Papua is one of the regions with very rapid and severe environmental damage, due to the expansion of extractive industries into the eastern regions of Indonesia.
Sulfianto Alias is one of the young activists from Perkumpul Panah Papua, an environmental organization based in Manokwari, West Papua.
Alias noted, at least in the last 5 years, the attention of young Papuans to environmental issues has increased. They intensely discussed this issue on numerous occasions.
The environmental organization in which Alias is active, concentrates one of them in Teluk Bintuni district, West Papua. How young people acquire awareness in climate justice, according to him, is quite simple, that is, because of the problems that they feel and face daily in the residential environment.
This younger generation believes that a gap in the management of natural resources is currently mastered by only a few people. Whereas those who are in the village and on their own land, only become spectators.
Because of that reality, they began to question, what they gained with such massive environmental damage.
Sulfianto Alias, aktivis muda dari Perkumpulan Panah Papua di Teluk Bintuni, Papua Barat. Credit: Supplied/Sulfianto Alias
In Alias' eyes, government mistakes in environmental stewardship, such as selling permits for the mining and plantation industries, play a role in strengthening the young generation's resolve to defend their climate-related rights.
In Bintuni Bay, Alias continued, there are at least 16 companies receiving forest management rights that are currently active. This is the largest amount in Papuan soil in terms of permit sales. Massive logging of forests in the upper reaches, causing the land to be carried away by rivers flowing up to the coast. The area is silting up, even making fishing boats unable to pass. People are now experiencing very detrimental barriers to access, explains Alias.
Automatically this situation harms them from the economic side. The younger generation of the region knows that environmental damage is at the root of this situation. In coastal areas, for example, they have difficulty catching fish as a source of livelihood. Bintuni Bay used to be rich in large shrimp and crabs, but now all are disappearing or at least staying in much smaller sizes.
As they say, it used to be easy to find shrimp weighing a kilogram in the region, and today it is impossible.
Seeing this kind of situation, the young generation of Bintuni Bay then rose up to demand their rights. One is to ask for rights to indigenous forests. The young generation in this area is very active in advocating for the community, mobilizing, so that the companies holding forest management licenses, want to hand back the rights of management to the indigenous people.
One factor, Alias said, is due to a more educated younger generation. Many of them returned to Bintuni Bay after completing their studies in various cities in Indonesia. Their homecoming brought a new vision and spirit, and also an awareness about the rights to a livable environment.
It is the younger generation that strengthens the community in the village.
In addition, the young generation in West Papua was also inspired by the success of students in Vanuatu who managed to bring this issue to the international stage at the United Nations. Vanuatu is one of the countries in the Pacific facing the threat of climate change, due to its extremely low position from sea level.
One of the factors connecting the young generation of West Papua and Vanuatu is social media. They could easily access news of the struggles of Vanuatu students, especially through the young leaders of the movement. The younger generation of West Papuans, especially those living on the coast, such as in Bintuni Bay, feel the same threat from climate change. If the climate changes, the coast of West Papua will also be damaged. Likewise in Vanuatu.
The achievements of the Vanuatu students served as a whip of encouragement for the young generation of West Papuans to fight for their rights. They believe that if the climate changes drastically and the environment breaks down, they will have nothing in the future.
