Greenpeace Warns Prabowo's Papua Plan Risks Ecological Disaster

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Greenpeace Indonesia and Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat, part of Solidaritas Merauke, have criticized Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's directive to the local authorities in Papua and the Executive Committee for the Acceleration of Special Autonomy Development in Papua on Monday, December 16, 2025. Prabowo ordered massive planting of oil palm, sugarcane, and cassava in Papua to achieve energy self-sufficiency. Oil palm for fuel, sugarcane and cassava for ethanol.

Solidaritas Merauke assesses that such policy will repeat the ecological disaster in Sumatra, which has killed 1,030 people, displaced 205, and injured around 7,000. In pursuit of food and energy self-sufficiency ambition, Prabowo is said to be preparing an ecological disaster for Papua. To achieve this ambition, millions of natural forests in Papua must vanish. "Prabowo also disregards the presence of indigenous people as the holders of Papuan land sovereignty," said the forest campaigner from Greenpeace Indonesia, Asep Komarudin, in a written statement on Wednesday, December 17, 2025.

Asep assesses that Prabowo's policy contradicts Indonesia's commitment to global climate action with a Net Zero Emission target by 2060. Greenpeace's research consistently shows that oil palm expansion is one of the main causes of deforestation, peat degradation, and increased carbon emissions in Indonesia. "While Sumatra and Kalimantan have experienced massive damage due to palm oil, Papua is now being directed to become the new frontier of the same industry with almost identical patterns," he said.

President Prabowo Subianto gives instructions to local authorities in Papua and the Executive Committee for the Acceleration of Special Autonomy Development at the State Palace, Jakarta, December 16, 2025. Tempo/Imam Sukamto

Greenpeace notes that most oil palm concessions in Papua are located in forested areas, including primary forests and areas of high conservation value. Land clearing, often done long before the plantation becomes productive, leaves permanent ecological damage. If all emissions from land use changes are taken into account, Asep added, palm oil-based bioenergy worsens the climate crisis, rather than solving it. "Referring to oil palm as the path to energy self-sufficiency is a policy illusion that ignores the environmental and social costs borne by the public."

94 Oil Palm Companies in Papua

Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat has identified 94 oil palm plantation companies in Papua covering 1.3 million hectares. Ironically, these oil palm plantations are only controlled by a handful of corporations considered close to the authorities. Large-scale land ownership and forest clearing for energy production and business expansion have brought about social-economic problems, land grabbing, deforestation, and environmental destruction.

In Merauke, South Papua, the food and energy self-sufficiency project has been running for almost two years without the consent of indigenous communities and adequate business feasibility permits. In a short period, more than 22,680 hectares of natural forests have disappeared. Indigenous communities and environmental human rights defenders feel unsafe because the project involves thousands of military personnel and there have been oral, physical, and psychological pressures and threats.

"In this forest conversion scheme, the biggest beneficiaries are large plantation corporations and investors, political and economic elites who enjoy licensing rent," said the advocacy staff of Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat, Tigor Hutapea. Conversely, Tigor added, "Papuan indigenous communities are positioned as obstacles to development or recipients of compensation, not as rightful owners of land and forests."

Tigor mentioned that the approval process often overlooks the true principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Consultations are formal in nature, without complete information, in a situation of imbalanced power relations.

He revealed that floods have occurred in areas surrounding concessions in the Jagebob, Tanah Miring, Muting, and Eligobel Districts, submerging agricultural land and residential areas. The floods are suspected to be due to forest clearing for sugarcane and oil palm plantations in the upper reaches of the river.

Read: Greenpeace Rings Ecological Disaster Alarm as Prabowo Pushes for Papua Palm Oil Plantations

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