In commemoration of the Southwest Papua Province anniversary which is celebrated on November 17, the Southwest Papua Provincial Government held a 3-day exhibition from November 16 to 18, 2023. The first anniversary of Southwest Papua was celebrated with a series of seminars, art performances and exhibitions of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) products held around the government office of Southwest Papua.

In the exhibition activities, WWF-Indonesia participated by introducing products assisted by the community in several regions, including woven bags from the Toweuw group of Kampung Nanggouw; candies and nutmeg jam from the Ayawata Nikiwar Group from Werianggi Village; anthill tea from Sarbe Village; sago cookies from Yakati Village; woven bags from Aisandami Village; and ecotourism packages for Womom - Resye Village.

Not only followed by MSMEs, but this exhibition was also attended by companies, local governments in the scope of West Papua, as well as financial institutions such as Bank Indonesia and Bank Papua. The products introduced also varied from food, beverages, handicrafts, wedding services to credit schemes commonly offered by financial institutions.

WWF-Indonesia sees this as an opportunity to introduce the conservation activities that have been carried out in Papua since 1990. Therefore, in this activity WWF-Indonesia collaborated with seven (7) WWF-Indonesia assisted MSMEs and VCA (voice just for climate action) partners to display processed products and non-timber forest products handicrafts.

In addition to displaying traditional handicrafts, this exhibition was also interspersed with talk shows on the theme of MSME literacy and financial schemes. In addition, there was also a cooking demonstration of nutmeg processing into candy, juice and jam products from Werianggi Village and a demonstration of bark processing into bags or noken typical of Nanggouw Village.

Dominggas Yesnath, Chairperson of the Toweuw Group, was happy to be involved in this exhibition because during the exhibition he obtained sales of 2.5 million rupiah. "I'm happy that our handicrafts can be sold at this exhibition, this is the first time I've participated in an activity like this, tomorrow I want to do it too", said mama Minggas (Dominggas' nickname).

Visitors to the exhibition generally buy products that are unique and easy to carry, some of the products that are featured at the WWF-Indonesia booth are nutmeg candy, nutmeg jam, bark bags, sago cookies and anthill tea.

Through this exhibition, the government of Southwest Papua Province has launched the development of MSMEs with the concept of sustainable economy. It is hoped that through the exhibition, Southwest Papua can increase the growth of MSMEs, especially among young people and increase green investment for economic development in Southwest Papua.