Papua – The Governor of West Papua, along with the Governors of Papua, Southwest Papua, Mountainous Papua, Central Papua, and South Papua, officially agreed on a cross-provincial collaboration to accelerate sustainable development in Papua on Friday, February 13, 2026, at the Swiss-Belhotel in Manokwari.
This joint agreement is the result of a series of inter-provincial dialogues and consolidation efforts that had previously taken place. On February 12, 2026, representatives of provincial governments across Papua, along with regional development stakeholder institutions, held a meeting to discuss, explore, and harmonize the substance of the draft agreement with the Governors, as outlined in the minutes of the meeting.
The Head of the West Papua Regional Government and Autonomy Bureau, Samuel Aronggear, read out the eight agreements, declaring this an important milestone in strengthening synergy between provinces in Indonesia’s easternmost region.
“This agreement was born from a long and participatory dialogue process. The Governors of Papua are committed to a unified vision of sustainable development while respecting the social, cultural, and ecological uniqueness of Papua,” he said.
In the first point, the Governors agreed that Papua will be viewed and managed as a unified economic, social, cultural, and ecological landscape. The direction of development across provinces will be aligned with the Papua Development Acceleration Master Plan towards the Golden Papua Vision 2041 and Vision 2100.
Protection of forests, important ecosystems, and the living spaces of indigenous peoples is positioned as the foundation of sustainable development.
The Governors committed to maintaining at least 70 percent forest cover on Papua’s land area.
This commitment will be supported through integrated inter-provincial planning within the Papua Island Spatial Planning framework and integrated into the Provincial RTRW (Regional Spatial Plan), KLHS (Special Environmental Impact Assessment), RPJPD (Regional Medium-Term Development Plan), RPJMD (Regional Medium-Term Development Plan), and sectoral planning documents in each province.
This agreement also includes the establishment of a Papua Cross-Provincial Collaboration Forum. This forum is cooperative, flexible, open, trusting, adaptive, and innovative, serving as a shared space to strengthen synergy in sustainable development policies.
The forum does not take over the authority of existing institutions, but rather acts as a supporter within the framework of the Papua Governors Association. In its implementation, the forum will be supported by the Papua Governors’ Technical Team, tasked with organizing cross-provincial agendas, monitoring the implementation of agreements, and strengthening communication with the central government and development partners.
“This collaborative forum provides a strategic space for sharing best practices between provinces, while ensuring that all agreements are implemented effectively and measurably,” said Samuel Aronggear. Strengthening Special Autonomy and Governance: In the Special Autonomy (Otsus) aspect, the Governors emphasized the importance of strengthening authority and the division of government affairs between the central and regional governments to ensure more effective, transparent, and accountable implementation of Otsus.
The commitment is also directed at improving the governance capacity of the new provincial government in Papua, particularly in planning, budgeting, natural resource management, and public services that are responsive to the needs of indigenous communities and Indigenous Papuans (OAP).
The Governors emphasized that indigenous communities and OAP are the primary subjects of development. This is realized through strengthening regional policies in the form of Gubernatorial Regulations (Pergub), Regional Regulations (Perda), and Special Regional Regulations (Perdasus) that guarantee the recognition and protection of indigenous communities, customary territories, and customary institutions.
Furthermore, each district/city is encouraged to have regional regulations on the recognition of indigenous communities and to establish a committee or clear implementation apparatus to expedite the recognition process consistently and fairly.
In the economic sector, a development direction has been agreed upon that relies on the potential of local resources, placing indigenous communities and the indigenous Papuan people as key actors in the Productive Papua concept.
Economic development is directed at improving welfare, reducing disparities between regions, and building an integrated economic system through strengthening connectivity and green industry.
This approach is implemented with the spirit of “One for Six and Six for One,” where each province contributes to shared progress, without neglecting forest cover protection, climate change mitigation, and the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights through sustainable and affirmative action funding schemes. This joint agreement is expected to provide a strong foundation for the six provinces in Papua to realize equitable, inclusive, and sustainable development towards a Golden Papua 2041.
