{"id":68202,"date":"2025-12-18T23:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/?p=68202"},"modified":"2026-04-08T13:43:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:43:27","slug":"merauke-sugarcane-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/southeastasia\/press\/68202\/merauke-sugarcane-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"West Papuan Protest Against Merauke Sugarcane Nat. Strategic Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jakarta, 18 December 2025<\/strong> \u2013 Greenpeace Indonesia today brought the voices of West Papuan environmental protesters to the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs. Through creative performance, West Papuan youth and impacted landowners portrayed the struggle of Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral lands are being seized for the Merauke Sugarcane National Strategic Project (PSN) that the ministry is overseeing. Activists also erected an art installation crafted from sugarcane stalks reading \u201cSTOP PSN\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

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\u00a9 Vincent Kwipalo, a Yei man and one of the speakers at the protest.<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Alongside messages in Indonesian and English, protesters carried banners in the Yei language, spoken by one of several Indigenous Peoples in the south of West Papua threatened by the sugarcane project. Slogans included \u201cWest Papua is Not an Empty Land\u201d, \u201cPSN Out of Our Lands” and \u201cSave Forests, Stop Sugarcane\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

The action highlighted massive deforestation looming over Merauke, a threat promoted this week by President Prabowo Subianto during a meeting on the government\u2019s plans for West Papuan development<\/a>. Addressing regional heads from across West Papua, with the heads of the Indonesian Armed Forces, National Police, and State Intelligence Agency in attendance, Prabowo revealed plans to expand oil palm, sugarcane, and cassava plantations to secure fuel and bioethanol supplies.<\/p>\n\n

The President\u2019s statements are deeply ironic, delivered as parts of Sumatra remain paralyzed by a deadly ecological disaster that has claimed over a thousand lives, driven by climate change and decades of industrial deforestation. The devastation in western Indonesia has evidently failed to dampen the government\u2019s ambition to pursue “false solutions” that would sacrifice pristine landscapes in the east of the country.<\/p>\n\n

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Greenpeace Indonesia holds a theatrical action to protest the Merauke Sugarcane PSN in front of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs office in Jakarta.
\u00a9 Jurnasyanto Sukarno \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Belgis Habiba<\/strong>, Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia, stated that the Merauke Sugarcane PSN is currently the largest deforestation project in the world, with the potential to inflict catastrophic damage on key ecosystems in the West Papua southern lowlands ecoregion. \u201cWe have just witnessed the terrible impact of the climate crisis and ecological destruction in Sumatra due to massive deforestation over recent decades. Similar disasters are poised to hit West Papua if the government persists in its obsession with food and energy \u2018security\u2019 through environmental destruction,\u201d said Belgis.<\/p>\n\n

Joining the protest was Vincent Kwipalo, a Yei man <\/strong>from the Merauke area. Last week, Vincent was summoned for questioning as a complainant in a case regarding alleged plantation crimes and the seizure of the Kwipalo Clan\u2019s ancestral territory by PT MNM, one of the companies carrying out the Merauke Sugarcane PSN. \u201cThe government claims it wants to focus on development, but it ignores the fate of Indigenous Peoples whose lands are being bulldozed. Where do they expect us to go? The presence of these companies in our villages triggers conflict, yet the government turns a blind eye, chasing ‘development’ without considering the impact on us. This government-branded development only brings suffering to Indigenous communities,\u201d Vincent said.<\/p>\n\n

The stories of Vincent and other Merauke residents impacted by the PSN are documented in Greenpeace Indonesia\u2019s latest report, \u201cSweet Promises, Bitter Reality: Inside the Merauke Sugarcane Project<\/a>.\u201d The report reveals that the government has allocated 560,000 hectares \u2013 an area the size of the holiday island of Bali \u2013 for industrial sugarcane concessions in Merauke. Of this total, 419,000 hectares are natural forests, while the remainder includes 83,000 hectares of sensitive wetlands and 34,000 hectares of rare savanna ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n

Refki Saputra<\/strong>, Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia, labeled the mega-project, which is promoted as a shortcut to sugar self-sufficiency and renewable energy (bioethanol), as a false solution. \u201cSourcing bioethanol from Merauke will drive large-scale conversion of natural forests. This ambition for ‘renewable’ energy will actually increase emissions and shift focus away from improving smallholder farmers’ sugar production. In short, the Sugarcane PSN is a modern manifestation of colonial ‘terra nullius’ (empty land) politics in West Papua, trading biodiversity and Indigenous living spaces for biofuels,\u201d Refki said.<\/p>\n\n

Notes to Editors:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n