The Indonesian office of the environmental organisation Greenpeace, together with the Institute for Development and Finance (INDEF), launched a new report on deforestation in West Papua. The organisations launched the results of the joint research in Jakarta on 19 December 2022. The report is titled “Otonomi Khusus dan Kutukan Sumber Daya Alam Papua” (Special Autonomy and the Curse of Natural Resources). It provides insights into the adverse effects of Jakarta’s investment policies in West Papua. Over the past decades, West Papua has lost about 641,000 hectares of primary rainforest.
The biggest threat to the Papuan forest is palm oil plantation concessions, covering about 1,88 million hectares of land across West Papua, composing 516.682 hectares in the Papua Barat Province and 1.365.431 hectares in the Papua Province. Most palm oil concessions in West Papua are owned by large transnational companies such as Korindo, Posco, Noble, and Austindo Nusantara Jaya. The research illustrates that the presence of palm oil companies does not have a positive impact on the prosperity of the local communities providing their land for investors. In many cases, the plantations have been established without the free, prior, informed consent of the indigenous land rights holders.
Table with regencies most severely affected by deforestation in West Papua
| No | Regency | Province | Plantation areas (ha) |
| 1 | Merauke | Papua | 92,000,2 |
| 2 | Boven Digoel | Papua | 69,000.8 |
| 3 | Mappi | Papua | 30,000.2 |
| 4 | Nabire | Papua | 36,000 |
| 5 | Mimika | Papua | 34,000 |
| 6 | Keerrom | Papua | 29,000.9 |
| 7 | Fak-Fak | Papua Barat | 36,000.1 |
| 8 | Teluk Bintuni | Papua Barat | 31,000.7 |
| 9 | Sorong | Papua Barat | 29,000.2 |
| 10 | Manokwari | Papua Barat | 28,000.7 |
| T O T A L | 414,003.8 |
