Selected dated regional reports. Points locate regions, not incidents or people.
Period: see sourceHRM · linked reporting ↗← FollowingReported displacement Reported conflict Reported military presence Roads & place labels Provinces Cultural/reference regions Registered customary territories Language reference points Mining permits Major extraction sites Forest & plantation permits Protected areas Fire hotspots Forest loss Water permanence Surface-water change Rainfall anomaly Major roads Airports Ports Settlements Population distribution Current developments
South Papua food and energy estate
Current picture
Pusaka’s August assessment brings community impacts into the record alongside project targets. Rice and sugar/bioethanol remain distinct programmes.
Which territories have been cleared, and what consent and food access are documented?
Background
Merauke’s food and energy projects take place on customary territories with existing forests, sago landscapes, gardens and clan relationships. Malind testimony gathered during MIFEE describes how land negotiation and forest conversion affected food sources and everyday life. These are working landscapes and social relationships, not vacant land.
MIFEE began in 2010. Later strategic projects include sugar and bioethanol development and a separate rice programme, with different companies, approvals and sites. The questions are which territories are affected, how consent was obtained, what has actually been cleared, and whether communities retain access to food, water and livelihoods. Awyu litigation in Boven Digoel is a related but distinct case.
Sources 5
A sweetness like unto death: voices of the indigenous Malind of MeraukeForest Peoples Programme · 2013Merauke National Strategic Project timelineYayasan Pusaka Bentala RakyatElegi Selatan PapuaYayasan Pusaka Bentala RakyatMIFEE launchedGinting & Pye · ASEAS (2013)Civil-society objections to MIFEETAPOLLatest developments
Timeline.
Pusaka’s Merauke chronology 2023–2024
2010
MIFEE launched
The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate launched a large-scale agribusiness programme on customary land. Ginting and Pye trace how concessions, government planning and corporate investment met Malind land relations and resistance. It provides the background for later projects, without making MIFEE and the 2023–24 rice and sugar programmes one continuous legal scheme.
Sources 1
Ginting & Pye · ASEAS (2013)
2011
Civil-society objections to MIFEE
TAPOL’s statement raised concerns about forest conversion, food security and Malind customary rights under MIFEE. These objections precede the present food estate debate: land described as available for investment was already sustaining communities’ food, work and social relations.
Sources 1
TAPOL
2023
National strategic project designation
Regulation 8/2023 added the Merauke Food and Energy Development Area to the national strategic project list. Pusaka reports that the policy was established without meaningful deliberation and agreement with affected Indigenous communities. The designation concerns a development area; it does not itself establish consent for every plantation or rice-field site.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala Rakyat
2024
Land-use approval for sugarcane
Pusaka records a land-use conformity approval for PT Murni Nusantara Mandiri in Animha, Jagebob and Sota. This is one company’s sugarcane plan, separate from the new rice-field project around Wanam. Following the approvals separately helps identify which company, programme and customary territory a dispute concerns.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatEnvironmental consultation in Kartini
A consultation in Kartini, Jagebob, addressed the environmental impact assessment for PT Murni Nusantara Mandiri’s sugarcane plantation and sugar factory. Pusaka includes this administrative step in the timeline. The later objections concern both the adequacy of information and communities’ ability to decide about their land.
Pusaka’s company and area table, compiled from South Papua investment-office information. Proposed areas do not establish customary consent. Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatRegent meets defence ministry
Merauke Regent Romanus Mbaraka met the deputy defence minister to discuss land management for the food estate programme. The meeting placed the defence ministry within the project’s coordination, alongside agricultural and regional authorities.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatRice programme coordination
The agriculture minister, deputy defence minister, military officers and regional officials held a coordination meeting in Merauke and visited the rice harvest in Kuper, Semangga. Their stated aim was to expand food production. These rice activities should be read separately from the sugar and bioethanol task force established two days later.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatSugar and bioethanol task force
Presidential Decision 15/2024 established a task force to accelerate sugar and bioethanol investment in Merauke. Led by the investment minister, it coordinates licensing and investment facilitation for sugarcane, sugar processing, bioethanol and biomass power. This decision concerns those industries, rather than every rice-field development described as a food estate.
Forest clearing in Sermayam
Pusaka dates the start of PT Global Papua Abadi’s forest clearing in Sermayam, Tanah Miring, to May 2024. The month is recorded without an exact day. This is the sugarcane location that the president later visited in July.
