MIFEE

Indonesia's Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) project is clearing land and destroying the traditional livelihoods of indigenous Malind and other groups in southern Papua.

Launched in August 2010, MIFEE involves the conversion of a vast area of land, including forests and peatlands, into plantations growing food, energy and other crops. Workers are expected to be brought to Merauke to meet the demand for labour. [more]

Map of Merauke showing investors' concessions

Request for Further Consideration of the Situation of the Indigenous Peoples of Merauke, Papua Province, Indonesia, under the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s Urgent Action
and Early Warning Procedures

Submitted July 25th 2013 by 27 Indonesian and international organisations including Forest Peoples Programme, Pusaka, Sawit Watch and Down to Earth.

 

DTE 91-92, May 2012

A group of eight institutional investors who are signatories to the UN Principals for Responsible Investment, representing US$1.3tn in assets have teamed up and developed a new 5-point charter, the Principles for Responsible Investment for Farmland. The move is aimed at addressing the increasing problem of 'land-grabbing' in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 

DTE 91-92, May 2012

In our special edition newsletter on Papua published in November 2011, DTE drew attention to the long and sorry history of top-down resource exploitation in Papua. Now, a whole raft of new development plans are being pushed through, under the government’s nation-wide effort to speed up development (MP3EI), launched last year. An additional layer of plans specifically for Papua is being promoted by UP4B, a special unit to speed up development in Papua.

 
An Agribusiness Attack in West Papua: Unravelling the Merauke
Integrated Food and Energy Estate is now online at:
(direct pdf download:

The letter follows DtE and fellow NGOs' participation in the Indonesia and East Timor Civil Society Human Rights Roundtable (7th February 2012), with the British Ambassador to Indonesia, Mark Canning HMA.

DTE 89-90, November 2011, Special Papua edition

From Freeport/Rio Tinto to MIFEE, Papua’s long history of top-down resource exploitation is one of human rights abuses, military oppression, environmental devastation and enduring poverty for the majority of Papuans.

DTE 89-90, November 2011, Special Papua edition

The United National Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has written to the Indonesian government to express concern about the impacts of the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate project (MIFEE) on the indigenous peoples affected by this agro-industrial mega-project.