West Papua Is Not Empty Land: Solidarity with the Wambon Tribe's Fight Against Forced Deforestation

Reference: "Lawsuit by Indigenous Papuans Against the South Papua Food and Energy National Strategic Project. The Minister of Forestry Does Not Recognize the Existence of Indigenous Papuans." from The Advocacy Team To Save The Papua Forests And Indigenous Peoples.

Merdeka West Papua Support Network stands in full solidarity with five representatives of the Wambon Tribe of Boven Digoel Regency, who are currently before the Jakarta State Administrative Court challenging Indonesia's Minister of Forestry over Decision No. 591/2025. 

That decision strips 486,939 hectares of customary forest of its protected status to make way for the so-called National Food, Energy, and Water Self-Sufficiency Area. This step is just one piece of a wider plan to clear two million hectares of customary forest across the Land of Papua for oil palm and biofuel expansion.

The advocacy asserted that the Ministry's response to the lawsuit effectively denies that the plaintiffs exist as Indigenous Peoples with generations-old rights to their customary lands.

And these rights as IP and right over their customary lands must be upheld even as their 2023 application for formal recognition of these forests remains unanswered. 

This is colonial-era “domein verklaring” logic dressed up as development policy: land is treated as ownerless until the state decides otherwise, clearing the way for permits issued without consent and without adequate study.

The human and ecological stakes are enormous and this lawsuit lands at a significant moment. 

Excavation in the farm fields in Merauke. Photo: Pusaka.

Last August, we mark International Indigenous Peoples Day, a global call to defend Indigenous land, culture, and self-determination. We also commemorate the anniversary of the 1962 New York Agreement, the accord that determined West Papua's fate without the consent of West Papuans themselves. 

More than six decades later, that same disregard for Papuan self-determination persists in Jakarta's forestry policy. The Wambon Tribe's courtroom fight for their forests is a continuation of the same struggle: the right of West Papuans to decide what happens to their own land and future.

We call all our network and partners across the world to join the call for Decision 591/2025 to be revoked, and for genuine recognition of Papuan customary rights! Papua Merdeka!#

Traditional cross at the Wanam Merauke National Park (PSN). Photo: Pusaka

Merdeka West Papua Support Network merdeka.sec@gmail.com

@merdeka.wp