greenpeace Indonesia Highlights West Papuan Protest Against Sugarcane Project

Jakarta, 18 December 2025 – Greenpeace Indonesia today brought the voices of West Papuan environmental protesters too the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs. Through a creative performance, West papuan youth and landowners showed the struggle of Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral lands are being taken for the Merauke sugarcane National strategic Project (PSN) that the ministry is overseeing. Activists also built an art installation from sugarcane stalks that read “STOP PSN”.

Protesters carried banners in Indonesian, English, and the Yei language, spoken by one of several Indigenous Peoples in southern West Papua threatened by the sugarcane project. Slogans included “West Papua is Not an Empty Land”, “PSN Out of Our Lands” and “Save Forests, Stop Sugarcane”.

The action highlighted the large-scale deforestation threatening Merauke, a threat discussed this week by President prabowo Subianto during a meeting on the government’s plans for West Papuan development.President Prabowo, along with heads of the Indonesian Armed Forces, National Police, and State Intelligence Agency, revealed plans to expand oil palm, sugarcane, and cassava plantations to secure fuel and bioethanol supplies.

The President’s statements are deeply ironic,especially as parts of sumatra are still recovering from a deadly ecological disaster that has claimed over a thousand lives. This disaster was caused by climate change and decades of industrial deforestation.The devastation in western Indonesia hasn’t stopped the government from pursuing plans that would harm landscapes in eastern Indonesia.