[biofuelwatch] An Agribusiness Attack in West Papua: Unravelling MIFEE

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Announcing the publication of a new report into a major land grab in
West Papua

"An Agribusiness Attack in West Papua: Unravelling the Merauke
Integrated Food and Energy Estate" is now online at:
http://awasmifee.potager.org
(direct pdf download:
http://awasmifee.potager.org/uploads/2012/03/mifee_en.pdf )

The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) is a vast
mega-project, a plan for over a million hectares of plantations and
industrialised agriculture that threatens the people and environment
across the southern part of West Papua. Indonesian and foreign companies
have each claimed their share of the land, and offer the local Malind
people next-to-nothing in exchange for the forest that has sustained
them for countless generations.

West Papua, where the MIFEE project is set to take place, is a conflict
zone. The Papuan people have been struggling for decades for their
freedom and self-determination. West Papua is also the next frontier for
Indonesia's plantations industry - after Sumatra and Borneo's forests
have been decimated for the pulp and oil-palm industries, now Papua
becomes the target. Although some plantations already exist, MIFEE
represents another order of magnitude, opening the floodgates to
development projects across Papua in which the losers will be the Papuan
people.

MIFEE has been legitimised by talk of Indonesia's food security needs,
with the President proclaiming the need to "feed Indonesia, then feed
the world". However, this reasoning was soon extended to include
biofuels including ethanol from sugar cane, biodiesel from oil palm,
wood pellets and electricity generated from rice straw. Meanwhile local
people's health declines as the forest they rely on for their own food
security is destroyed.

awasMIFEE! has been created as an act of solidarity with the social and
ecological struggles of the people of Merauke and elsewhere in West
Papua. We believe that it is important that people outside of West Papua
also know what is happening in Merauke. However, information available
about MIFEE can be confusing - much of it comes from different companies
and government bodies, and each have their own way of describing the
project that fits with their own interests and objectives.

By compiling information from different sources, such as reports from
the villages affected, from NGOs and other groups, from Papuan,
Indonesian and financial media, from local and national government, and
from company websites, we have tried to unravel what MIFEE is likely to
mean for the people of Merauke. We hope that a more coherent
understanding of how this land grab is taking shape will be of interest
to people who are interested in West Papua, in the defence of forests
and forest peoples, in the struggles against agro-fuels and against the
growth of industrialised agriculture.

Most of all we hope that this information can be the catalyst for
action! Our initiative is independent, unconnected to the programs of
any NGO, and we hope it can also be a source of inspiration.

The report "An Agribusiness Attack in West Papua : Unravelling the
Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate" is an attempt to give an
overview of the situation in April 2012. It focusses on the following areas:

* Background information - to understand MIFEE in the context of West
Papua, it's history and struggles, and the local Malind people.

*What is MIFEE - how MIFEE presents itself as the answer to Indonesia's
food security needs. But is it actually just an excuse for oil palm and
logging companies to conquer new territory? A look at the difference
between the propaganda and the reality of development in Merauke.

*Reports from villages: A summary of news of what has been happening on
the ground around the MIFEE project area, compiled from reports of NGOs
that have visited the area, local media and letters sent from villagers.

*Company Profiles: Tracing where the money comes from behind each
proposed plantation. Which of Indonesia's top business conglomerates are
involved? How South Korean companies have been buying up plantations.
How Australia's top-selling sugar brand is connected to forest
destruction in Papua.

News of further developments will be posted on the website, and from
time to time updates containing news of all recent developments will be
published.

[awasMIFEE minta ma'af karena versi Bahasa Indonesia belum siap. Laporan
masih dalam proses terjemahan. Semoga dalam waktu dekat kami akan
menerbit versi Bahasa Indonesia]


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