Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations

100 The Foi in Papua New Guinea
Soon after contact, however, fundamentalist
Christian mission stations were established in Foi
territory and protected by the state. As the state
usurped tribal autonomy, the missions became
agents of pacification. They were a major force in
undermining the traditional way of life, and ceremonial
dances, rituals, art, clothing, and body decoration
began to disappear. This snapped the
threads of connection between culture and nature,
and would have far-reaching consequences. As
prohibitions against violating the dominion of
masalai and ancestral spirits waned, the forestedge
communities began to think of offers by commercial
loggers as an easy road to development.
Finally significant economic development arrived
in the form of the Kutubu Oil Project, operated
by Chevron Niugini. This project, which spent
nearly $1.5 billion (in 1992 dollars) on exploration
and project construction, was the single
biggest resource sector investment in the history
of PNG. The sparse population within the
Petroleum Development License area comprised
only about 134 Fasu and Foi clans, each of which
averaged about 10 to 15 members in size. A road
was built at enormous cost to service the project,
and ended in the blink of an eye the long geographical
isolation of the Foi and Fasu from the
outside world. Project development and construction
were carried out between December
1990 and September 1992.
The benefit streams that have flowed to the
affected landowner communities since then are
worth tens of million of dollars. By 1995, the
total benefits from royalty, compensation, and
land use payments, a Special Support Grant, tax
credit schemes, and direct and indirect services
from developers amounted to over K69.6 million. 3
This does not include the K70 million in contracts
negotiated with Landowner Companies and the
projected equity payment of K62.85 million. The
Kutubu Access Road and the Moro airstrip
together cost about K91 million.
The impact of these benefits, however, has not
been equal. By 1995, beneficiaries numbered
about 427 clans and 13,750 people living in 84
villages in Southern Highlands and Gulf
provinces. The Fasu, who numbered only about
1,500 people and 58 clans, were the largest beneficiaries.
The Foi consisted of 169 clans and
7,000 people, but reaped a much smaller portion
of income flows. The remaining 5,250 people,
distributed in 200 clans, live in Gulf Province.
The Foi and Fasu, who traditionally enjoyed very
strong social and cultural ties and shared similar
subsistence lifestyles, were quickly divided by
the huge economic chasm created by the unequal
benefit streams from the petroleum project. The
Foi benefit pie is about one-tenth the size of the
Fasu pie, and must be shared among nearly five
times as many people. This inequality has
imposed serious social strains on the Foi and
ironically threatens to be a curse rather than a
blessing for the Fasu. WWF does little or no
work among the Fasu people since their “petroaffluence”
has minimized the common ground
needed to evolve a meaningful partnership. The
Foi have watched their Fasu neighbors drown in
wealth as a flood of consumption has led to
social and cultural degradation. The Foi believe,
with reason, that the Fasu cannot sustain their
present course without irremediable damage.
The Foi have also seen the impact on their own
way of life. Stanley Wabi, for instance, is a community
outreach worker in WWF’s local program.
His first experience with money came in
1980, when he was paid K6 for carrying the
patrol box of a soldier. Wabi had no place to
spend the money, nothing to spend it on. He
depended entirely on game meat and garden
food. Throughout the 1980s, unskilled labor
could earn one about K10 a fortnight. But with
the arrival of the oil project, opportunities for
wage labor increased and pay rose to K200 or
K300 per fortnight. The cash flowing from work
with the oil project and its contractors and from
royalty and compensation payments has created a
miniconsumer economy. Reliance on subsistence
foods is waning, and consumption of soft drinks,
rice, sugar, and canned meat are on the rise.
Subsistence production is increasingly thought of
as hard, time-consuming work. Knowledge of
plants and the natural world is in danger of being
lost. Traditional authority and leadership is
being challenged, and the young, drawn to
Western ways, are becoming alienated from their
own heritage. Today, Wabi is 34, and he and others
of his generation see things slipping away.
He and others say that their way of life can last
forever but only as long as they look after their
resources and use them wisely. Spared from the
overwhelming temptation the Fasu face, the Foi