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Paula Hamadi cleans up trash as she collects clams in a mangrove forest where only women are permitted to enter in Jayapura, Papua province, Indonesia on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)Youtefa Bay, where the sea’s brackish water and five rivers in Papua meet, serves as the gathering bowl for the waste that runs through the rivers as they cross through Jayapura.

Plastic bottles, tarpaulin sheets and pieces of wood are seen stuck between the mangrove roots. The water around the mangrove forest is polluted and dark.After dozens of years being able to feel the clams on the bay with her feet, Sanyi said she now often has to feel through trash first. And once she removes the trash and gets to the muddy ground where the clams live, there are many fewer than there used to be.Petronela Merauje prepares to cook at her house at Enggros village in Jayapura, Papua province, Indonesia on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Petronela Merauje prepares to cook at her house at Enggros village in Jayapura, Papua province, Indonesia on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)Martha Tjoe walks near her floating wooden house at Enggros village in Jayapura, Papua province, Indonesia on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Martha Tjoe walks near her floating wooden house at Enggros village in Jayapura, Papua province, Indonesia on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Paula Hamadi, 53, said that she never saw the mangrove forest as bad as it is now. For years, she’s been going to the forest almost every day during the low tide in the morning to search for clams.“The customs and culture of Papuans, especially those of us in Enggros village, is that women are not given space and place to speak in traditional meetings, so the tribal elders provide the mangrove forest as our land,” Merauje said. It’s “a place to find food, a place for women to tell stories, and women are active every day and earn a living every day.”

The forest is a short 13 kilometers (8 miles) away from downtown Jayapura, the capital city of Papua, Indonesia’s easternmost province. It’s been known as the women’s forest since 2016, when Enggros’ leader officially changed its name. Long before that, it had already been a space just for women. But as pollution, development and biodiversity loss shrink the forest and stunt plant and animal life, those in the village fear an important part of their traditions and livelihoods will be lost. Efforts to shield it from devastation have begun, but are still relatively small.Petronela Merauje sits in a boat as Paula Hamadi, right, stands chest deep in water as she collects clams in a mangrove forest where only women are permitted to enter in Jayapura, Papua province, Indonesia on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Petronela Merauje sits in a boat as Paula Hamadi, right, stands chest deep in water as she collects clams in a mangrove forest where only women are permitted to enter in Jayapura, Papua province, Indonesia on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)One early morning, Merauje and her 15-year-old daughter took a small motor boat toward the forest. Stepping off on Youtefa Bay, mangrove trees all around, they stood chest-deep in the water with buckets in hand, wiggling their feet in the mud to find bia noor, or soft-shell clams. The women collect these for food, along with other fish.