The Indonesian government's ambitious National Strategic Project (PSN) in Merauke has entered a critical phase marked by escalating conflict between indigenous landowners and corporations backed by state authority, with customary land seizures now accompanied by police criminalization of community members resisting plantation development on their ancestral territories.
On 29 September 2025, Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan announced plans to convert 481,000 hectares of Papuan forest in Wanam, Merauke Regency, for rice, oil palm, sugarcane, and cassava production, alongside renewable energy facilities, including bioethanol and biodiesel processing industries. The government claims the forest area has already been "released" from protected status, with Minister of Agrarian Affairs, Nusron Wahid, stating the land "does not belong to the community because it was previously state forest," allocating 263,000 hectares for rice fields in Wanam, 41,000 hectares in Merauke City, 146,000 hectares for oil palm, and 1,140 hectares for ports and settlements. This massive land conversion contradicts the lived reality of indigenous Yei communities like the Kwipalo clan, whose ancestral territories are being forcibly seized by PT Murni Nusantara Mandiri (MNM). The company is part of the PT Global Papua Abadi consortium holding a 52,700-hectare concession for sugar cane plantation development.
The conflict reached a new level on 15 September 2025, when Mr Vincen Kwipalo and his relatives physically stopped PT MNM employees operating excavators and bulldozers clearing their customary forest to build road access through Kwipalo clan territory in Jagebob District. Following this confrontation, PT MNM used one of its employees to file a police report against Mr Kwipalo at the Merauke Resort Police Station. Following the police report, Mr Kwipalo was summoned for clarification on 2 October 2025. On 17 September 2025, Mr Kwipalo and three relatives erected traditional barriers named "Sasi" using tree trunks across the cleared land, painting them orange and posting warning signs reading "No entry to the Kwipalo customary area," to protect the 2,308 hectares of ancestral land threatened by corporate encroachment. As of August 2025, PT MNM had already cleared 4,912 hectares of the concession area, with periodic monitoring by Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Foundation documenting ongoing deforestation.
The Kwipalo clan's resistance reflects systematic violations of indigenous land rights under Indonesian law, particularly Article 43(3) of Law No. 2/2021, requiring that provision of customary and individual land "for any purpose" must be "carried out through deliberation with the customary law community and residents concerned to reach an agreement on the transfer of required land and compensation."
The Kwipalo Clan has manifested its rejection through multiple channels: planting red crosses on customary territory as traditional symbols of prohibition, openly declaring rejection through the national media, staging demonstrations in both Merauke and Jakarta, and filing an ongoing lawsuit with Indonesia's Constitutional Court challenging the project's legality. His position is reinforced by Article 21 of Merauke Regency Regulation No. 5/2013. The article obligates the South Papua Governor and Merauke Regent to immediately order PT. MNM to stop the criminal act of seizing and embezzling the customary land of the Kwipalo clan and protect Mr. Vinsen Kwipalo from the threat of criminalisation. State institutions, including the police, have become enforcement mechanisms for corporate land acquisition. n addition, the military has established the 817th Territorial Development Infantry Battalion within PT MNM's concession area on Kwipalo customary land in July 2025, without clan permission or consent. The developments support growing concerns of deliberate militarization for the purpose of securing corporate business interests.
The Merauke PSN represents a broader pattern documented across Indonesia, where National Strategic Projects systematically dispossess indigenous communities under the legal framework established by the Job Creation Law. Civil society organizations argue that the law provides "facilitation and acceleration" mechanisms that bypass normal consultation and compensation requirements. The case parallels the displacement of 75 families from Soa Village in Tanah Miring District by PT Global Papua Abadi for road and bridge construction, and other conflicts at other PSN sites, including Rempang Island (Riau Islands), Indonesian Green Industrial Zone (North Kalimantan), and the National Capital (East Kalimantan), where communities face forced evictions for development projects. Greenpeace Indonesia Forest Campaigner, Mrs Sekar Banjaran Aji, noted that "PSN Merauke has deprived indigenous peoples of their rights, destroyed natural forests, and threatened the biodiversity of the landscape," while emphasizing that "the involvement of the army and police in the project has also caused terror among the community and indigenous Papuans."
Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission has documented violations in PSN Merauke activities. Yet the government continues advancing the project as part of President Prabowo Subianto's vision referenced at the UN General Assembly, positioning Indonesia as a "candidate for the world's food barn." The Papua Law Enforcement and Human Rights Coalition has called on the President to "immediately revoke the National Strategic Project policy that legalizes PT. MNM's seizure and misappropriation of the customary land of the Kwipalo clan. The criminalization of Mr Vincen Kwipalo represents an "early example" of tactics that will be deployed against indigenous land rights holders resisting investment projects throughout the South Papua Province and in other PSN sites across Indonesia.