Topic: Papua

Papua - the Indonesian portion of New Guinea Island - is home to the largest tract of intact rainforest left in Asia, diverse indigenous groups and a treasure trove of biodiversity. Its rainforests are under threat from logging, mining and plantation companies.

Indigenous communities live under the shadow of an oppressive police and military presence. They face human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings, for attempting to express basic political freedoms or asserting their land rights.

Due to the challenges of working in Papua and restrictions on media access, developments in the region routinely go undercovered. Since 2018, The Gecko Project has published a string of investigations focused on Papua, holding corporations and officials to account and generating scrutiny of events in this globally-significant and undercovered region.

Main Stories

Malaysian firm bidding to clear Papua forest loses court bid, but deforestation persists

A company that hoped to clear 80,000 hectares of rainforest in Indonesian Papua to plant oil palms has lost a court case over its control of the land.

‘Potentially lethal’ police assault on indigenous Papuan was caught on camera

Fresh questions raised in case of Marius Betera, who died around two hours after he was allegedly assaulted by a police officer.

‘On the road, I feel the ancestors watching’

A photo essay from southern Papua

How we calculated Korindo’s revenues from clearing Papuan rainforest

Did the conglomerate earn more than $300 million from ‘conversion timber’?

Revealed: Government officials say permits for mega-plantation in Papua were falsified

Officials have repeatedly raised the alarm over the controversial project, but are now allowing it to go ahead.

Related Articles

'Green' finance bankrolls deforestation in Papua

Indonesian government support for biomass project raises questions over the consistency of its climate change policies

Soldiers, Cronies and Deforestation

The story behind Indonesia's food estate programme

‘In the plantations there is hunger and loneliness’

The cultural dimensions of food insecurity in Papua.

Indonesia reboots effort to end corporate secrecy as anonymous firms destroy Papuan rainforest

Indonesian companies were given until March this year to disclose their “beneficial owners” under a 2018 presidential regulation, but less than 1 percent have complied.

A carbon bomb in Papua: 7 takeaways from our investigation

What you need to know from our groundbreaking investigation, The secret deal to destroy paradise