Ecology

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3600404

• The Indonesian government is embarking on yet another project to establish a massive area of farmland at the expense of forests and Indigenous lands, despite a long history of near-identical failures.
• The latest megaproject calls for clearing 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) in the district of Merauke in the eastern region of Papua for rice fields.
• Local Indigenous communities say they weren’t consulted about the project, and say the heavy military presence on the ground appears to be aimed at silencing their protests.
• Similar megaprojects, on Borneo and more recently also in Merauke, all failed, leaving behind destroyed landscapes, with the current project also looking “assured to fail,” according to an agricultural researcher.

JAKARTA — Indigenous Papuans say they’ve been caught off guard by helicopters flying over their villages and excavators tearing down their forests in their area, all while accompanied by the Indonesian military.

What they’re being subjected to is one of the largest deforestation projects in the world, which will see the development of 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of rice fields in Merauke, a district in Indonesia’s Papua region that borders Papua New Guinea.

The military is involved in the project because it’s led by the Ministry of Defense and has been designated a project of national strategic importance. Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, who will be sworn in as Indonesia’s next president on Oct. 20, has appointed the hugely controversial Jhonlin Group to help administer the project.

The military’s involvement, coupled with the lack of free, prior, informed consent (FPIC) from Indigenous communities living in the area, have fueled concerns that the project will create new conflicts in the region.

Indonesia has maintained a heavy military presence in the Papua region since annexing it in 1963, with security forces frequently accused of committing human rights violations under the justification of cracking down on a low-level independence movement.

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These findings may also explain the "missing plastic problem" that has puzzled scientists, where about 70% of the plastic litter that has entered the oceans cannot be found. The team hypothesizes that coral may be acting as a "sink" for microplastics by absorbing it from the oceans. Their findings were published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3466683

by Basten Gokkon

• Indonesia’s recently revised conservation law retains a heavy focus on terrestrial protection and largely ignores marine and fisheries issues, experts say.
• Despite improvements such as clearer authority for managing marine and coastal conservation areas, critics argue the law still falls short in addressing urgent marine conservation needs.
• The law strengthens penalties for illegal activities and outlines responsibilities for protecting fish species and marine life, but many fear the minimal inclusion of maritime conservation will worsen illegal fishing and environmental degradation.
• Indigenous groups have also slammed the new law, citing its failure to include Indigenous participation and protect their rights over customary lands and forests.

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s recently updated conservation law continues to prioritize terrestrial protection, raising concerns over much-needed improvements to the management of the country’s rich marine ecosystems and resources.

Parliament passed revisions to the 1990 conservation law this past July, seven years since it was submitted for legislation. The update introduces 24 provisions that modify or expand provisions in the 1990 version, while also repealing some provisions from the 2019 law on water resources.

And while the 2024 conservation law now adopts provisions on protection of coastal areas and small islands, it continues to focus for the most part on forestry and land-based conservation, said Arisetiarso Soemodinoto, an adviser at the NGO Fisheries Resource Center of Indonesia.

“Two-thirds of Indonesia’s territory is waters, the rest is land,” Arisetiarso told Mongabay. The few mentions in the law of marine, coastal areas, small islands and fisheries thus comes across as the bare minimum, he added.

Indonesia is home to some of the most diverse marine life on the planet, especially in its eastern region that falls within the Pacific Coral Triangle, an area renowned for its richness of corals and reef fish. The country’s maritime sector also holds untapped potential as a vast carbon sink.

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A critically endangered critter has been sighted on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

The central rock rat is one of Australia's rarest animals, and experts feared it had gone totally extinct a few years ago.

Paper : https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado4083