PT Global Papua Abadi site pictured in Pusaka’s chronology. Exact photograph date not supplied. Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatInvestment minister visits Merauke
Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia and accompanying officials inspected land for sugar and bioethanol development from the air. Pusaka records his public description of the landscape and concerns about how forests and other ecosystems were being assessed for conversion.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatJ7Explorer arrives in Merauke
Pusaka records the arrival of J7Explorer, owned by businessman Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad of Jhonlin Group, at Merauke port. The vessel’s later activity around Wobikel became one of the matters on which local communities sought information.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatAgricultural machinery delivered by navy
The navy vessel KRI dr. Soeharso delivered agricultural machinery at Yos Sudarso port. Pusaka records tractors, rice transplanters and harvesters among the agriculture ministry’s assistance. The delivery illustrates the logistical role of military transport in the agricultural programme.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatMilitary command assigned to rice-field opening
Pusaka cites Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman assigning control of the planned large-scale rice-field opening to the XVII/Cenderawasih military commander. The proposed area includes customary territories of Malind, Maklew, Khimaima and Yei communities. The statement concerns operational command; the communities’ later responses address land rights and consent.
Pusaka’s food-production cluster table, citing the July 2024 Merauke feasibility study. These are planning areas. Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatSurvey activity reported near Wobikel
Pusaka reports J7Explorer operating in waters near Wobikel, Ilwayab, and describes activity suspected to be survey work for the rice-field project. It records community concerns that the purpose and plans had not been explained. The timeline gives a month, not a verified day or a confirmed account of everyone aboard.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatYei leaders issue written rejection
Yei customary leaders Godefridus Galep Inagijai and Absalom Can Kapaiter signed a statement rejecting investment plans in Yei territory. Pusaka records its delivery at a meeting with the company and environmental consultants in Sermayam. This is a documented community position, rather than an inference from the project’s permit status.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatDemonstration at Merauke legislature
Khimaima and Malind Maklew community members, young people and students demonstrated at the Merauke legislature. They opposed investment in their customary territories and sought an explanation of vessel and helicopter activity. Their demands linked access to information with the right to decide about land use.
Community action pictured in Pusaka’s chronology. The page does not supply a verified photograph date. Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatCommunities return to the legislature
Khimaima and Malind Maklew representatives returned to the Merauke legislature, opposing sugarcane investment permits and asking the regent to formally prohibit investment in their customary areas. Pusaka records this as a further action following the 13 June demonstration.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatRegent meets community representatives
At a meeting with Khimaima and Malind Maklew representatives, Romanus Mbaraka said the regency had not been officially informed about the sugarcane investment discussed for Kimaam and Ilwayab or the vessel in Wanam waters. Pusaka records this statement alongside communities’ requests for information.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatAgricultural optimisation visit
The agriculture minister inspected land optimisation in Kurik. Machinery support and more frequent planting were presented as ways to raise rice production. This activity concerns improving existing agricultural land and should not be conflated with every new forest-clearing site.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatForest-area use decision
Pusaka identifies Environment and Forestry Ministry Decision 835/2024 as an approval for forest-area use by the defence ministry for food-security infrastructure in Merauke. It records that the document circulated publicly in August as questions about the rice-field project’s legal basis increased.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatCustomary-land handover meeting
Pusaka records a meeting on 15–16 July concerning the handover of customary-land rights to PT Murni Nusantara Mandiri in Jagebob, Sota and Animha. It took place at the military district command’s Animha hall in Merauke with company, landowner, government, police and military representatives. The meeting record alone does not establish the terms accepted by every affected landholder.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatOfficials inspect Wanam project
Military leaders, defence officials, South Papua’s acting governor and Jhonlin Group’s owner inspected the food-security and rice-field project location in Wanam by helicopter. Pusaka places this visit before the arrival of heavy equipment later in July.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatPresident attends sugarcane planting
President Joko Widodo attended sugarcane planting at PT Global Papua Abadi in Sermayam, Tanah Miring, and visited agricultural land optimisation in Telaga Sari. The Cabinet Secretariat presented sugarcane development as part of food and energy security. These official aims sit alongside the community objections recorded elsewhere in this timeline.
