Children are particularly affected by large-scale deforestation in Indonesia. The indigenous people are suffering.
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00:00Poor nutrition, underdeveloped children, the indigenous population in Indonesia is suffering
00:14from the consequences of large-scale deforestation.
00:19His case is classified as stunting.
00:25A local expert says it's the lack of sago.
00:28The Marind people harvested it from the forest for generations.
00:36Indigenous people, especially the younger generation, are educated to no longer recognize
00:41their own traditional foods that have supported them for generations.
01:00The calm appearance of this small Marind community hides a darker secret.
01:05Since almost a decade, cases of malnutrition and stunting have begun to appear frequently.
01:11The tribe lives in their ancestral territory in South Papua, in the eastern part of Indonesia
01:16which is mostly inhabited by ethnic minorities.
01:20Here, malnutrition affects the two-year-old Louise.
01:24Her body temperature is high.
01:26However, her father is hesitant to take her to the village clinic.
01:31The nurse said, we shouldn't come if it's late.
01:35But Natalie, the mother, finally decides to bring her daughter to the clinic.
01:39How much does she weigh?
01:41What?
01:43Her weight.
01:46I forgot.
01:49Racial discrimination is often at play in the clinics, according to a study from 2021.
01:56Especially women have reported being mistreated by the primarily non-Papuan doctors and nurses.
02:04Cases of malnutrition began to appear in Zanegi village in 2013, four years after the
02:09government ordered large portions of forests in South Papua to be converted into a source
02:14for food and energy.
02:16Four children died due to diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections.
02:21Since then, cases of malnutrition have been reported more frequently.
02:28Compared to children at his age, Efraim has experienced stunted growth since birth.
02:33She is one of many toddlers in the village who are looked after by Nuraini, a midwife
02:38who has been in Zanegi for more than eight years.
02:42They basically only think about today.
02:47They don't really think about how they will eat tomorrow.
02:50So they just think about what can be eaten today.
02:57For malnourished toddlers, common infections such as diarrhoea, pneumonia or malaria can
03:03be fatal.
03:05Nuraini says the main factor was the dietary shift from traditional diets to those composed
03:11of more ultra-processed foods.
03:14They eat too much ultra-processed food.
03:19If, for example, they cook vegetables, the dish is mixed with instant noodles.
03:26They do that every day.
03:35Merind have traditionally relied on sago, the local staple starch food.
03:40Here, Bonifacio's Gebze is trying to educate his daughter in the arts of forest subsistence.
03:53When we go to the forest, lots of food grows and lives.
03:58We just have to take and eat it.
04:01We don't cut anything down for fun.
04:04That's not why we do this.
04:09Sago is a starch extracted from the pith or spongy core tissue of sago palm trees that
04:14grow in abundance in the swampy peat environment of south Papua.
04:20Every few weeks, Bonifacio's takes his two daughters to harvest sago in their ancestral
04:25forest.
04:26It's easier to get a hold of than rice, as every family has sago palm trees.
04:32I know nothing about rice.
04:34I don't know how to work the land, the fertilizer, the harvest, and how it can even become rice.
04:40All I know is how to buy it.
04:44A single adult sago tree can yield between 150 and 300 kilograms of dry starch, which
04:51is then later reprocessed for consumption.
04:55But in recent decades, sago has become increasingly rare and is now more often used for traditional
05:01ceremonies rather than as a staple food.
05:05The older generation feels that they no longer have the power to prevent the shift in the
05:09consumption of staple foods among indigenous people in West Papua.
05:20My biggest concern is what I call an extinction.
05:23That is when the younger generation begins to reject our customs and traditions.
05:30In Marin tradition, men are primarily responsible for hunting game, whereas women see sago as
05:36their responsibility.
05:38This tradition can only survive as long as the forest remains intact.
05:45South Papua represents one of the largest remaining rainforest areas in the world.
05:51But since 2009, a company with powerful connections called Medco Energy has been given the permission
05:58to cut down 5,000 out of 170,000 hectares of forest at the heart of Marin's ancestral
06:06territory.
