West Papua is the easternmost part of Indonesia and its largest province, with a population of about 2.25 million. Its most important mine contains one of the world’s largest proven gold deposits valued at $40 billion. The mining company – an Indonesian subsidiary of the US’s Freeport McMoRan – is one of the country’s largest taxpayers. Logging is also very important, with the forested area second in size only to the Amazon Basin. The Bismarck Sea off Papua New Guinea’s coast has enough oil and natural gas to power the island for hundreds of years.
Indigenous peoples have retained many of their earlier ways of living. They are scattered throughout the whole territory in small clans, kept apart by terrain, language and customs. They live mainly by subsistence farming, consuming edible roots and pigs.
