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Genuine ecotourism in Papua

The term "ecotourism" still covers many overtones, and in the absence of an independent national certification organ in Indonesia, just about anybody presently can claim to be operating an environmentally and socially responsible travel operation in Papua. To too many, ecotourism is merely synonymous with "nature travel", which more often than not entails significant negative environmental and social impacts. Yet to a growing number, ecotourism is a deeply social and entrepreneurial approach to achieving long-term conservation goals. Naturally, we adhere to the latter social movement while also wishing to emphasize that — however much genuine ecotourism endeavors to create social and ecological benefits — it nonetheless is a commercial activity that can only be conducted through sound business practices. The prevailing Indonesian legislation confirms this judgment unambiguously.

As our core business, we approach the practical organization of ecotourism as a 100 % locally owned micro-company, trading as the independent travel operator Papua Expeditions with regional focus on the western half of the subcontinental island of New Guinea under Indonesian administration. Variously known as Papua, West Papua, Irian Jaya, or Indonesian New Guinea, the vast territory (three times larger than England or roughly half the size of Texas) is one of the last great tropical wilderness areas left on Earth, home to a unique array of exquisite wildlife, and set against an amazing cultural backdrop.

Ecotourism and indigenous people

We firmly do believe that carefully planned and implemented ecotourism may contribute significantly to both the conservation of natural habitats and the well-being of local people. We recognize as our duty to ensure that indigenous communities do benefit, to the maximum extent possible, from deployment of our ecotourism activities if these are to stand any chance of genuinely rivaling the increasing claims to deleterious resource extraction throughout Papua. After all, people who earn a living directly through responsible travel, are more amenable to actively help protecting the environment on which their livelihood depends. Indigenous people, still intrinsically connected to the natural world around them, often possess an uncanny intimacy with the specialty component of biodiversity that allures overseas visitors. Their services as guides and porters add quintessential couleur locale and are quite simply indispensable to the successful operation of a trip. We exclusively employ indigenous people entitled to ancestral land rights and/or actually residing at the respective sites that we visit. Because we conclude all ground arrangements with local people directly ourselves — hence effectively eliminating third party agents outside our control — and by consistently applying a competitive salary scheme, we guarantee fair remuneration of the services locals provide. By handling trips in close collaboration and continuous consultation with people belonging to the places that we visit, we are able to both increase their economical benefit e.g. in the form of local purchase of food surplus, as effectively reduce our impact on traditional societies. We are keen on training and assisting local people to develop their own derivative businesses in conjunction with our business expansion strategy.

Sound business practices

The 2007 Oslo Statement on Ecotourism calls for sound business practices in the sector and recognizes that the business of ecotourism can be as fragile and sensitive as the environments in which it occurs, especially since many ecotourism products are provided by micro or small enterprises like ours. The foresight and investment of private ecotourism entrepreneurs is essential to achieving conservation goals through ecotourism, in partnership with protected area managers and local communities. In Indonesia, however, a special breed of ecotourism outfits persists in the form of charitable foundations (called yayasan in Indonesian) that compete directly with the private sector by providing the same commercial ecotourism services as tour organization, guiding and lodging. Such "non-profit" organizations are often purposefully established and run by "creative" business(wo)men, who generally have very little to say about ecotourism, biodiversity or conservation, work with little transparency, recruit clients in the name of conservation and community development, and often even collect operational funds from foreign donors in order to offset costs for their corporate responsibility. Their business as veiled travel operators can often readily be shown to constitute their core activity. Yet direct trading by a not-for-profit foundation is manifestly illegal in Indonesia since the enactment of Law No. 16 of 2001 regarding "Foundations". Moreover, the misuse of favorable tax regimes enables these "charities" to provide services well below economically viable market-fares, and this in turn undermines the genuine efforts of both community-owned enterprises as the corporate ecotourism world. We urge potential visitors to Papua to bear all this in mind when assessing and comparing travel operations.

Environmental care

Throughout Indonesia, adherence to the principles of conservation, environmental care and sustainability still is in its infancy. In the sheer absence of modern waste processing infrastructure in the territory, we rigorously enforce a policy of garbage-prevention, whether in the office or out in the field. We operate an office as paperless as possibly can be and principally oppose printed materials for advertising purposes. In the field we see to it that biodegradable detergents and toiletries are used and that any non-combustible residual packaging of foodstuffs is carried out back to town. "Goes without saying": we hear you shouting. Yet virtually all travel outfitters visiting Papua just continue to dump trash on site till this day, thereby creating significant waste problems for local communities in the long term. Last but not least, we absolutely forbid the collection of any specimens on any of our trips, and always strive to reduce disturbance of the wildlife that we take our guests and friends to see.

Related links

Browse the Papua Expeditions web site.

Read on about our Community Conservation and Ecotourism Agreement for the Orobiai River catchment on Waigeo Island (from www.PapuaExpeditions.com).

Read on about the natural wonders of New Guinea (from www.PapuaExpeditions.com).

Read on about the geopolitical and biogeographical delimitation of Papua (from www.PapuaExpeditions.com).

Read on about the flora and fauna of Papua (from www.PapuaExpeditions.com).

Read on about the birdlife of Papua (from www.PapuaExpeditions.com).

Ecotourism is travel to fragile, pristine and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and (usually) small scale. It helps educate the traveler; provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.
(Martha Honey, 1999)

100 % Locally owned

cv.Ekonexion is 100 % locally owned by an Indonesian family of mixed Papuan, North Moluccan and ethnic Chinese origin, with traceable ancestry and residence in the Sorong area of western New Guinea since the end of the nineteenth century, and rooted within the royal houses of the Sultanates of Salawati in the Raja Ampat and Bacan in the northern Moluccas.

Visionary conservationists

On Waigeo Island in the fabled Raja Ampat archipelago off New Guinea's western tip, cv.Ekonexion recently entered into an ambitious and innovative five-year pilot agreement with customary landowners in a bid to preserve for future generations, the entire Orobiai River catchment there: 92 km² of virtually untouched primary forest, set in visually stunning topography, and teeming with spectacular yet globally threatened wildlife. Our Community Conservation and Ecotourism Agreement (CCEA) seals direct structured payments by cv.Ekonexion to customary landholding groups on Waigeo in return for carefully defined conservation and education outcomes. We act on the convincingness of the added value of at least attempting to make conservation efforts more market-driven.

Cenderawasih Fund
for Community Development

We explicitly acknowledge our corporate responsibility in community development and have called an internal company fund into being — the Cenderawasih Fund for Community Development — to further this commitment. The conclusion of each financial year will mark the deposit of 10 % of cv.Ekonexion's net profit into this fund, enabling execution of small-scale yet concrete projects that meaningfully improve local people's lives. Foremost, our fund endeavors to empower small local initiatives in the domains of life necessity utilities, health care, and education; in brief all basic services that cannot be fulfilled from a subsistence way of living. Our approach remains unique in that we both tailor a project to suit the specific needs of local communities through intimate consultation, as well as subsequently act as an independent contractor to actively implement together with local people what we have contractually agreed upon. At this point in time, such policy — we remain highly convinced — presents the single most conceivable outlook on maximum outreach of reserved funds.

Human rights

We run our business in accordance with the principles set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). We principally adhere to customary Adat land rights wherever such land tenure systems are normative in Papua. Increasingly, however, traditional societies in Papua claim access to forest resources beyond subsistence use. Therefore, we reserve the right to make any financial compensation for deploying non-invasive ecotourism activities on ancestral land conditional upon active participation in habitat protection of requesting village authorities and landowners.