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                                                                An Agribusiness Attack 
                                                                          in West Papua: 
                                                                     Unravelling the Merauke 
                                                                  Integrated Food and Energy 
                   Contents                                                           Estate.
                   Introduction                                                              3
                   Part 1: Background Information
                       •   The Malind Anim                                                   5
                       •   Ecology of Merauke Region.                                        5
                       •   The Historical and Political Context of West Papua                6
                       •   Outside Investment Projects in Papua                              7
                   Part 2 : Describing MIFEE 
                       •   Establishing MIFEE's Legitimacy: The Logic of Global Crises       8
                       •   Grand Designs for Merauke: MIFEE in Theory and in Practice        10
                       •   Reports from Villages.                                            14
                       •   MIFEE Ploughs on, Despite Hitting Rocky Ground                    20
                       •   Repression connected to MIFEE                                     24
                   Part 3 : Some Other Concerns 
                       •   Transmigration and Marginalisation.                               25
                       •   Implications for Indonesia's Agricultural Landscape               26
                   Part 4 : Profiles of the Companies Involved                               29
                   Plantations Already Operational 
                       •   Medco Group                                                       31
                       •   Rajawali Group                                                    33
                       •   Korindo Group                                                     34
                   Companies Actively Pursuing Plantation Plans 
                       •   Daewoo International Corporation                                  36
                       •   Central Cipta Murdaya Group                                       37
                       •   Wilmar International                                              38
                       •   Plasma Nutfah Marind Papua                                        39
                       •   China Gate Agriculture Development                                40
                       •   Bangun Cipta Sarana                                               40
                       •   Agro Mandiri Semesta Plantations                                  41
                       •   Sumber Alam Sutera                                                41
                       •   State-Owned Companies.                                            42
                   Companies With Permits, but Less Recent Signs of Activity 
                       •   Kertas Nusantara                                                  43
                       •   Modern Group                                                      44
                       •   Comexindo                                                         44
                       •   Teknix Capital Group                                              45
                       •   Texmaco                                                           46
                   Companies That Have Not Obtained Permits, But Are Reported to Have Expressed Interest. 
                       •   Sinar Mas                                                         46
                       •   Salim Group                                                       46
                   Companies That Have Dropped Out Of MIFEE 
                       •   Bakrie Sumatera Plantations                                       47
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          Introduction
   In the far south of West Papua lies a vast flat land of forests, savannah and swamps. It is the homeland of the 
   Malind Anim people who largely still live by hunting and gathering food. But maybe not for much longer. Such a 
   wide expanse of land that seems so suitable for cultivation has not gone unnoticed in the Indonesian capital, 
   many thousands of kilometres away in Jakarta, and nor for that matter, further afield.
   The areas around Merauke have long been seen as having great potential for large-scale plantation enterprises. 
   While the forests of Indonesia's other large islands, Sumatra and Borneo, have been almost entirely destroyed, 
   West Papua remains largely forested, the next frontier waiting for its moment to arrive. For over twenty years, 
   grand plans to develop West Papua have been suggested: US company Scott Paper was planning to start a pulp 
   factory, Indonesian company Sinar Mas and Chinese National Offshore Oil Company proposed 600,000 hectares of 
   oil palm plantation, Saudi Arabia's Bin Laden group wanted to ensure the Gulf state's future food security with an 
   enormous rice farm. None of these mega-projects has yet materialised but the pressure on the area continues to 
   mount. The flat and fertile around Merauke is the prime candidate for large scale development.
   The latest threat to Papua's forests is an agricultural mega-project: the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy 
   Estate (MIFEE). Described as a response to the food and fuel crises that rocked the world in 2008, it aims to 
   answer President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's appeal to “feed Indonesia, then feed the world”, and is meant to 
   help Indonesia guarantee its food security into coming decades. This land is viewed as idle from the skyscrapers 
   of Jakarta's corporate and government strongholds, who believe it would be a waste if it was not cultivated in 
   the service of the nation.  That it will dispossess local people, whose food security is dependent on a healthy 
   forest with groves of sago palms and animals to hunt, falls entirely outside their logic.
   As MIFEE unfolds and becomes reality, it becomes more and more clear that the discourse around food security 
   has been built up in order to legitimise the entrance of more big agribusiness corporations to Papua. Many of 
   these companies belong to the conglomerates of business leaders on Indonesia's rich list, who are typically well 
   connected to the military and political parties. Foreign corporations also have a stake in MIFEE, from Korea, 
   Japan, China and Singapore.
