“Malind-Anim Indigenous people in court to defend ancestral forests”, 5 August 2026

The Malind-Anim Indigenous community are mounting a legal challenge to protect West Papuan ancestral forests from a planned commercial development[,] … taken against the Merauke regency, an Indonesian administrative division, who have seized control of the Malind's customary land …

… Malind lawyers have argued the authorities failed to properly recognise Indigenous customary rights and the community's deep relationship with the forest.

Sekar Banjar Aji, the Malind people's plaintiff's chief lawyer, stated the filing of the Merauke regency's decree has disregarded the principle of free, prior and informed …

The Malind people are seeking to have the permit set for food production revoked and to stop the proposed development, which they argue threatens customary forests, wetlands, and ancestral lands.

The Papua chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment added the lawsuit is representing a "legitimate effort" by the Malind community to challenge a regional policy that may facilitate land-grabbing and "accelerate environmental destruction" across their customary land in the South Papua province.

The environmental non-governmental organisation is warning that large-scale land clearing and conversion for the National Food Security Project may severely damage rainforest ecosystems, wetlands and swamp water sources that have long sustained the Malind people's livelihoods, culture and social life …

The organisation has also thrown its support behind the case of a second lawyer - Emanuel Gobay - who is also representing the Malind-Anim people …

"The Malind tribe is the last bastion of ecological defence in Merauke," Mr Gobay said.

"Revoking their rights to customary land is tantamount to robbing their identity, culture, and the future of future generations in Papua," he said.

… Five representatives of the Malind-Anim Indigenous community initially filed the lawsuit to put a halt to the decree, which approved the environmental feasibility of a prospective 135-kilometre access road in Ilwayab district of Merauke, as part of Indonesia's Ministry of Defence's project …