Hidden challenges for conservation and development along the Trans-Papuan economic corridor

Sloan, Sean, Campbell, Mason, Alamgir, Mohammed, Egerton, Jayden, Ishida, Yoko, Senn, Nicole, Huther, Jaime, and Laurance, William F. (2019) Hidden challenges for conservation and development along the Trans-Papuan economic corridor. Environmental Science & Policy, 92. pp. 98-106.

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Abstract

The island of New Guinea harbours one of the world’s largest tracts of intact tropical forest, with 41% of its land area in Indonesian Papua (Papua and Papua Barat Provinces). Within Papua, the advent of a 4000-km ‘development corridor’ reflects a national agenda promoting primary-resource extraction and economic integration. Papua, a resource frontier containing vast forest and mineral resources, increasingly exhibits new conservation and development dynamics suggestive of the earlier frontier development phases of other Indonesian regions. Local environmental and social considerations have been discounted in the headlong rush to establish the corridor and secure access to natural resources. Peatland and forest conversion are increasingly extensive within the epicentres of economic development. Deforestation frontiers are emerging along parts of the expanding development corridor, including within the Lorentz World Heritage Site. Customary land rights for Papua’s indigenous people remain an afterthought to resource development, fomenting conditions contrary to conservation and sustainable development. A centralised development agenda within Indonesia underlies virtually all of these changes. We recommend specific actions to address the environmental, economic, and socio-political challenges of frontier development along the Papuan corridor.

Item ID: 56455
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1873-6416
Keywords: Papua, infrastructure, corridor, conservation, development, customary lands
Copyright Information: © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Research Data: https://doi.org/10.25903/5ed6e94d03774
Date Deposited: 29 Nov 2018 23:43
FoR Codes: 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410401 Conservation and biodiversity @ 100%
SEO Codes: 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9608 Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity > 960899 Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity of Environments not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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