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Eco-Terrorism : Freeport Mining

WEST PAPUA: The Truth about "Reclamation" in The Freeport Wasteland
By WPNews
Aug 5, 2008, 19:01

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Free West Papua Campaign (UK) comment: Freeport/Rio Tinto recently funded a Jakarta Post journalist to report on the vast area of tailings from the Grasberg mine ("The Freeport Wastelend"). Compare his report, "Butterflies breathe new life into Freeport's wasteland," copied below, with evidence provided by a member of the West Papua Action Network team who also recently visited the area.

Notice also that the Indonesian government is happy to give journalists permission to report from West Papua, so long as they are "on-message".

The Truth about "Reclamation" in The Freeport Wasteland

(extract from West Papua Action Network [WPAT] August 2008 West Papua Report http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm)

In its Sunday July 27 edition the Jakarta Post carried a report about
butterfly breeding at a reclamation site (the Maurujaya Reclamation
Center) located adjacent to the vast tailings delta created by over 40
years of operations at the Freeport-McMoran mine in the
Timika-Tembagapura area of West Papua.

A WPAT team member writes that the piece, entitled "Butterflies breathe
new life into Freeport's wasteland," conveys the false notion that the
tailings desert in the middle of Papuan rain forest can be and is being
"reclaimed." Noris Pangemanan, chief of the center which is run by
Freeport-McMoran told the Post that the "farm" is lined with local fruit
trees and a fish pond -- all of them on "reclaimed" mining waste.
Pangemanan, in the employ of Freeport, told the post that "in the mining
waste deposits -- contrary to what many people think -- there are still
water sources and fertile soil."

The "farm" is located at the edge of the wasteland created by tailings
from the Freeport mine which has submerged vast stretches of tropical
rainforest, inundating the Ajkwa River basin. It forms a massive delta,
in places tens of meters deep, that extends to the Arafura Sea where
tidal currents have transported the tailings east and west along the
coast destroying miles of mangrove forest.

Having visited the small "farm" described in the article, one is struck
by the difference between this manufactured island and the sea of nearly
lifeless, sand-like tailings that engulfs it. The lush little
paradise flourishes not on the life-stealing tailings but on the vast
amounts of new soil and fertilizers brought in to the site to create
this potemkin garden. A three-hour trek on the adjoining tailings delta
revealed a starker reality. Virtually lifeless, except for one
thin-bladed grass variety, the delta appears to be an ocean beach
without a shoreline, or more simply, a desert without birds, game or
even insects.

The delta offers up periodic wide depressions at the center of which is
quicksand. Miles of sago palm, a key traditional food source for
Papuans, stand dead and spear-like lining the edges of tailings delta.
Periodic breaks in the miles-long, poorly maintained dike system created
by Freeport-McMoran to control the tailings flow within the Ajkwa river
channel allow the tailings-laden water to inundate and smother these
trees and all other vegetation in their wake.The vast and expanding dead
zone is and will be a far more lasting legacy of the Freeport-McMoran
operation than the butterflies attracted to its tiny farm center.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Butterflies breathe new life into wasteland

The Jakarta Post 28 July 2008

When the sun comes out, hundreds of butterflies, including the native Papua species Ornithoptera, locally known as the bird-winged butterfly, fly out to find flowers at the Maurujaya Reclamation Center.

The center is built on mining waste from the giant copper and gold mine of PT Freeport Indonesia, Papua.

The butterfly is a good metaphor for the center: the rebirth of life from barren mining waste tips. A few years ago, the site looked more like a desert.

“New life is abundant in this reclamation area. Visitors can observe the birth of new life from here, a new butterfly habitat,” said Noris Pangemanan, who is in charge of the center’s operation.

“Before we only focused on the study of flora, but now we’re trying to introduce an important element of nature conservation through butterfly breeding. It’s a symbol, showing that we can help conserve nature through waste management.”

The center began butterfly breeding one year ago using thousands of caterpillars. The effort has borne fruit as the caterpillars have grown into cocoons and then into beautiful butterflies.

The butterfly breeding habitat is located in the middle of a farm which is lined with local fruit trees and a fish pond — all of them on reclaimed mining waste. In the mining waste deposits — contrary to what many people think — there are still water sources and fertile soil, said Noris

The butterflies that breed in the center steal most of the attention of visitors, because they flutter here and there in an eye-catching way, showing off their beautiful, colorful wings

— Text and photos by P.J. Leo

The Jakarta Post was invited by PT Freeport Indonesia to the site in Mimika on July 17 - 19.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Richard Samuelson
Free West Papua Campaign, Oxford, UK.
www.freewestpapua.org

© Copyright by w@tchPAPUA

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