The author would like to thank the Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize and the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust for providing funds for this work. As the first step in a long and drawn-out process, this project was very important for identifying the steps needed to formulate a plan for living with the social and environmental legacy of the Ok Tedi Mine.

 

 

Project goal
The fundamental goal of the Ok Tedi/Fly River Resource Center project was to generate comprehensible information about the social and environmental impact of the Ok Tedi mine, and then to communicate this information to affected communities. I sought to achieve these goals primarily by holding continuous, open office hours and by making environmental presentations to the affected communities. In the future, communities will be informed by a pamphlet that will be disseminated in conjunction with the Catholic Church.

Unlike environmental damage, the long-term social impact of the Ok Tedi Mine contamination can be addressed if it is dealt with without delay. For the community being affected, discussion of the long-term social impact of contamination is the most productive effort that can be undertaken at this point. This was the focus of my work, which ranged in scope from making environmental presentations in villages to openly consulting with interested individuals, promoting dialogue on the topic, and working with well-established stakeholder groups in the province.

Background
The Ok Tedi Mine site is in the remote Star Mountains. Meeting the Fly River below Kiunga, the Ok Tedi River flows through the expansive Middle Fly floodplain, meeting with the Strickland River before emptying into the Gulf of Papua (see Figure 1). Since opening in 1984, the mine operated by Ok Tedi Mining, Ltd. (OTML) has dumped hundreds of thousands of tons of pulverized rock waste into the Ok Tedi/Fly River system each day (OTML 2005). Its disposal method has wrought havoc on the receiving riverine environment and the lives of over 50,000 indigenous people who live along its banks. The mine’s overarching importance to the national economy, however, has made the river into a sacrifice zone for economic development elsewhere (Kirsch 1997)¹.  

Currently, the mine plans to decommission by 2013, however, the environmental damage it has caused will last a few hundred years at least (OTML 2004). Very few structures have been put in place to help affected communities live with the long-term social and environmental effects of the mine.

In November 2005, I traveled to Papua New Guinea to conduct field research for my senior college project and to participate in the Kiunga Summit in Kiunga, Western Province.²  At the Summit, village representatives from the entire Ok Tedi/Fly River system came together for the first time and collectively identified the need for a reliable information network to communicate amongst themselves and with the broader international community.

Upon graduation, I was awarded UC Berkeley’s Stronach Baccalaureate Prize to spend seven months in Western Province in an effort to create a viable method of relaying environmental reports produced by OTML to the affected communities.³ As part of this project, I planned to conduct patrols along the Ok Tedi/Fly River system in order to give environmental presentations and address concerns villagers might have about the mine’s impact. Such access to information was an important first step in helping the communities to plan for the future. ⁴

Open office hours
During my time in Western Province, in particular in Kiunga, I constantly held open office hours where I provided printed copies of environmental documents that people were interested in along with detailed explanations of the information and its application to their current and future situation. I held these meetings anywhere and everywhere, ranging from the town streets of Kiunga to the backyard of my house. My attitude was open, candid, and allowed anyone to ask questions, raise concerns, or seek additional information. This approach allowed for my one-on-one explanations of the environmental issues at hand. Many people came and sought advice or asked questions about various environmental impacts. I observed that clearly more education about the long-term social and environmental effects was needed at the local level. While communities and individuals may live with the mine’s impact on a day-to-day basis, there was very limited knowledge about the long-term impact and the steps needed to address it. 

Environmental presentations
I conducted fifteen environmental presentations in Kiunga and downstream river villages where I used a set of poster boards that succinctly described the most pressing issues and provided a basic understanding of the long-term issues at stake. My presentations focused on the lasting social and environmental impact on the river, primarily on long-term flooding of the Middle Fly. Selected topics were:

1)    Flooding in the Middle Fly region
2)    Dieback of forest in the Fly River system
3)    Acid Rock Drainage
4)    Copper in the Fly River system
5)    Mine Waste Storage Project at Bige
6)    Social impact of environmental problems 
7)    Long-term impact of environmental problems

My presentations generally lasted from 1 to 2 hours and were presented in an open-forum style to increase individual participation. In a number of villages, I conducted separate presentations for women and offered supplementary presentations so that people could come back with additional questions later.

The presentations initiated significant discussion in the villages about the long-term impact of the mine, current social issues, and the role of the PNG Sustainable Development Program initiatives, such as rubber and oil palm. In almost all Middle Fly villages I visited, we discussed the long-term impact and the cost/benefit analysis of rubber and oil palm. 

Additional services
In order to create an open space for community members to develop their own efforts, my resource center provided basic copy, scan, and printing services free of charge. In addition to basic services, this on-the-ground presence produced a number of dialogues in the community about the long-term future of the affected communities. These conversations included the office of the Governor and the Daru-Kiunga diocese of the Catholic Church.

