things to come and if this entire forest is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/new-zealand-developer-denies-key-role-in-giant-palm-oil-project-in-indonesia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247509</doi>				</item>
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