Destruction of Customary Forests in Papua Constitutes Ecocide, INFID Says
Iwan Misthohizzaman, the Executive Director of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), asserted that clearing customary forests in Papua through the abuse of state permits is an act of ecocide and a violation of human rights. Misthohizzaman stated that ecocide is a systematic, aggressive, massive, and planned attack on the environment. The first element of an ecocide is that the exploitation of the environment leads to the extermination of nature. Second, the extermination is related to the erasure of people’s right to life, and third, the exploitation of natural resources leads to threats on human life now and in the future. Regarding Papua, all three elements were met as the forests are a source of livelihood for Indigenous people. The INFID urges the government to revoke the permits of palm oil companies and to return the forest to the protection of the Indigenous groups.
