There is a need to seek control and cooperation in the use of natural resources such as forests, watersheds, and fisheries. Lack of understanding and unsustainable natural resource lead to social conflicts, whether in the local, national and international levels.

Mining for example is a profitable field of investment but conflicts occur at the community level, at local government, on policy overlaps due to mistrust, inadequate information, ineffective governance, non-accountability, and lack of respect for the indigenous culture. The economy of resource use has to manage and balance basic needs, livelihoods, national development, corporate investment, and post-investment sustainability.

There are several ways of managing tensions and conflicts over natural resources. Key conflict management and resolution strategies can take the following forms: avoidance, mediation, adjudication, negotiation, arbitration, and coercion. The natural resource conflict management and resolution can be pursued through different approaches: customary systems, national legal systems, and alternative conflict management. Community forest management can contribute to the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Conflict over land and natural resources in Papua, Indonesia

Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya, is one of the provinces of Indonesia located in the eastern part of Indonesia. The struggle over land and natural resource rights is a key aspect of the conflict in Papua that pits the Indonesian state against an independence movement supported by most of the indigenous population. T he conflict is characterized by sporadic violent clashes between security forces and scattered guerrillas of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) and by the largely peaceful independence campaign of the Presidium of the Papuan Council, an umbrella group regarded, in a society of great ethnic and linguistic diversity, as the most influential voice of indigenous aspirations, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).

Its starting point is the view that Indonesia's 1969 annexation of the Dutch colony was not legitimate in the eyes of many Papuans. Injustices in the management of natural resources under Indonesian rule have also further contributed significantly to the conflict. The state has often given concessions to resource companies in disregard of the customary rights of indigenous Papuan communities.

The resource industry with the widest geographical impact in Papua is the logging industry, whose concessions cover nearly a third of the province. The ICG research findings in Papua, notably the western Sorong region, point to widespread abuses by logging companies which exploit and deceive local people, and pay little or no heed to environmental sustainability.

About half of Papua's 22 million hectares is classified as "production forest," as differentiated from conservation areas. Forestry concessions cover 13 million hectares. Activists say there is a thriving trade in logs with other Asian countries despite a ban on log exports imposed across Indonesia in October 2001.

The other resource industry in Papua is mining. The Freeport copper and gold mine is the most controversial foreign mining operation in Indonesia, largely because of its historical entanglement with the elites and military of the era of former President Soeharto. The mine has long been accused of dispossessing locals and colluding in human rights abuses by its military guards. It has made increasing efforts since the 1990s to win legitimacy with a Papuan community swelled by immigrants drawn to the mine. These include much development spending, which itself however causes social disruption. Relations remain problematic between the company and its guards and an ethnically diverse community. As noted by the ICG, the company has paid more than a billion US dollars in taxes and royalties to Indonesia and created a local economy that supports thousands of people.

Freeport Sulphur, later renamed Freeport McMoRan, a US company, began exploring in southern Papua in 1960. It signed a production contract with Indonesia in 1966, three years before the establishment of Indonesian sovereignty over Papua. Former president Soeharto and his military-backed regime badly needed foreign capital, and Freeport was given great latitude in drawing up the terms of its own investment. The mine was operated by a subsidiary, Freeport Indonesia, which up till now remains controlled by Freeport McMoRan.

Only a few hundred people were living in the region at the time, according to Freeport. The Amungme indigenous people used the area around the mine for hunting and spiritual purposes, though there was a village on what would later become the company town of Tembagapura. The local people could not be said to have given their prior informed consent, since they could not have understood the massive impact the mine would have on their region. According to one account, they did not find out until 1995 that, according to state records, they had ceded a million hectares of land for development. As mining of the Ertzberg deposit began in the early 1970s, tensions grew with local people. There were resentments among people who felt their land was wrongfully taken, and Freeport tended to use skilled workers from outside the area, meaning few jobs for locals.

Another significant natural resource enterprise in Papua is a natural gas project, Tangguh LNG, situated near the Bintuni Bay region of West Papua province, and exploiting reserves discovered by ARCO Exploration in the mid-1990s. Called "Tangguh" after the Indonesian word for "resilient," the reserves are estimated to be over 170 million hectares. These fields have the potential to become one of the world's premier natural gas supplies. Initiated by ARCO and Pertamina in 1997, the project exploits six fields, including the two super-giant gas fields of Wiriagar Deep and Vorwata as well as the smaller adjacent fields of Roabiba, Ofaweri, Wos and Ubadari. The natural gas production begun in 2009 is expected to have a major impact on the farmers and fishermen who live around the bay, as well as on the economy and society of its hinterland, which includes the towns of Sorong, Manokwari, and Fakfak. This impact will be partly positive, in the form of jobs, community development programs, and revenues, but also partly negative in the form of social dislocation and possible conflict. There are also possible negative impacts on the environment, such as the risk of pollution of local fishing grounds by the project itself or by visiting tanker ships. According to the ICG, if not well-managed, such environmental risks could lead to social tension.

According to natural resource management theory, conflict is often inevitable (Daniels and Walker 1997; Hildyard et al. 1997, 1998). The growing demand for finite or renewable natural resources to satisfy the needs of different stakeholders is a common source of conflict. As resources become scarce, the competing interests cannot be fully met. Faced with such situations, stakeholders will make choices about how best to act to pursue their own interests. Stakeholder negotiation will inevitably involve conflicts of interest and trade-offs (Grimble et al. 1995; Grimble and Wellard 1996). Meanwhile, according to Ramirez (1999), the social networks surrounding a natural resource may, through time and interaction, create trust among parties with seemingly opposed positions.

In the case of Papua, the conflict is basically over land and natural resources. The Papuans believe that natural resources in the name of development are being unfairly distributed and used. Efforts to settle the conflict over land and natural resources in Papua have actually been pursued by the contending parties through negotiation and mediation in line with conflict management resolution approaches. However the Indonesian Government and the Free Papua Movement have not yet succeeded in resolving the conflict.

More efforts and serious dialog between the parties involved in the conflict must be pursued, namely the government of Indonesia, Free Papua Movement, local representatives such as Papuan Traditional Council, the presidium of Papuan Council and Papua House Representative to explore and arrive at the best solution which respects the legitimate rights of all parties. The dialog should focus on the welfare of indigenous communities, the social and economic disparities between Papuans and non-Papuans, and also on integrating the gender perspective in sustainable development. The intervention of a third party as mediator might be useful in helping resolve the conflict.

Mr Wahyu Candra Irawan is from Indonesia and is part of the student batch for SY2010-2011 and one of the Asia Leaders Program (ALP) scholars, pursuing his MA degree in Gender and Peacebuilding at the University for Peace. ALP is a dual campus masters degree project, a shared initiative between The Nippon Foundation, University for Peace, and the Ateneo de Manila University. This is his reflection paper for the lecture that Pedro Walpole gave on Practices of Conflict Management in Asia focusing on natural resources and resource use, conflict, and management last 18 to 20 April 2011.