'All Eyes on Papua' campaign generates interest in deforestation cases June 5, 2024

Representatives of the Awyu and Moi Indigenous tribes protest in front of the Indonesian Supreme Court (BAY ISMOYO)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

'All Eyes on Papua' campaign generates interest in deforestation cases

A campaign seeking to raise support for indigenous tribes fighting palm oil plantations in eastern Indonesia is spreading widely online after taking inspiration from an image of Gaza generated by artificial intelligence.

Mimicking the “All Eyes on Rafah” graphic that spread across social media last month, the “All Eyes on Papua” image has been shared almost three million times on Instagram since last week.

The campaign comes at a time when Papua's Awyu and Moi indigenous communities are fighting palm oil companies in the courts over large tracts of land.

The Awyu tribe - reportedly made up of 20,000 members who depend on the land for their livelihoods - is appealing an Indonesian court's decision to allow palm oil company PT Indo Asiana Lestari (PT IAL) to clear large tracts of forest for plantations.

The company received a government concession for 36,000 hectares (89,000 acres), more than half the size of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

In southwest Papua, the Moi tribe has filed a lawsuit against the company PT Sorong Agro Sawitindo (SAS), which plans to clear 18,160 hectares of forest for palm oil plantations.

“I believe the support we are seeing reflects a shared concern with the Awyu and Moi tribes in their resistance,” Tigor Hutapea, a lawyer for the tribes, told AFP about the online campaign.

“This is a call to action, to save ourselves. As the forests continue to shrink, we are already feeling the consequences.”

Both tribes are fighting their ongoing legal cases in the country's Supreme Court and members of both held a protest in Jakarta last month.

“We are fighting for our land... where will we go? We are protecting it for our future generations,” Hendrikus Woro, a plaintiff from the Awyu tribe, told AFP.

Papua will lose 2.5% of its tree cover between 2001 and 2023, according to Global Forest Watch.

In November, a Papuan court ruled that PT IAL's license was valid, rejecting the Awyu tribe's argument that the concession had been granted based on a flawed environmental impact assessment.

The tribe and environmental NGOs also claim that opponents of the palm oil company's plans have suffered intimidation.

PT IAL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Palm oil is a billion-dollar industry in Indonesia, which is the world's largest producer and exporter of the commodity used in everything from chocolate spreads to cosmetics.

The European Union agreed in 2022 to ban palm oil imports linked to deforestation.

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