Calamity in West Papua
Posted on: Tue 17 Nov 2020
The island of New Guinea contains one of the world’s last great areas of unbroken rainforest. But it’s a rainforest in trouble.
This particularly applies to West Papua, the area controlled by the Indonesia.
Indonesia wants to construct a network of highways running for some 4,000 kilometers
Known as the “Trans-Papuan Highway”, this sprawling road network will open up vast expanses of forest for exploitation.
What would the consequences be should this go ahead?
To find out more Barometer’s Des Lawrence speaks to Bill Laurance, Director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University.
