Threats, Contexts, and Opportunities in Asmat and Lorentz

The biodiversity of Asmat and Lorentz Park (an area we refer to as the Greater Lorentz Lowlands, or GLL) is threatened by commercial logging, industrial fishing, large-scale oil/gas development, smallholder agricultural expansion, oil palm agri-business, and the illegal wildlife trade. These activities threaten not only the biodiversity of Lorentz but also the natural resources that local people depend for their subsistence and livelihoods.

In addition, virtually everywhere on the planet, globalization tends to undermine traditional communities' sense of identity, self-confidence, and efficacy. While Asmat cultural systems and traditions (known locally as "adat") remain strong today, IPCA and our Asmat partners are concerned about the potential weakening or erosion of cultural identity.

Adat is a word that is usually translated as "traditional law", but its meaning actually encompasses an entire suite of cultural practices and beliefs, including forest and resource tenure patterns and ownership, how land and resources are traditionally regulated, traditional knowledge, how resources are used for woodcarving and other ceremonial and subsistence practices, to the very ceremonies and traditions that give meaning to people's lives both individually and collectively. Given the context of natural resource management in the region today, support for adat – updated with appropriate input from conservation practitioners – is likely to be the most effective strategy to ensure the realization of conservation objectives.

The threat from commercial logging

A 435,000 ha logging concession owned by P.T. Artika Optima Inti is located immediately adjacent to the eastern border of Lorentz in Asmat. Another group of concessions totaling about 360,000 ha is located in core Asmat forests. Click here to see a map. Should these become active projects, they would likely be socially and economically destabilizing and possibly ultimately affect the park itself. Given increasing global demand for paper pulp, over-capacity in the Indonesia pulp industry and scarcity of plantation-derived wood fiber, there is particular concern that the mangrove areas may be future targets. There are unconfirmed reports of small-scale (illegal) logging occurring in Sempan and other areas inside Lorentz.

The threat from industrial fishing

Large outside fishing fleets are depleting local fisheries (barramundi, threadfin, and shrimp) stocks in the Arafura Sea and provide few or no community benefits. This has created considerable friction between the outside fishermen (both Indonesian and foreign vessels) and local communities who are distressed at the noticeable depletion of one of their major food resources. First steps to address this issue were carried out in community consultations between IPCA, LMAA, FAR-Joirat, and the Merauke Office of Fisheries in early 2001.

The threat from potential large-scale oil and gas development

Conoco has indicated the discovery of significant oil resources in a 150,000 ha exploration concession in the upland forest areas of eastern Lorentz and Asmat. The current status is unknown. In addition to avoiding negative indirect social impacts, oil development projects would have to exercise great care and responsibility to avoid an oil spill in the tidal swamps of Asmat, which would contaminate food supplies and result in disaster.

The potential threat from plantation agriculture and smallholder agricultural expansion

The terra firme lowland rainforests in the GLL face a significant potential threat of large-scale agri-business including oil palm and possibly rubber. Approximately 150,000 ha of forests along the Casuarina Coast in Asmat are designated as “HutanProduksi Konversi” ( Conversion Forest ), and investment in oil palm is known to be a high priority of the Indonesian government. Moreover, since such plantations typically rely on outside migrant labor, they offer few economic benefits to local communities. Pressure to convert mangrove areas for tambak (shrimp ponds) is yet another potential medium-term threat.

A medium-term threat to the lowland forests of the GLL is potential in-migration and forest conversion for smallholder agriculture. This trend is already a serious problem in forests around the Timika area, the result of substantial highland-to-lowland migration of Amungme and Dani agriculturalists.

The threat from the wild species trade

There is a thriving illegal trade in freshwater turtles and birds from the GLL, using Timika as the main export hub. Threatened species affected include a freshwater turtle (Carettochelys insculpta) birds-of-paradise, parrots, and other CITES-protected species. A recent report by Traffic indicates that over-harvesting is probably occurring, though the impact on local populations is as yet undetermined. There is also excessive exploitation of specific tree species, especially iron-wood and Aquilaria (gaharu). The gaharu trade is a significant source of inter-community tension between local communities and outside trader/middlemen, and probably a social factor driving the spread of HIV in New Guinea .

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