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

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

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.