Indonesia's indigenous population suffers from deforestation

DW (English)

Children are particularly affected by large-scale deforestation in Indonesia. The indigenous people are suffering.

Transcript

00:00Poor nutrition, underdeveloped children, the indigenous population in Indonesia is suffering

00:14from the consequences of large-scale deforestation.

00:19His case is classified as stunting.

00:25A local expert says it's the lack of sago.

00:28The Marind people harvested it from the forest for generations.

00:36Indigenous people, especially the younger generation, are educated to no longer recognize

00:41their own traditional foods that have supported them for generations.

01:00The calm appearance of this small Marind community hides a darker secret.

01:05Since almost a decade, cases of malnutrition and stunting have begun to appear frequently.

01:11The tribe lives in their ancestral territory in South Papua, in the eastern part of Indonesia

01:16which is mostly inhabited by ethnic minorities.

01:20Here, malnutrition affects the two-year-old Louise.

01:24Her body temperature is high.

01:26However, her father is hesitant to take her to the village clinic.

01:31The nurse said, we shouldn't come if it's late.

01:35But Natalie, the mother, finally decides to bring her daughter to the clinic.

01:39How much does she weigh?

01:41What?

01:43Her weight.

01:46I forgot.

01:49Racial discrimination is often at play in the clinics, according to a study from 2021.

01:56Especially women have reported being mistreated by the primarily non-Papuan doctors and nurses.

02:04Cases of malnutrition began to appear in Zanegi village in 2013, four years after the

02:09government ordered large portions of forests in South Papua to be converted into a source

02:14for food and energy.

02:16Four children died due to diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections.

02:21Since then, cases of malnutrition have been reported more frequently.

02:28Compared to children at his age, Efraim has experienced stunted growth since birth.

02:33She is one of many toddlers in the village who are looked after by Nuraini, a midwife

02:38who has been in Zanegi for more than eight years.

02:42They basically only think about today.

02:47They don't really think about how they will eat tomorrow.

02:50So they just think about what can be eaten today.

02:57For malnourished toddlers, common infections such as diarrhoea, pneumonia or malaria can

03:03be fatal.

03:05Nuraini says the main factor was the dietary shift from traditional diets to those composed

03:11of more ultra-processed foods.

03:14They eat too much ultra-processed food.

03:19If, for example, they cook vegetables, the dish is mixed with instant noodles.

03:26They do that every day.

03:35Merind have traditionally relied on sago, the local staple starch food.

03:40Here, Bonifacio's Gebze is trying to educate his daughter in the arts of forest subsistence.

03:53When we go to the forest, lots of food grows and lives.

03:58We just have to take and eat it.

04:01We don't cut anything down for fun.

04:04That's not why we do this.

04:09Sago is a starch extracted from the pith or spongy core tissue of sago palm trees that

04:14grow in abundance in the swampy peat environment of south Papua.

04:20Every few weeks, Bonifacio's takes his two daughters to harvest sago in their ancestral

04:25forest.

04:26It's easier to get a hold of than rice, as every family has sago palm trees.

04:32I know nothing about rice.

04:34I don't know how to work the land, the fertilizer, the harvest, and how it can even become rice.

04:40All I know is how to buy it.

04:44A single adult sago tree can yield between 150 and 300 kilograms of dry starch, which

04:51is then later reprocessed for consumption.

04:55But in recent decades, sago has become increasingly rare and is now more often used for traditional

05:01ceremonies rather than as a staple food.

05:05The older generation feels that they no longer have the power to prevent the shift in the

05:09consumption of staple foods among indigenous people in West Papua.

05:20My biggest concern is what I call an extinction.

05:23That is when the younger generation begins to reject our customs and traditions.

05:30In Marin tradition, men are primarily responsible for hunting game, whereas women see sago as

05:36their responsibility.

05:38This tradition can only survive as long as the forest remains intact.

05:45South Papua represents one of the largest remaining rainforest areas in the world.

05:51But since 2009, a company with powerful connections called Medco Energy has been given the permission

05:58to cut down 5,000 out of 170,000 hectares of forest at the heart of Marin's ancestral

06:06territory.

