Reaching the forgotten in West Papua
Along the far north coast of West Papua, Indonesia, people are facing an intensifying struggle to survive on lands and seas that have sustained them for generations.
“Life is hard here and getting harder. Governments make promises about this area but then nothing happens. It feels like we’ve been forgotten.”
Travelling to the remote Tambrauw region in the far north of West Papua, it’s a sentiment you hear often. It’s not just poverty or the lack of services, it’s the sense of being left behind as the world changes around them.
In 2011, more than 70% of Tambrauw was declared a conservation zone, the highest form of environmental protection in Indonesia. The designation was a hard-won victory for Indigenous leaders resisting corporate mining and logging interests. But while most of the forests became protected on paper, the people were not. Development stalled. Poverty deepened. Climate impacts worsened.
“The lack of economic opportunities is the main challenge here,” says Wehermos, a villager who was part of a community consultation carried out by our church partner, the Evangelical Christian Church in the Land of Papua (GKI-TP). The problem with that, he explains, is when a crisis hits a family—a sick child or a garden washed away by floods—they don’t have money to pay for the long trip to a hospital, or to even cover the cost of food when their crops get wiped out.
The situation has created a paradox trapping the people: either protect the nature they depend on or exploit it to survive in the short term; clearing forests, overfishing or selling their land to foreign developers.
In April, GKI-TP and UnitingWorld staff hosted an extensive community consultation and climate analysis to identify the drivers of poverty for men, women and children, and the ways human development can be done sustainably.
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“We want to help people make a living and have long-term food security without destroying the forests,” says GKI-TP Program Manager Donaltus Rumbesu. “If our approach works here, we can use it as a model to adapt for communities across Papua.”
Our partners already making change
GKI-TP is one of the largest and most trusted institutions in West Papua. It’s filled with inspiring leaders who are fighting to improve the lives of people across their communities as well as protect the natural environment they depend on. But they need help, and we in Australia can play a powerful role.
In a village where sea levels are rising and fish are disappearing, Rev Oto and his congregation are learning a hard truth: when you destroy the environment, you put your future at risk.
“It used to be all mangrove forests and coral along here,” he says. “But people cut down the mangrove trees and sold the coral to the tourist shops so they could build their houses.”
Most homes now sit on stilts to escape the encroaching sea. And the cost is becoming clear.
“The king tides are getting higher. The mangroves used to be a fence that softened the waves, and now it floods badly. During typhoons, even when they’re far offshore, no one sleeps. It feels completely exposed, like we’ll be swept away.”
Mangroves are also habitats and breeding grounds for many of the local fish populations. Destroying them has meant fishing families have to go much further and the daily catch is getting harder.
So Rev Oto is working to restore the mangroves, even knowing it will take years. As well as overseeing hundreds of seedlings being planted, he’s found strong support from his church, GKI-TP. Their statement of faith commits the church to caring for the environment to ensure the flourishing of future generations, giving him confidence to speak boldly.
“I tell people it took just a few years to destroy the mangroves and coral.
It will take 30 years to bring them back… but only if we start today.”
In a region of West Papua battling poverty, malnutrition, gender-based violence and climate extremes, Rev Monim spreads hope wherever she can.
Rev Monim’s story begins with deep loss. In 2010, she was away at a church training when torrential rain triggered a landslide. The blocked river overflowed, flooding the town where her two children were staying with friends. They tried to reach higher ground, but as they ran, the riverbank and part of the mountainside gave way. Days later, her son was found alive, buried under metres of debris, cut, broken and stripped by the force of the water. Her daughter was never found. The disaster killed 145 people, left thousands injured and homeless, and destroyed the entire town.
Today, Rev Monim leads a humble but vibrant church in the remote Tambrauw region. Her faith, rooted in grief and resilience, is now deeply connected to protecting life, both human and ecological. “This region really needs help. People want to look after the forests, but life is hard and so many live in poverty. The quickest way for people to make money is to cut down the trees or sell their land.”
In the coming months, we’ll share more from West Papua, where our partners are rolling out nature-based solutions to poverty and climate challenges.
Together, we’re helping communities grow food, earn income and protect the environment they rely on. But we need our help to make it happen.
Visit www.unitingworld.org.au/westpapua to discover the next part of the story
and the impact your donation can have.
