About West Papua
West Papua comprises the western half of the island of New Guinea. It borders Papua New Guinea to the east. West Papua was returned to Indonesia from the Netherlands in the 1960s and acknowledge the Act of Free Choice of referendum by Papuan people to join Indonesia. Swathed in tropical rainforest which is second in size only to those of the Amazon, it is home to many unique species of wildlife including tree kangaroos and beautiful birds of paradise. It is also one of the world’s most resource rich areas containing huge reserves of oil, gas, copper, gold and timber. The indigenous population number about 1 million Melanesian Indonesian Papuans, many of whom still live subsistence or hunter gatherer tribal lifestyles. The diverse tribes of New Guinea speak some 15% of the world’s known languages, despite having less than 3% of the world’s population. A Bit of History Previously a Dutch colony along with the islands that now make up Indonesia, West Papua remained under Dutch control