   This project, imposed on the Papuan people by the Indonesian government, can only serve to aggravate the 
   problems faced by indigenous Papuans, many of whom have struggled since the 1960s for self-determination and 
   against military violence and other investment projects such as the Freeport mine and BP gas project. Aside from 
   consolidating Indonesia's interests in Papua, MIFEE will necessitate the migration of vast numbers of people to 
   Papua, without addressing the economic marginalisation which indigenous Papuans face on a daily basis.
   Such a project should be cause for concern for farmers in the rest of Indonesia as well. For rice and other food 
   crops, peasant agriculture is the predominant mode of production across Indonesia. The concept of a 'food estate' 
   which has been given a legal basis through new laws, is also being proposed in Kalimantan and Aceh. Papua, still 
   the refuge of Suharto-era repressive practices, could become the template for a corporate takeover of 
   agriculture across the whole archipelago.
   Yet the form MIFEE will take is still not clear. Will it be as it was originally envisaged, a new agricultural hub of 
   intensive, integrated and mechanised cultivation, the majority given over to rice and other basic food crops, and 
   accompanied by associated food-processing facilities? Or will that vision collapse and the familiar faces of 
   plantation industries queue up to plant their sprawling monocultures of oil-palm and sugar-cane, creating a 
   landscape indistinguishable from what Sumatra and Kalimantan have also become? 
   Or is there a chance that the plans will falter once again, and the tree kangaroos, deer and cassowary will be 
   free to roam the forests once more? It is not impossible that this could happen. MIFEE has certainly hit some 
   setbacks, due to a lack of infrastructure and local people refusing to give up their land. For the moment, MIFEE is 
   still going ahead, but its future is uncertain.
   The purpose of this info-pack is to bring together different threads of information that have been published 
   about MIFEE in order to create a clear picture of what it's all about and where the project stands at the moment. 
   Up to now, it has been difficult to get a grasp of MIFEE because there are few coherent and reliable sources 
   available. Many media reports are based on data from different companies or government bodies which are often 
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     contradictory or incomplete. Indeed it seems that MIFEE is made to fit the agenda of whichever company or 
     government official is talking about it. Indonesian-language investigations and reports from groups critical of 
     MIFEE do exist, and while we wanted to provide information in English to reach an international audience, we 
     hope that the Indonesian version of this report will also be useful.
     Most of the information contained in this info-pack is from material which has already been published online, in 
     the Papuan and Indonesian press, by campaigning groups, financial media and companies themselves. Some 
     information has also been supplied by local groups in Merauke, and a bit of investigation, but there has not been 
     any first-hand fieldwork in Merauke. We have tried to choose sources that are as reliable as possible, and confirm 
     information wherever possible in order to give the most complete outline of MIFEE we can, but of course it is not 
     possible to guarantee the accuracy of every piece of information which has appeared in the media. Nevertheless, 
     we hope that combining information from such diverse sources results in an overview of MIFEE that is as 
     complete and accurate as possible. In particular, profiling each company from its ownership structure down to it 
     actions on the ground hopefully demonstrates how the mechanisms of investment are working in Merauke, and is 
     therefore a useful basis on which to challenge those investments.
     This aim of putting together this info-pack is to provide a tool for action or campaigning around MIFEE (or for 
     that matter, the other topics it encompasses such as food sovereignty, agrofuels, the rights of indigenous 
     communities or the Papuan people's struggle.) The first part gives some background information about the people 
     and ecology of the Merauke region, as well as the political context of West Papua. This is followed by an in-depth 
     look at the MIFEE project, including a critique of the rational behind it, a description of how the project has 
     developed and testimony from affected villages throughout the area. In part three, consideration is given to 
     some other important aspects of MIFEE, the impact of a population flow into West Papua and how the food estate 
     model could affect farmers throughout Indonesia. Finally, profiles are given of many of the companies which are 
     thought to be involved in Merauke. The profiles include first attempts at tracing links with these companies' 
     activities globally, in the hope that these companies can also be held to account in other countries for their 
     activities in Merauke.
                                               A hunter from Boepe village stands in forest cleared for MIFEE
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