The Critically Endangered western long-beaked echidna Zaglossus bruijnii is believed to be distributed throughout the Vogelkop Peninsula in the Indonesian Province of West Papua, but there had formerly been no confirmed sightings of the species since the 1980s. We aimed to establish whether the species survives in this area. Fieldwork was carried out during January–April 2018 in Tambrauw Regency in the north and Teluk Bintuni Regency in the south. Fieldwork involved informal interviews with people, identified through chain referral sampling, who were knowledgeable about local animals and plants. Interviewees were asked about their knowledge of the western long-beaked echidna and if they had encountered them locally. Thirteen interviewees were familiar with the species and we were able to confirm informant records of one individual in Tambrauw Regency and three in Teluk Bintuni Regency. Measurements of the three individual echidnas in Teluk Bintuni Regency corroborated previous descriptions of the species. Interviewees described how echidnas are often seen in the forests around villages, especially during the wet season during January–April, when their foraging signs are easy to distinguish from those of other animals. These four records of the western long-beaked echidna are the first confirmed sightings since the 1980s. They suggest the species persists on the Vogelkop Peninsula, and anecdotal information from the interviewees suggests the species remains common. Nevertheless, detailed systematic surveys are required before any assertion about the status of this species can be made with confidence.

Corporations often claim to be economic actors solely interested in capital accumulation. However, historical and anthropological scholarship has argued they have had outsized political roles, especially during high colonialism when transnational corporations such as the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company shaped colonial entities. This article explores the case of American mining company Freeport-McMoRan, which runs the world’s largest gold and copper mine in West Papua, and its entanglement with contemporary imperial and colonial projects in the region. Through the study of the company’s decisive role in the transfer of West Papua from the Dutch to Indonesia during the decolonization period of the 1960s, and in the formation of the postcolonial Indonesian state characterized by its militaristic and capitalistic stances, this article argues that Freeport’s operation in West Papua has been central to shaping U.S. imperial policy in Southeast Asia. The company’s relationship with the U.S. government and its contract of work with the Indonesian government reproduce an older form of state-corporation partnership called a charter, which grants a corporate body privileges associated with exploration, trade, and colonization. Combining a historical study of the political role of corporations across time and an ethnographic study of Freeport’s operation, this article rethinks the anthropological and historical study of transnational corporations and their roles in the contemporary politics of colonialism.

A key element of the right to self-determination is territorial integrity. This has usually been considered solely in relation to the territorial integrity of an existing State seeking to resist claims by peoples for the right to self-determination. Yet the Chagos Opinion by the International Court of Justice examines a different type of territorial integrity—that of the colonial territory itself. This article explores the consequence of the Court's view that the territorial integrity of the colonial territory is a matter of customary international law, and that any division, integration or other disruption of that colonial territory after December 1960 is unlawful, without the free and genuine consent of the people of the colonial territory. In particular this article seeks to explore what the Chagos Opinion means in terms of the territorial integrity of a colonial territory. It also examines the required conditions for ascertaining a free and genuine consent of the people of that territory, and the legal effects of not complying with them. There is also consideration of the implications for other situations from the clarification of customary international law in the Chagos Opinion, with a special focus on West Papua.