06:08Here, every piece of wood harvested from the plantation is burned to produce sustainable
06:14energy, known as biomass electricity.
06:18Budi Bozuki, chief of power and mining at Medco, said the company received millions
06:23in green financing to reduce carbon emissions.
06:26Actually, we're providing benefits.
06:29We supply electricity to the people of Papua and for the government, who previously had
06:34to import expensive fossil fuels.
06:36Now they can get reliable electricity at a much cheaper rate.
06:41However, increased logging activities have had a major impact on the Marin tribe's ancestral
06:48forests, in which Moses occasionally went to hunt wild boars or deer for food.
06:55He's one of the chiefs that sold their ancestral forest to the company in exchange for an old
07:00truck and money.
07:01Now, he says, food has become increasingly difficult to find, and that hunting trips
07:07can last for days.
07:16This area is where the company operates and where they process wood.
07:22Animals can't stay here because of the noise.
07:25They have to go far away from here.
07:30The loss of forest foodways happened long before deforestation.
07:34Decades of nationalistic food policies have ensured that Papuans no longer rely on forests
07:40to sustain themselves.
07:44Like these sago worm snacks.
07:46But sago has long been replaced by rice as the main staple food in West Papua.
07:57Sago is our tradition.
08:01Rice is a new thing.
08:05Our parents raised their children and grandchildren on sago.
08:14Rice came only after the road was built.
08:20The road was part of the transmigration program by the central government to move mainly poor
08:25people from Java to other less populated islands of Indonesia like West Papua.
08:31As a result, indigenous people now make up only 60 percent of the total population in
08:36South Papua.
08:39Backed by government incentives, the newcomers quickly settled in and slowly took control
08:45of vital economic sectors such as the food industry.
08:50The vocational boarding school established by the energy company Medco near Zanegi is
08:55one of the biggest corporate social responsibility programs to address food vulnerability in
09:00Morocco.
09:03The company believes indigenous people should be taught how to farm, so they no longer go
09:08into the forest to look for food.
09:10If they are unable to produce their own food, Papuans will forever be vulnerable, Medco's
09:17Diki Adiat says.
09:24We are still quite far from changing this forest culture, but at least little by little
09:29through this education.
09:33In 2024, however, nearly all students were descendants of transmigrant farmers, only
09:39two of them were Papuan natives.
09:45The reluctance of indigenous people to participate in any type of government-related agricultural
09:50programs can be seen throughout Papua.
09:53This situation is seen as an indication of structural racism and exclusion against natives
09:59in the agricultural sector.
10:01Government assistance is badly needed by native Papuan farmers, their numbers are small.
10:07Of more than 27,000 rice farmers in Morocco, only less than 400 of them are native Papuans.
10:14In contrast to migrant farmers, almost all native farmers in Morocco grow rice on rain-fed
10:19land because they do not have access to an irrigation system.
10:23They have long complained about discrimination and feel neglected.
10:27Morocco produces less rice than it consumes, but because indigenous people now also eat
10:33rice, ensuring its availability has always been a big challenge in West Papua.
10:38But despite this, indigenous people remain sidelined in agricultural production.
10:46Government aid like equipment is always sent across the Maru River to our brothers, non-indigenous
10:51farmers.
10:54Their irrigation system is so much better.
10:57And they have all the equipment, so during the planting season everyone can plant.
11:02Our only aspiration as indigenous farmers of Papua is that we want to be treated equally.
11:09In Zanegi, the eldest daughter of Amandus and Nathalie Gebze prepared a bucket of rice
11:14and three packages of instant noodles for breakfast.
11:18The meal is just enough for all family members, including the two-year-old Louise.
11:24Ultra-processed food like this is common among the Marin tribe.
11:29Rice, instant noodles or canned food are now present at almost every mealtime.
11:35It is even common for poor Marin families to eat without side dishes, which is referred
11:40to as empty rice here.
11:43If we plant rice, we have to want to continue eating rice.
11:55If we don't know how to plant rice, then we must plant sago, because we are born and raised
12:01by our parents on sago.
12:07His fear, if the young generation become more and more alienated from their own land and
12:12food, the forest will disappear, along with the Marin.