Palm oil is an effective development agent for poverty alleviation, employment opportunity, improvement of quality of life and access to primary health and education services. Papua as the most deprived region in Indonesia needs the development opportunity, which palm oil can offer. The availability of land, favorable weather and good biophysical characteristics hold great potential for the industry to ease off Papua’s reliance on federal funding for development. As the least developed area with environmental significance, Papua has been targeted as the hotspot for both palm oil development as well as antipalm oil campaigns. Extensive campaigns against palm oil development in Papua are underway. The issue of high carbon stock and customary rights are being used as these are issues that the campaigners know are supported by antipalm oil lobbies. By naming and shaming inv...

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