President Joko Widodo during the July 2024 Merauke visit, reproduced in Pusaka’s chronology. Hearing with South Papua MRP
Khimaima and Malind Maklew representatives met the South Papua People’s Assembly. Pusaka records demands to reject investment in their customary territories, halt vessel and helicopter activity, and revoke business permits. The hearing brought those requests to the province’s Indigenous representative institution.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatHeavy-equipment arrival and protests
Pusaka records protests in Wobikel on 28–29 July as heavy equipment arrived by barge at the PT Dwi Karya jetty. Jhonlin Group’s owner and senior defence and military officials attended the unloading. Community objections concerned the arrival and the authorities’ conduct; the source’s inconsistent equipment totals are not reproduced here.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatMeeting in Payum
Community representatives, young people, students and local leaders met in Payum, Merauke, and agreed to reject sugarcane and oil-palm plantation projects. Pusaka records this meeting as part of the organising that preceded the Kondo Digul forum.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatClearing and objections in Wanam
Pusaka reports excavators clearing forests, hamlets and swamps in Wanam, and community objections that the work proceeded without landholders’ deliberation and agreement. It records negotiations involving John Gluba Gebze and the operator while clearing continued. These are Pusaka’s field accounts of the rice-field project.
Wanam land clearing shown in Pusaka’s chronology. Exact photograph date not supplied. Project activity in Wanam shown by Pusaka. Exact photograph date not supplied. Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatCommunities place customary restrictions
Between 12 and 14 August, communities in Wambi, Es Wambi, Woboyu and Bibikem carried out sasi rituals to protect land and oppose plantation operations. Pusaka records these actions in Okaba, Tubang and Ilwayab. The restrictions express customary authority over the land, alongside written statements and formal hearings.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatDomande community rejects plantation plan
Pusaka reports a meeting in Domande, Malind, where a military village liaison officer conveyed PT Borneo Citra Persada’s sugarcane investment plan. The community rejected the proposal. This entry concerns that company and location, rather than the Sermayam or Wanam developments.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatKondo Digul forum formed
A further meeting in Payum brought together community representatives, students, young people and South Papua MRP members. They agreed to reject sugarcane, oil-palm and food estate projects and formed the Kondo Digul Indigenous Peoples Forum, coordinated by Simon Balagaize.
Community representatives pictured in Pusaka’s chronology. The photograph’s date is not established by the adjacent timeline heading. Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatPusaka records Agrinas governance changes
Pusaka’s timeline records changes in the management and shareholding of PT Agro Industri Nasional and identifies people holding defence, agricultural and political roles. The underlying company filing is not reproduced in the timeline. This entry preserves the organisation’s reported finding without treating it as an independently verified account of ultimate ownership.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatAgriculture and military officials visit Wanam
The agriculture minister and senior defence and military officials visited the new rice-field project via Wanam airport in Wogekel, Ilwayab. Pusaka records the visit as work continued and community opposition remained unresolved.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatCommunity objections and Yei recognition
In Wobikel, residents directly told acting Governor Rudy Sufahriadi that they opposed Jhonlin Group’s rice-field project. On the same date, a separate ceremony in Kweel, Eligobel, saw the regent sign recognition and protection of Yei customary rights and territory. These were distinct events in different places.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatFive new infantry battalions inaugurated
The TNI commander inaugurated five new infantry battalions for Papua at Monas in Jakarta. Pusaka records the stated role of supporting security and development in vulnerable areas. The following day’s objections show why the organisational expansion belongs in the land-project chronology.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatSolidarity groups object to new battalions
Solidaritas Merauke and the Kondo Digul forum protested the plan for five new infantry battalions in Papua. Pusaka records the objection alongside continuing disputes about the food and energy projects.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatForest clearing reported in Nalkin
Pusaka reports finding forest clearing by PT Murni Nusantara Mandiri in Nalkin, Jagebob, and estimates that work had begun in August. The date marks the reported observation, rather than a verified first day of clearing. This is a sugarcane-company site, separate from the Wanam rice-field project.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatKondo Digul press conference
The Kondo Digul forum met and held a press conference in Payum, restating community rejection of the Merauke national strategic project. Pusaka includes this collective statement near the end of its documented period.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala RakyatSilent response at governor’s meeting
Pusaka records another meeting between the acting governor, John Gluba Gebze and people in Wogikel. Most affected participants remained silent and declined to express their views. The timeline ends here; later reporting appears in the current picture and news sections rather than being inferred from this meeting.
Sources 1
Pusaka Bentala Rakyat
2025
Environmental permit for the Merauke road
Greenpeace’s later court account dates the road’s environmental permit to September 2025, while reporting that clearing and construction had begun in August 2024. The chronology of work and authorisation became part of the Malind communities’ challenge.
