A time for locally driven development in Papua and West Papua

ABSTRACT

The vast biocultural diversity of Tanah Papua (Land of Papua) are important resources for local economic development, especially where their sustainable use incorporates affirmative action to ensure that indigenous communities capture the resulting benefits. Papuan stakeholders already have their own detailed plans, and there are some success stories to instil confidence in the abilities of the indigenous peoples of Papua to lead their own development. Multi-stakeholder approaches are known to work well, and in this case, locally driven initiatives are also known to be promising. This viewpoint suggests the need for a balance between inclusive participation in multi-stakeholder programmes and the enhancement of locally driven initiatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Aid – Capacity development
• Civil society – Participation
• Environment (built and natural) – Climate change, Agriculture, Food security

Acknowledgements

The conferences and workshops discussed here were jointly organised by the government of Papua, with input from Peter Kamarea, Agus Rumansara, Roosye Tanjung, Henderite Ohee, and Henderina Keiluhu. Highly constructive comments were provided by Tom Owen-Edmunds, Julian Caldecott, and Bill Laurance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mochamad Indrawan is a Researcher at the Research Center for Climate Change, Universitas Indonesia.

Agus Sumule is the Dean of the Faculty of Agricuture at the Universitas Papua.

Arief Wijaya is a Forest and Climate Senior Manager at the World Resources Institute Indonesia.

Noak Kapisa is an official in the Government of Papua Province.

Frans Wanggai is an academic, and the founder/first rector of Universitas Papua.

Mubariq Ahmad is a conservation activist for the Conservation Strategy Fund, Indonesia.

Benja V. Mambai is a conservation activist for WWF Indonesia.

Charlie D. Heatubun is a Professor of Forest Botany and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Papua in Manokwari.

Notes

1 The designation of the seven customary regions as bases for the development of Tanah Papua was announced on 16 June 2016 by the Minister of Planning on behalf of the national government of the Republic of Indonesia. However, this division was not grounded on systematic research and may serve more for practical management purposes. There needs to be more articulation if the different customary regions are accorded region-specific development supports such as livelihoods, health, and education. Another unexplored opportunity would be to treat the division of the regions with ecological approaches. For instance, a provisional analysis suggested Papua and West Papua may be divided by 24 ecosystems and agricultural systems. Both ecological and cultural algorithms are needed (Sumule 2018).

2 Saireri, which included part of the bays of Cendrawasih actually extended to the Province of West Papua as well.

3 This may invoke the philosophy of sufficiency economy, as outlined by Mongsawad (2010).