The Spirit of Building the Land of Papua

Apart from the central and local governments, the spirit of developing the Land of Papua also emerged from various parties, including a number of civil society organizations such as The Asia Foundation (TAF), EcoNusa Foundation, Partnership, Customary Territory Registration Agency (BRWA) and others. They run various programs to realize sustainable development in the Land of Papua.

“There are many contributions of development partners to the vision of sustainable development that favors indigenous peoples. Our focus is to be a development partner of the central and local governments to realize this agenda," said the founder and CEO of the EcoNusa Foundation Bustar Maitar when speaking at the same forum as Aruminingsih. as quoted from katadata.co.id Wednesday, 12/22/2021.

The Tanah Papua development partners consist of non-profit NGOs, educational institutions, and for-profit business institutions. For example, what was done by TAF in assisting Imsar Village in Jayapura Regency, Papua, in realizing a community-based green economy.

The persistence of the Head of Imsar Village, Oscar Giay, in building his village motivated TAF to provide assistance in the village located in the Nimboran District.

This support began in 2010, when pests attacked cocoa plants, reducing cocoa productivity in Imsar village. Gradually, cocoa is no longer a commodity of interest. However, the Head of Kampung Imsar tried to find a solution to overcome the farmer's problem. Seeing this problem, TAF facilitated collaboration between village heads, the community and the Limited Association for the Study and Empowerment of Indigenous Peoples (PT PPMA) to encourage cocoa cultivation in Imsar Village.

"When he was elected as the village head, Mr. Oscar had a strong desire to revive the glory of cocoa," said the Deputy Director of the Environmental Government Unit of TAF, Alam Surya Putra, at the Katadata Webinar "Sustainable Commodity Development in Papua".

This good practice was also supported by the Regent of Jayapura, Mathius Awoitauw, by making Kampung Imsar a pilot project to be developed at the district level. In fact, processed cocoa products labeled Cenderawasih Chocolate were also promoted at the XX Papua National Sports Week (PON) 2021.

"We use a shoot grafting technique to revive cocoa plants, avoid pests, and urge people not to open new land," said Oscar in the same webinar. After that, TAF helped facilitate market access and collaborated with an incubator that bridged the production process produced by the community in the market scheme.

In order for a community-based green economy to continue to develop, TAF encourages the implementation of ecological-based fiscal transfers to trigger competition from other villages to implement a green economy. The fiscal transfer has three schemes, namely the Ecology-Based National Budget Transfer (TANE), the Ecology-Based Provincial Budget Transfer (TAPE), and the Ecology-Based Regency Budget Transfer (TAKE). Imsar Village became the first area to successfully implement TAKE.

The fiscal transfers are awarded based on forest and environmental management performance. Through the TAKE scheme, the district government allocates the Village Fund Allocation (ADD) which becomes financial assistance to revitalize the cocoa cultivation business.

The integration of the green economy with ecologically based fiscal transfers such as TAKE in Imsar Village improves the village economy while conserving forests. In addition to these two programs, TAF has also assisted the Provincial Government of West Papua in revising the 2013-2033 Regional Spatial Plan (RTRW).

The goal is to give indigenous peoples the opportunity to plan, manage and utilize the space in their territory. At the proposal of the Coalition for the Care for Living Space for West Papua (KPRHPB), a collaboration was formed. The RTRW revision accommodates the existence of seven customary areas for 34 tribes and sub-tribes in the technical material document and the Draft Regional Regulation (Raperda) of the West Papua RPRWP. The seven customary areas are designated as Provincial Strategic Areas (KSP) for socio-cultural purposes covering an area of ​​6.2 million hectares (ha) in 13 districts/cities.

Another non-profit organization that is engaged in realizing sustainable development in Papua is the Partnership. This institution collaborates with PT PPMA through the Forest Governance Program (FGP) which supports decentralized forest management to reduce deforestation and empower indigenous and local communities. They work together to do mapping, to encourage regional recognition, and to increase the capacity of indigenous peoples.

This is a response to the occurrence of land use change which makes community access to manage the area limited. This activity has been carried out in Manokwari, Sorong and Fakfak Regencies. In addition, the Partnership provides assistance to indigenous peoples through the Kamuki Community Foundation. The goal is for local communities to obtain legal certainty when managing their own forests, namely obtaining permits for the Social Forestry program. In Fakfak, Kamuki collaborated with the NGO Gemapala and involved a number of parties such as religious leaders, traditional leaders, to the Fakfak Regency Government. Eventually six Village Forests were formed in the Kokas and Kramomongga Districts.

The Partnership also opens a meeting place for stakeholders through the Berkilau (Together We Protect the Land of Papua) program in Papua and West Papua. This program prioritizes green development, cultural approaches and local wisdom. Taking place from January 2021 to May 2022, this program seeks to unite various government programs or non-profit institutions at the central, provincial, district/city, to village levels.

The goal is to accelerate the implementation of Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 9 of 2020 concerning the Acceleration of Welfare Development in Papua Province and West Papua Province. The strategy starts from identifying the supporting and inhibiting factors for low emission development, synergizing the multi-stakeholder development agenda to developing multilevel policy recommendations.

Young people also play a role in supporting green development in Papua. In this case, EcoNusa plays a role in increasing the capacity and participation of young people from Papua.

The capacity building agenda is carried out through the Diplomacy School program. This activity is spread across 40 regencies/cities and has produced 182 alumni. "It is clear that the development vision is in favor of indigenous peoples and this is the focus of development partners with local governments and indigenous peoples themselves," said Bustar Maitar.

SOURCE: https://indonesiatimur.id/2021/12/22/semangat-mengbangun-tanah-papua/