2026
Five Malind plaintiffs challenge road permit
Simon Petrus Balagaize, Sinta Gebze, Liborius Kodai Moiwend, Kanisius Dagil and Andreas Mahuze filed a lawsuit against the environmental permit for the 135-kilometre Merauke road. According to the advocacy team, communities had not given free, prior and informed consent. The road supports the wider food and energy developments.
Sinta Gebze submits lawsuit documents at PTUN Jayapura. Photograph supplied with the September 2026 court account; exact photo date not given. Judge orders construction halted
Greenpeace reports that the presiding judge ordered the defendant to halt road construction on 9 June. Its September account nevertheless describes continued construction and a road network extending 135 kilometres. This records the advocacy team’s account of the order and its implementation.
Jayapura court rejects Malind road lawsuit
The Jayapura administrative court dismissed the road-permit lawsuit. Greenpeace reports that the judges accepted the permit’s legality and consultation record, while the plaintiffs and advocacy team disputed the adequacy of consultation and the treatment of evidence. Simon Balagaize said the community would continue defending customary land.
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Browse issues, news and dataset sources below.
ConflictDisplacementMilitary
Reports in this period
Regional reference points. Partial coverage; not live positions.
BIG · Bappenas · ESDM · NASA FIRMS · Source: layer metadata
Map sources & notes
Selected dated regional reports. Points locate regions, not incidents or people.
Period: see sourceHRM · linked reporting ↗Selected dated regional reports. Points locate regions, not incidents or people.
Period: see sourceHRM · linked reporting ↗OpenStreetMap roads and labels at local zoom levels. Coverage varies; absence is not proof that a road or community does not exist.
Period: see source© OpenStreetMap contributors · EOX rendering ↗The six current Indonesian provinces in Western New Guinea.
Period: see sourceBadan Informasi Geospasial ↗Generalized to whole regencies; internal customary boundaries can differ.
Period: see sourceBappenas membership · BIG administrative geometry ↗Unavailable until geometry reuse is explicitly defensible; no scraping or sensitive-site import.
Period: see sourceBRWA ↗Representative language locations only. A dated Wurm–Hattori 1981/83 polygon atlas can be added separately as a historical reference layer.
Period: see sourceGlottolog 5.3 · BIG province geometry ↗IUP/WIUP mining-permit polygons clipped to the six Papua provinces.
Period: see sourceKementerian ESDM · Ditjen Minerba ↗Site points identify operations; they are not permit boundaries.
Period: see sourceSourced operating-site metadata ↗Plantation coverage is partial where public services expose only local layers.
Period: see sourceKLHK · BIG Satu Peta ↗Published conservation zoning available through BIG Satu Peta.
Period: see sourceBIG Satu Peta · environmental data producers ↗NASA FIRMS thermal detections over the last 2 days. Near real time; not confirmed wildfires.
Period: see sourceNASA FIRMS · VIIRS NOAA-21 ↗Derived web raster; source year/version is recorded in atlas status.
Period: see sourceHansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA ↗Share of valid Landsat observations with water, 1984–2024. Pale pink to deep blue: occasional to persistent water. Not current flooding.
Period: see sourceSource: EC JRC/Google ↗EC JRC Global Surface Water transitions, 1984–2024.
Period: see sourceEC JRC/Google ↗Monthly anomaly in millimetres; latest available preliminary/final product.
Period: see sourceCHIRPS v3 · Climate Hazards Center / FAO distribution ↗Public BIG transport/RBI road geometry, simplified for the Watch atlas.
Period: see sourceBadan Informasi Geospasial ↗Public BIG aviation atlas locations.
Period: see sourceBadan Informasi Geospasial ↗Public BIG/RBI port locations.
Period: see sourceBadan Informasi Geospasial ↗Sparse named settlement/capital layer from public BIG/RBI data.
Period: see sourceBadan Informasi Geospasial ↗Modeled distribution, not a census enumeration at 100 m.
Period: see sourceWorldPop 2026 ↗Published Watch Developments placed using canonical Places.
Period: see sourceWest Papua Watch · linked reporting ↗Library.
Browse all ↗Archives & collections · 2012
MIFEE / Merauke food-estate research archive
awasmifee.potager.org
Durable archive for MIFEE history.
Archives & collections · 2026
MIFEE research already tracked in Watch reference pool
awasmifee.potager.org
Surface rather than duplicate existing hidden references.
Film & audio · 2012 · EN
Our Land Has Gone
LifeMosaic
Malind Anim residents of Zanegi discuss changes to their land and livelihoods. A film by Gekko Studio, Pusaka and SKP KAME.
Research · — · EN
The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate: development and land
Reports · 2026 · EN