06:08Here, every piece of wood harvested from the plantation is burned to produce sustainable

06:14energy, known as biomass electricity.

06:18Budi Bozuki, chief of power and mining at Medco, said the company received millions

06:23in green financing to reduce carbon emissions.

06:26Actually, we're providing benefits.

06:29We supply electricity to the people of Papua and for the government, who previously had

06:34to import expensive fossil fuels.

06:36Now they can get reliable electricity at a much cheaper rate.

06:41However, increased logging activities have had a major impact on the Marin tribe's ancestral

06:48forests, in which Moses occasionally went to hunt wild boars or deer for food.

06:55He's one of the chiefs that sold their ancestral forest to the company in exchange for an old

07:00truck and money.

07:01Now, he says, food has become increasingly difficult to find, and that hunting trips

07:07can last for days.

07:16This area is where the company operates and where they process wood.

07:22Animals can't stay here because of the noise.

07:25They have to go far away from here.

07:30The loss of forest foodways happened long before deforestation.

07:34Decades of nationalistic food policies have ensured that Papuans no longer rely on forests

07:40to sustain themselves.

07:44Like these sago worm snacks.

07:46But sago has long been replaced by rice as the main staple food in West Papua.

07:57Sago is our tradition.

08:01Rice is a new thing.

08:05Our parents raised their children and grandchildren on sago.

08:14Rice came only after the road was built.

08:20The road was part of the transmigration program by the central government to move mainly poor

08:25people from Java to other less populated islands of Indonesia like West Papua.

08:31As a result, indigenous people now make up only 60 percent of the total population in

08:36South Papua.

08:39Backed by government incentives, the newcomers quickly settled in and slowly took control

08:45of vital economic sectors such as the food industry.

08:50The vocational boarding school established by the energy company Medco near Zanegi is

08:55one of the biggest corporate social responsibility programs to address food vulnerability in

09:00Morocco.

09:03The company believes indigenous people should be taught how to farm, so they no longer go

09:08into the forest to look for food.

09:10If they are unable to produce their own food, Papuans will forever be vulnerable, Medco's

09:17Diki Adiat says.

09:24We are still quite far from changing this forest culture, but at least little by little

09:29through this education.

09:33In 2024, however, nearly all students were descendants of transmigrant farmers, only

09:39two of them were Papuan natives.

09:45The reluctance of indigenous people to participate in any type of government-related agricultural

09:50programs can be seen throughout Papua.

09:53This situation is seen as an indication of structural racism and exclusion against natives

09:59in the agricultural sector.

10:01Government assistance is badly needed by native Papuan farmers, their numbers are small.

10:07Of more than 27,000 rice farmers in Morocco, only less than 400 of them are native Papuans.

10:14In contrast to migrant farmers, almost all native farmers in Morocco grow rice on rain-fed

10:19land because they do not have access to an irrigation system.

10:23They have long complained about discrimination and feel neglected.

10:27Morocco produces less rice than it consumes, but because indigenous people now also eat

10:33rice, ensuring its availability has always been a big challenge in West Papua.

10:38But despite this, indigenous people remain sidelined in agricultural production.

10:46Government aid like equipment is always sent across the Maru River to our brothers, non-indigenous

10:51farmers.

10:54Their irrigation system is so much better.

10:57And they have all the equipment, so during the planting season everyone can plant.

11:02Our only aspiration as indigenous farmers of Papua is that we want to be treated equally.

11:09In Zanegi, the eldest daughter of Amandus and Nathalie Gebze prepared a bucket of rice

11:14and three packages of instant noodles for breakfast.

11:18The meal is just enough for all family members, including the two-year-old Louise.

11:24Ultra-processed food like this is common among the Marin tribe.

11:29Rice, instant noodles or canned food are now present at almost every mealtime.

11:35It is even common for poor Marin families to eat without side dishes, which is referred

11:40to as empty rice here.

11:43If we plant rice, we have to want to continue eating rice.

11:55If we don't know how to plant rice, then we must plant sago, because we are born and raised

12:01by our parents on sago.

12:07His fear, if the young generation become more and more alienated from their own land and

12:12food, the forest will disappear, along with the Marin.

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