Community Livelihoods And Civil Society Organisations In - UNDP

Also in Biak and unlike elsewhere in Papua, people generally do not accept the
institutionalisation of adat through the formation of customary people’s institutions (Lembaga
Masyarakat Adat – LMA). Although LMAs have been forming throughout the different adat
groups around Papua, especially since the second Papua People’s Congress of 2000, Biak
villagers feel that their adat has long been organized with traditional institutional
arrangements based on clans. Biak adat is, by nature, dynamic such that the people there
feel that they do not need to have ‘permanent’ institutions, or that to do so may be
inappropriate in their context (YALHIMO report, 2005).
2.3.4 The Bird’s Head and southwestern area
Sorong is one area where many have become dependent on the government and outsiders
through the introduction of rice. Apart from oil, fisheries and forestry account for most of the
area’s productive activities. People traditionally harvested and ate sago, and did not grow
rice. As eating rice has become a norm, people depend on government supplies from
Sulawesi, as well as on traders for a basic food. The same is happening in many parts of
Papua, but in Sorong it appears most entrenched and unlikely to be reversed (YALHIMO
report, 2005).
In Kampung Kaburbur in Fakfak, people are literate as the church (through YPK, a
Protestant church foundation) has run a “people’s school” (Sekolah Rakyat) in the
neighbouring village since Dutch times. People in Kampung Kaburbur have a mostly
subsistent, agricultural existence, with food gardens and nutmeg plantations that they tend
and harvest. They also fish, but to meet their own consumption needs rather than to
generate income. They have no organization to help them succeed economically and
according to the village elders, since early times they have been in a weak position because
of marketing problems. The people sell their nutmeg to Fakfak traders who monopolise the
prices. What stands out in the example of these villages is that Karburbur people have a
strong desire to improve their situation and have taken action to that end. They tried to form
a Nutmeg Farmers Association in order to strengthen their position and improve their
incomes, and some villagers traveled to Surabaya to contact buyers. This did not yield the
expected results, as they found that the buyers there had been misled by the Fakfak
middlemen who had long-established trading relationships, such that the Surabaya buyers
would not enter into deals with the indigenous producers from Papua (Perdu report, 2005).
2.3.5 Northern areas
In several villages in the northern areas of Papua, for example in non-urban areas Jayapura
kabupaten, there are functioning community-based groups. For example in Kampung Bring,
Kampung Nembu Gresi, Kampung Ibub and Kampung Pupehabu there are groups of
women who act collectively in agriculture, small credit cooperatives, and self-organise for
health and church activities. In the same villages, youth groups are active as part of the
village community, with activities in sport, arts, worship, gardening and cooperatives. (YPMD
report, 2005). In these villages, the church has a long established presence, distance to
towns and centres can be far but the infrastructure and access is better than in similarly
located villages in other parts of Papua, and an NGO has been active providing support and
technical assistance for several years. These factors all contribute to the ways people are
able to work together to better themselves.
16