Papua's Puncak Jaya glaciers face disappearance within two years
A century ago, permanent snow and ice covered all four major peaks across the 300 km (190-mile) Sudirman Range. Glacier coverage has since fallen from roughly 1,900 hectares (4,700 acres) in the 19th century to about 16 hectares (40 acres) today.
Indonesia's remaining tropical glaciers on Puncak Jaya in Papua could disappear entirely within one to two years, scientists say, marking the likely loss of one of the world's rare remaining stores of tropical ice.
A century ago, permanent snow and ice covered all four major peaks across the 300 km (190-mile) Sudirman Range. Glacier coverage has since fallen from roughly 1,900 hectares (4,700 acres) in the 19th century to about 16 hectares (40 acres) today, says the BBC.
Drone mapping shows the remaining glaciated area shrank by 95% between the early 2000s and 2025. Only small patches of ice remain around Puncak Jaya, also known as Carstensz Pyramid, and scientists project they will disappear entirely within one to two years.
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Located 450 km (280 miles) south of the equator, Papua is home to the only remaining tropical glaciers between the Andes and the Himalayas.
The ice is also a record of past climate conditions. Ice cores extracted from Puncak Jaya contain historical records of global atmospheric conditions and changes in the Western Pacific Warm Pool.
Glacier ecologist Marie Šabacká and researcher Klaus Thymann have raced to document and sample the remaining ice before the natural archive disappears.
Scientists attribute the retreat to human-driven global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels, which has raised the elevation at which temperatures are low enough for freezing. As a result, precipitation that once fell as snow increasingly falls as rain.
El Niño events, along with local topographic and atmospheric factors, have further accelerated the retreat.
The disappearance of the ice also carries spiritual and cultural significance for Indigenous communities in Papua. At least five Indigenous groups have deep spiritual ties to the mountain range.
The Moni people know the mountain as Mbainggela and believe their ancestors watch over it. The Amungme people call it Nemangkawi, meaning "White Arrow", and regard it as a sacred symbol of honesty, purity and moral integrity.
Amungme activist Adolfina Kum has compared the destruction of Nemangkawi to the destruction of Mecca for Muslims or the Vatican for Catholics. She described the loss of ancestral places as "pulling out the roots of a tree".
The region is also home to major gold and copper deposits and has undergone extensive transformation through resource extraction, including Freeport's Grasberg mine.
Industrial mining has brought roads, jobs and education to the region, while also contributing to environmental degradation, loss of ancestral lands and decades of social conflict.
