The study, authored by David Whyte and Samira Homerang Saunders of the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice at Queen Mary University of London, is the first independent audit of the involvement of British businesses in the Indonesian-run territory.

West Papua is rich in raw materials, including vast amounts of gold, palm oil, nickel and gas. It is also home to the world’s third-largest rainforest, the protection of which is key to the global fight against climate breakdown.

READ MORE: The truth about Keir Starmer’s reshuffle – and who’s really got the power

The nation has been ruled by Indonesia since 1963, which has pursued a highly extractive form of development, which some campaigners have said amounts to “ecocide”: the destruction of the natural environment by deliberate action. Indonesia has worked arm-in-arm with some of the world’s largest corporations to extract West Papuan resources, at the expense of one of the most biodiverse territories on the planet and its indigenous population.

Bringing It All Back Home: The Role Of British Companies In The Destruction Of West Papua, finds that 14 UK investors are involved in West Papua’s palm oil plantations, the key driver of deforestation in West Papua. The Merauke plantation is the site of the world’s single largest deforestation project.

Those companies include Prudential, HSBC, Legal & General, and the Aberdeen Group.

There are also 20 British investors in Freeport McMoran, the current majority owner of the Grasberg mine, one of the largest gold mines – and second-largest copper mine – in the world. It is estimated that the Grasberg mine deposits 300,000 tons of toxic waste every day into the Ajkwa river in West Papua, poisoning water supplies and fish stocks.

BP’s Tangguh liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility occupies 3200 hectares of land in the middle of one of the world’s largest continuous mangrove forests. The forced relocation of 10 villages to make way for the LNG facility has separated locals from their ancestral fishing grounds.

Remarkably, if BP extracts all the gas from Tangguh, it will produce 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon, equivalent to the net reduction of all carbon emissions in the EU projected from 2015 to 2030. Out of BP’s employees at the Tangguh site, just 1% are indigenous Papuan.

West Papua is under a permanent Indonesian military occupation, with systematic repression of the nation’s independence movement. In recent years, NGOs, including Amnesty, have accused military and police forces of extrajudicial killings and displacement of Papuans.

The report finds that British companies work alongside the Indonesian state in the repression of West Papuan activists, many of whom protest environmental and labour-related issues related to foreign direct investment in the territory.

For example, the authors find that since BP started production at the Tangguh site in 2004, it “pays a fee for protection services to both the police and military” and has been accused “of aligning with Indonesian authorities in the repression of the Papuan population”.

READ MORE: ‘Take them on’: Zack Polanski on how he deals with right-wing media

The British state has also played an active role in supporting Indonesia’s military, issuing over 2000 arms export licences to the country since 2008. The UK also delivered 83 military training courses to the Indonesian military from 2009 to 2022, and spent more than £1m training Indonesian police units since 2014.

“This report has shown that this process of hyper-extractivism relies upon British corporations and British markets, just as it relies upon the supply of British weapons and training,” the authors conclude. “The British state in other words guarantees the repression and dispossession of the West Papuan people.”

Commenting on the report, Alex Sobel MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for West Papua, said that “the use of West Papua by the Indonesian government to extract its resources at a huge detriment to its people and natural environment should be a concern for us all.”

“West Papua is also the site of the world’s single largest deforestation project in the Meruake region, which all governments should be using every lever to stop,” Sobel added.

Benny Wenda, president of the pro-independence United Liberation Movement for West Papua, said that “the UK preaches democracy, justice, freedom and fairness but is heavily invested in occupied territory in West Papua”.

“UK involvement in West Papua goes all the way back to 1969, when Britain called us primitive as Indonesia was invading,” Wenda, who is based in the UK, added. “This report is the evidence we have waited for.”

As well as Tuesday’s Westminster launch, there will also be a protest in central London calling for BP to get out of West Papua.

You can access the full report at ccccjustice.org