ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the experiences in Bougainville and West Papua and illustrates how they have been linked to conflict. Various analysts of the Bougainville conflict have applied the greed and grievance debate to consider how competition for economic benefits contributed to violence. Revenue sharing and compensation regimes are notoriously difficult and are unlikely to be supported by all. Despite continued opposition by some landowners to the mine, the Australian Government signed the Bougainville copper agreement a year after Lapun's amendments. The chapter discusses that these tensions have primarily emerged through the creation of hierarchies of revenue and compensation at the national, provincial and local level contests that occurs both in Bougainville and West Papua. A common theme identified in this chapter with regard to both the Bougainville and West Papua cases has been the problems associated with communication between the companies and local communities, particularly in terms of transparency around the distribution of resource wealth.