An abbreviated list of my accomplishments includes:

• Organization of 2 CMCA working group meetings at the mine site and 1 village meeting in Wanga Wanga.
• Presentation of the paper "Informing Communities: Past, Present, and Future of Western Province" at the Western Province Community Conservation Coalition (WCCC) meeting in Kiunga, Western Province (Nov 13–17, 2006).
• Ongoing consultation and collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
• Environmental presentations in the lower Ok Tedi and Middle Fly villages: Dmesuke, Dome, Manda (x 2), Mipan, Kwem, Bosset (x 2), Wanga Wanga (x 2).

• Environmental presentations in Kiunga Township Alice Corner (x 3), Mission Corner, West Papua Corner.
• Collectively spent two months in remote downstream communities on three separate occasions.
• Constant ongoing awareness and information dissemination with concerned individuals through open office hours during my time in Kiunga.
• Creation of a pamphlet (final draft forthcoming) that will be distributed to affected communities in conjunction with the Catholic Church.
• Worked with others to develop a constructive critique and propose improvements concerning the current development practices in North and Middle Fly area. The critique was presented to the WCCC.
• Completed a number of cultural documentation projects.
• Employed several local assistants for various tasks, including interpretation, village logistics, and outboard motor operation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personal observations
Times are changing in Western Province as in all of Papua New Guinea. The rapid introduction of Western society and technology have brought “civilization” into the most remote corners of the country. In even the most distant villages, you can watch pirated American movies on Indonesian DVD players. The age of isolation is coming to an end, and the word on everyone’s lips is “development.” Development is perhaps the most common word in PNG, yet its vague meaning refers to hundreds of different definitions and expectations. To some, development means entirely abandoning village life in favor of modern city life. To others, it means access to improved health care, food, and education. In all cases, however, it is unclear what it will really look like, who will be responsible for it, and exactly how it will happen.

Like the nation itself, individual villages and communities are experiencing rapid change. A new generation is growing up in the Ok Tedi mining era and many are too young to remember what the river and forests were like before the mine. The youth are anxious to join fast-paced city life and often feel unhappy about remaining in the village. As traditional clan structures have weakened, youth crime and teen pregnancy have increased drastically. In response, most people cite the need for basic education, however, the educational system offers few benefits to these children. Aside from basic enrichment, it cannot provide well-paying job opportunities for everyone in this growing population. The result is that many children are losing knowledge of the natural world and how to support themselves in the natural environment. This has been a factor in the mass migration of people to the towns and cities in search of paying jobs. They often get stuck without their traditional support system, causing marginally educated men turning to crime to support themselves. This chain of events has been well documented by a number of anthropologists.

Money and compensation
Living without a steady cash income is very difficult. Prices for non-locally produced foods are very high—close to American prices—and incomes as low as 1 Kina per hour (US $0.33) makes living very difficult. OTML primarily recognizes villages, while land is divided up into clans. In one village, there was a large dispute between one clan and the other clans because the first one did not want the others making business ventures (such as rubber or any other cash crop) on their land. This resulted in the other clans threatening to move the village.

The people are confused about development and what it will bring. For example, rubber is a marginally profitable crop at best with no return for the first six years, yet many people are running to chop down their forests in order to plant it. In Lake Murray, a group of 20 or 30 people did hard labor to clear the forest for three weeks by working eight hours each day in exchange for less than $1 per day. If they had gone fishing for an hour, they could have sold their fish in the market for far more money in less than half the time.

The majority of these development programs are funded by the PNG Sustainable Development Program (PNGSDP). PNGSDP currently has a top-down approach to economic development so those making economic decisions for the communities appear to have very little concept of what matters to them on a fundamental level. This is evident from their economic development programs, which champion rubber and oil palm, and thus require clearing large amounts of bush. This operation threatens to undermine the communities’ ability ultimately to sustain themselves in an already compromised environment.

Uncertainty over food and other social issues

In villages along the Fly River, environmental damage has made sago very difficult to get, while changing tastes have made white rice the staple food of choice. The people have been scared to eat fish from the river because of pollution, and although a number of reports stated that the fish are safe to eat, the contamination is perceived to be high. Villagers ask a valid question: “How can we be certain since others have been wrong before?” In the Middle Fly, however, there is little choice but to eat the fish despite these concerns. During my time in Manda village, the villagers showed me a fish with a disease and/or coloring that they’d never seen before. Whether or not there was actually something wrong with this fish was beside the point. Ultimately, the fish was not eaten because of health concerns. This example shows one of the many ways the environment is changing around them.

Citing uncertainty about their changing environment, people often came to me with questions about safety and contamination that I could not (and did not try to) answer. They asked about the level of contaminants in the water, if certain sores could be attributed to swimming in the river, or even if some person’s actions were caused by river pollution. Although some studies have indicated that the river still has plenty of fish for people to eat, most communities note that the number of fish has gone down dramatically. It takes a tremendous amount of harvest to get enough fish to feed one family and all the extended relations who are entitled to a portion of the catch.
   
Given these diverse opinions, I found that most communities were not organized solidly for or against the mine, but rather were split down the middle. During the Community Mine Continuation Agreements, however, it seemed that the majority of participants were in favor of mine continuation in exchange for a sizeable compensation package. Of the Middle Fly villages I visited (Kwem, Mipan, Manda, Bosset, and Wanga Wanga), only Mipan had a majority of people against mine continuation.

