Jayapura, 5 March 2026. Marind Indigenous people from the south of West Papua today filed a legal challenge against a 135-kilometre access road planned to facilitate a government National Strategic Project (PSN) to convert their tropical forest, savannah and wetlands into rice paddies and commodity plantations in Merauke district.
The five plaintiffs, Simon Petrus Balagaize, Sinta Gebze, Liborius Kodai Moiwend, Kanisius Dagil, and Andreas Mahuse, arrived at the at the Jayapura State Administrative Court in traditional Marind dress, accompanied by West Papuan youth and student groups carrying banners reading “Save Indigenous Papuans’ Forests” and others in Indonesian, including one translating to “Customary Land is not Terra Nullius — Resist Colonialism.” Before entering, the plaintiffs performed a traditional prayer ceremony, smearing white mud on their bodies in mourning for the ongoing destruction carried out in the name of the PSN.
“We are filing this lawsuit because we are grieving. We have lost our land, our mother, the place where we find our food. We were born on this land, but now it is hard to find food because the forest is being torn apart. Investors entered without permission, like thieves, and tore the forest apart with excavators. We erected traditional blockades but they ignored them. We spoke out against them but we are afraid, because the military worked there and brought their firearms,” said Marind woman Sinta Gebze, one of the five plaintiffs.
Indonesia’s Prabowo-Gibran administration says the 135km road is designed to support its food and energy estate plans (PSN) for South Papua province. The road runs alongside a rice paddy project in Wanam, Ilwayab District, led by the Ministry of Defence in partnership with PT Jhonlin Group owned by South Kalimantan mining businessman Andi Syamsudin Arsyad.
The road cuts through Indigenous customary forest from Wanam village to Muting, and construction has proceeded in violation of the law from the outset. The first 56 kilometres have already been cleared, and phase two is now being overseen by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing through several state-linked construction companies.
“This 135-kilometre road project reflects the chaos of the PSN regime that began under Joko Widodo and has continued under Prabowo Subianto. Land clearing began illegally in September 2024, before any environmental feasibility documents existed. The Merauke Regent’s environmental permit was only issued in September 2025, and we believe it was issued to retroactively justify violations that had already taken place,” said Tigor Hutapea, a member of the Merauke Solidarity Advocacy Team at Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Foundation.
Not only is it procedurally flawed, the permit is also invalid in that it ignores the rights of affected Indigenous communities who have actively opposed the project. “On the international stage the Indonesian government declares its commitment to peace, but its PSN project is generating conflict within West Papuan communities on the ground. A PSN backed by the military only entrenches the threat of violence and trauma for the Papuan people,” said advocacy team member Emanuel Gobay of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).
Sekar Banjaran Aji, also a member of the legal team and Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia, added: “While roads destroyed by the disastrous floods in Sumatra are still in urgent need of repair, the government is instead clearing forest in Merauke for a road that will primarily serve to accelerate the seizure of Papuan lands. Destroying forests during a climate crisis is not a shortcut to food and energy self-sufficiency. Instead it drives us toward the loss of those forests and the Indigenous knowledge they contain.”
This lawsuit at the Jayapura State Administrative Court is one part of a wider struggle. West Papua’s Indigenous communities are simultaneously challenging PSN-enabling provisions of the Job Creation Law at the Constitutional Court, while in their villages they continue to erect traditional blockades in protest.
Notes to Editor:
Photos and videos from the court case lodgement are available for use.
Contacts:
Sekar Banjaran Aji, Greenpeace Indonesia, +62 812-8776-9880
Tigor Hutapea, Pusaka Bentala Rakyat, +62 812-8729-6684
Igor O’Neill, Greenpeace Indonesia, +61 414-288-424
