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On 25 July 2013, 26 Indonesian and international organisations and the Forest Peoples Programme, submitted a report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN-CERD) requesting its consideration of the situation of the Malind and other indigenous peoples of Merauke in the Indonesian province of Papua under the Committee’s urgent action and early warning procedures (EW/UA procedures).

The Indonesian government has issued an industrial timber plantation licence for use on the Zanegi community’s customary lands to timber company PT Selaras Inti Semesta, a subsidiary of the Medco Group, whose concession extends over 169,400 ha, and which is one of over 80 companies operating as part of the government-sponsored Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) agro-industrial mega-project.

The Malind Anim tribe in Zanegi village, Merauke, Papua, Indonesia are hunter gatherers who rely on the forest for their livelihoods. They are born, raised and get food from the forest. But in the village of Zanegi, times have changed. The MedCo corporation is clearing thousands of hectares of forest, with plans to convert 169,000 hectares of land to industrial tree plantations as part of the million hectaure Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate, known as MIFEE.