The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE): An Ecologically Induced Genocide of the Malind Anim

Abstract

ABSTRACT The term “ecologically induced genocide” represents a “green” shift in the field of genocide studies that looks to demonstrate how ecological destruction can result in the genocide of a group who exhibit a cultural connection to the land they inhabit. Using a political economy of genocide developed by Crook, Short, and South, the contexts and processes that can lead to an ecologically induced genocide can be recognized. This paper looks to make use of this framework to better understand an under-researched case study, The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE), to show how it has resulted in a continuing ecologically induced genocide of the Indigenous Malind Anim. Drawing on the conceptual links between colonialism, capitalism, ecological destruction, and genocide, this paper analyses colonization and genocide in West Papua before demonstrating how MIFEE causes a contest for land between Indonesia and the Malind Anim. It then uses the political economy of genocide to show how it continues to cause an ecologically induced genocide of the Malind Anim through destroying their physical, cultural, and ecological relationship to the environment they live upon. It then concludes that MIFEE, as a manifestation of Indonesian colonization, also contributes to the broader genocide of the West Papuan people.