Indigenous Indonesians fear forest sell-off

Deutsche Welle, 15 Aug 2011  

Villagers protest against visitors
to their forest

TheIndonesian government needs the support of its indigenous peoples to reforestits devastated woods. But they have become suspicious of visitors examiningtrees. They fear a sell-off to foreign investors.

Angryvillagers shout, clench their fists and wave banners at a group ofinternational visitors who have come to see the Mejet Forest on the northernpart of the Indonesian island of Lombok.

This isn'tthe reception that the visitors were expecting. The international collection offorestry officials and NGO experts came with good intentions – to take part ina conference aimed at forest conservation. 

They want tovisit a successful project, but the villagers are disgruntled and suspicious.They believe the tour is aimed at stirring interest among potential foreigninvestors, looking to buy land.

This hasoften been the case in the past.

After muchto and fro, the forest tour is cancelled. Instead, visitors and villagers meetwith the local regent.

A life-longaffinity

This iswhere disputes are traditionally settled, and the villagers become calm.

They hearabout the visitors' true motives - to learn. It's something the villagers arehappy to address: They fear for their livelihood and many have invested a lotto make use of the forest.

The villagers want to protect the
forest for their children

Using theforest is something the villagers take for granted, but it is considered a bigproblem for the Indonesian government.

TheIndonesian forest ministry estimates that there are about 33,000 villageslocated on or nearby forested areas owned by the state.

Accordingto the law, they are using the forest illegally, even though they have beenliving there for many generations.

In order tosolve the problem, the Indonesian government has offered to lease the forest tothe indigenous population.

The localvillagers get the right to use a particular woodland in return for committingto take care of it. 

But whathappens if the forest used is also part of a wildlife sanctuary or atraditional site?

Protectingthe forest from within

At the footof Rinjai, the second highest vulcano in Indonesia, lies the village Santongand the Santong Forest.

A trailleads deeper into the forest. It is bordered by tall trees rising to the sky.They serve as a protective shield for coffee, banana and vanilla plants.

The locals grow coffee and vanilla
in the Santong Forest

To boostreforestation, the population here uses agroforestry, a combination ofagricultural and forestry techniques, since 1996. The forest covers about 221hectares, but the indigenous people are allowed to use just 140 hectares, asthe remainder is protected landscape. About 260 families live on the forest'syield.

Everythingappears to be in harmony. But there are areas of conflict, according toMasidep, a representative of the local Lombok tribe Sasak.

"Mostof them think about profit only," Masidep says. But for the indigenouspeople, the forest's protection is of much higher value. "We need toconserve the forest and also water resources, because water is giving life.Everyone needs to respect that," he says.

Traditionalcustodians

The Sasaktribe is an ethnic group that makes up 85 percent of the inhabitants on theIndonesian island Lombok.

Masidep isproud to announce that he can track his line of ancestry back to the 17thCentury. In this area, the Sasak clans have been guarding the forest forcenturies. Traditionally, the Rangga family is responsible for protecting theforest, says Rangga Topan Yamanullah.

The Sasakscan prove that they have been living in Lombok for a very long time."There are traditions about old rituals: If you enter the forest, you haveto clean yourself first. There are certain days and times, when it is favorableto go. It was different from today," Rangga Topan Yamanullah says.

"Today,it is only considered important what individuals are earning. We on the otherhand are here to conserve the balance of the world." 

This river is a sacred site
for the Sasak

The Sasaksfeel that preserving the forest is part of their life-task. But of all thepeople using Santong Forest, only a third are Sasak. Most are migrants fromelsewhere in Indonesia. The Sasaks hope that the Indonesian government willprovide them with the same rights to use the forest as the rest of thepopulation.

But theyalso expect the government to protect their sacred sites and prevent theforests from being turned into just another source of production for theeconomy.  

A raceagainst time

The SantongForest example shows that a lot of problems remain unresolved. Who owns theright to use the forest, where are the borders that separate one forest fromanother, and how can the local population help promote conservation withoutsuffering economic loss?

TheIndonesian government has yet to answer these questions.

And time isrunning out: Indonesia loses a million hectare of forest per year, despiteintroducing a two-year moratorium on cutting down trees.

Internationalsurveys show that the best stewards are those people who have been livingwithin the forest for generations. So it makes sense for the Indonesiangovernment to team up with the indigenous community.

ErnaRosdiana from the Directorate of Social Forestry Development says the forestministry is working on solutions. The visit to Lombok has opened her eyes tomany of the problems. She says she plans to return with something to show, andhopes for a warmer reception next time around. 