Transition phase
As the year went on and I gained more understanding and experience, I began to change my focus. Initially, I planned for the continued operation of the resource center after I left. Over time, however, it became apparent that while access to environmental information was helpful, it did not go far enough to address the major, long-term and social impact facing these communities.

To date, two major issues have confronted mine operation at Ok Tedi: (1) accountability and responsibility for the long-term social and environmental damage; and (2) if and how the affected indigenous communities downstream can live with these damages for their duration. Although the mine is scheduled to close in six years, there has been little to no research on whether or not it is possible for the 50,000 people living along the Ok Tedi-Fly river system to sustain their livelihoods in the post-mine era, and if so, how?
   
The communities need an institution based in Western Province that answers their basic food and health concerns as well as other social needs. Although the CMCA process has finished and the new Ok Tedi Development Foundation has been created, it is still uncertain whether these concerns will be fully addressed. Since the long-term social impact of the mine is the greatest challenge the communities face, an independent, well-funded institute should be set up to help them address their needs. While the ultimate shape of this institute has not been determined yet, it will need the support of OTML, the communities, the Western Province governmental administration, and NGOs.

During my time in Western Province, my work of providing information resources slowly morphed into understanding the broader and longer-term needs of the affected communities. One of my final projects was to create a pamphlet that could be distributed to affected communities in conjunction with the Catholic Church. This is still an ongoing process. The pamphlet, which should be continually updated and distributed, will inform communities of long-term effects caused by mine contamination and help them to plan for the future. In addition, it may be translated into Bhasa (an Indonesian language) so that the West Papuan refugee community also affected by the mine could have access to this information. The large-scale planning of such an effort, however, must be well coordinated and thought out for it to work.

By the end of my term in April 2007, I had initiated much discussion with the Western Province Community Conservation Coalition, a body of NGOs and community groups dedicated to community and natural resource conservation in Western Province. These conversations created an opportunity to work with organizations that could carry on the work over the long term. So while my own information center disbanded when I left, it also transitioned into a new and more appropriate focus under the wing of more permanent NGOs.

The task of addressing the long-term social and environmental impact for downstream communities, however, is so large that there is a distinct need for a Western Province-based organization that will work with the Ok Tedi Development Foundation and PNG Sustainable Development Program to plan for the future.

For example, many of the tribes in the Middle Fly area will be forced to move and adopt a different lifestyle. Since all land is customarily owned privately, this movement will create tension and animosity between groups who may be competing for resources or be unwelcome on land under dispute.
   
Personal and professional growth
My father says, “Growth is being ten miles outside your comfort zone.” For my personal growth and individual experience, the Stronach Prize project was a milestone in my life. I was forced to face issues I had never dreamed of and could not have possibly ever planned for. I had to adjust to a world quite different from my own, accept the drawbacks and relish in what this new world had to offer.

In order to connect with affected people and their communities, I first had to understand what their normal life was like. By living with a host family and spending a few weeks at a time in various downstream villages and adapting to their way of life, I came to understand the culture and their world.

I gained experience working with a wide range of different people and I learned to read people and understand my world far better than before. I became so embroiled in their microcosmic world that I began to develop a ground-level view understanding of the global political economy of resource extraction. I am grateful for such a rare experience.

I learned a lot about operating within a range of constraints and finding new ways to solve problems. This need popped up everywhere: from logistics to conveying information. Thus I improved my problem-solving skills immeasurably. My presentation style and my process of conveying information also changed considerably as I came to better understand the culture.

This project allowed me to have a great deal of creativity and expression. Thanks to the financial support of the Stronach Baccalaureate Prize and the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust, I was allowed to do the things I really thought were best for myself and my work. If I could dream and plan it, then I could do it. The catch was that I had to do almost all the work and use the minimal resources available in PNG. For example, conducting environmental presentations in the remote villages meant arranging the difficult logistics and producing an environmental presentation that was engaging and helpful for different audiences.

I think one of the greatest things my experience gave me was perspective. In every aspect of our lives, a good sense of perspective and context is invaluable. I learned to appreciate what I had and what I could do, what mattered and what did not. The trip also forced me to accept the difficulties of conducting work in a very complex and challenging environment, as well as understanding my own limitations to helping solve this long-term problem.

Everyday I think about the people I met and all the friends I made in PNG. It was truly a life-changing experience, and encouraged me to explore new ways to use energy and natural resources more efficiently, both on personal and professional levels. But perhaps most of all, I was impressed with the depth of kindness that was generally offered to me by people in the province.
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^1. Thirty percent of the mine is owned by the national government, making it the largest, single contributor to revenue (PNGSDP 2005).

^2. In preparation for the Summit, I collaborated with Dr. Stuart Kirsch and Kerry Ard from the University of Michigan to produce a document informing affected communities of the current environmental effects on the river system. This document was presented at the Summit.

^3. Select reports are made public on the Internet, though affected communities rarely have access to environmental and social information that relates directly to them. 

^4. Although OTML conducts a number of awareness patrols about environmental issues, there is still a significant need for awareness and discussion about living with long-term effects.