The peace of the Mentawai Islands will be brutally affected by a new real estate development that will occupy 2600 hectares of Siberut Island. According to what was reported Stab magazine who accessed the development documents, Mentawai Bay will feature a theme park, industrial area, apartments, markets, hotels, water parks, even an airport, harbour, a Sea World, a retirement village, golf course, fish processing plant and a coconut oil factory.

The Mentawai, also known as the Disney of surfing, where some of the most perfect and tubular waves in the world break, are made up of four main islands: Sipora, Pagai Utara, Pagai Selatan and Siberut.

The latter is the largest island and has a great diversity of flora and fauna, and is also where indigenous tribes have lived for more than 3.000 years. UNESCO declared the area a biosphere reserve and created a program to protect the ecosystem through local development.

However, there is talk that illegal logging has already taken place in the area, and the government has been trying in vain for several years to get the tribes to join the development of the rest of the country. 

The investment group behind the project, Sentosa, said the project has been approved by Indonesian authorities but construction has not yet begun.