January 21, 2026 | 09:56 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Anxiety that Sulfianto Alias felt for the past three years finally became reality in the villages of Fior and Andamata, Arguni District, Fakfak Regency, West Papua. Forests were already cleared and hills leveled, leaving at least 2,000 hectares of abandoned land. Worse still, the area designated for the Fakfak Fertilizer Industrial Zone—a National Strategic Project (PSN)—has failed to materialize.
“Now, after everything is damaged, the government suddenly moves the fertilizer plant project,” said Sulfianto, director of the environmental watchdog Panah Papua Association, on Thursday, January 15, 2026. The ammonia and urea plant site will shift 53 kilometers east, to the villages of Wamosan and Otoweri in Tomage District, about 230 kilometers from Manokwari.
Although the project plan in Fior and Andamata only reached the preparatory stage, nearly 1,000 residents of the two villages already suffered losses. According to Sulfianto, deforestation altered the landscape. The impact included the disappearance of community hunting grounds as forests and mangroves were destroyed. Sedimentation from land clearing also allegedly spread and polluted coastal waters.
In a classic case of being used and discarded, Sulfianto saw no intention by the government to restore the environment to its original condition. The area lies within the Fakfak mangrove marine conservation zone. It came as little surprise that residents now demanded accountability by seeking customary fines from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) and Pupuk Indonesia.
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