Author:Ziphora Robina /sst

Editor:Nathan Witkop

Related Articles:

Forest groups say Indonesia should look to Chinese model

Crafting a new future for the Dayak and Bajau people

Australian project hunts lost indigenous languages

No special funeral for Mbah Maridjan: Sultan

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 10/27/2010 7:39 PM

Mount Merapi is seen as sacred in the region

Yogyakarta Governor and Sultan of Yogyakarta Hamengkubuwono X said Wednesday there would not be a special funeral for Mbah Maridjan, who died after refusing to abandon his ceremonial post as caretaker of Mount Merapi’s spirits.

Mbah Maridjan

“There are no special funerals for the Sultanate’s servants. His body has been retrieved by his family and will be buried with the other victims [of the eruption],” Hamengkubuwono said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Maridjan, 83, had been entrusted by the highly respected late Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX to watch over the volcano's spirits. For years he led ceremonies in which rice and flowers were thrown into the crater to appease its spirits. Maridjan had angered officials in the past by refusing to evacuate during Merapi’s eruptions.

“[His refusal to evacuate] was because of his responsibility as caretaker of Mount Merapi,” Hamengkubuwono said.

Maridjan was among 31 people killed by hot ash spewed by Merapi on Tuesday in Umbulharjo village, Sleman, which is located 4 kilometers from the volcano.

Famous for his convictions about his position, Maridjan was reportedly found in a praying position, kneeling facedown on the floor.

A large crowd of people attended the funeral of Maridjan, Merapi's spiritual keeper

Related Articles:

To villagers, active volcano is a friend, not an enemy

Thousands See Gatekeeper to the Mountain of Fire Laid to Rest

Mourning Mount Merapi's 'spiritual keeper'

Indonesia Holds Mass Burial for Volcano Victims

‘Mbah’ Maridjan, Mt. Merapi’s spiritual guardian dies

Spiritual guardian of Indonesian volcano dies

Merapi's volcanic eruption death toll reach 28

A motorcycle lies covered by volcanic ash at a village that is hit by pyroclastic flows from Mount Merapi eruption in Kaliadem, Yogyakarta, on Wednesday. A volcanic eruption and a tsunami killed scores of people hundreds of miles apart in Indonesia, spasms from the Pacific "Ring of Fire," which spawns disasters from deep within the Earth. AP/Slamet Riyadi

Sunrise in Sanur

Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Sanur | Thu, 08/05/2010 9:27 AM | Feature

Sunrise has always been associated with beauty. As the new light embraces the earth, people see the end of darkness and the beginning of new hope.

Morning Sunshine. Courtesy I Made Adi Dharmawan

Naturally, sunrise has also become a perennial source of inspiration for those who seek to narrate beauty — including poets, painters, photographers — as well as people seeking to be part of the beauty itself — meditators and spiritualists.

An ongoing exhibit “Sunrise in Sanur” is the most recent evidence of photographers’ affixation with the beauty of sunrise. Held at the Griya Santrian Gallery, the exhibit features the works of 31 local photographers, and runs until Aug. 15.

“The displayed works provide the audience with diverse visual interpretations of sunrise and on Sanur,” Denpasar Photographers Club chairman Iwan Darmawan said.

Iwan, a former Bali Post chief photojournalist-turned promising novelist, is the brains behind the

exhibition. The concept for the exhibit, he said, was triggered by a simple event.

“I browsed the Net and was surprised to see a large number of photographs on Sanur and sunrise posted on various sites and blogs. And the number kept growing,” he said.

This observation drove Iwan to organize an exhibit focused on that theme. He presented his idea to I.B. Gde Sidharta Putra, the owner of Griya Santrian Gallery and an influential community figure in Sanur.

Sidharta praised the idea and readily came up with the money to fund the selection process and the exhibit.

Sunrise At Sanur. Courtesy Iwan Latief

Iwan set up a Facebook account “Sunrise in Sanur” through which he invited members of the Denpasar Photographers Club and other photographers to submit selected images on sunrise in Sanur.

The response he received was tremendous. By the end of the submission period, 596 photographs had been uploaded to the account by no less than 286 photographers.

“Selecting 31 works from the 596 images was a headache for me. But I relied on the images’ ability to not only present beauty but also present diverse facets of Sanur,” Iwan said.

The end result is a display of stunning images, and some of them do present surprising stories. For instance, an image about the city’s lowly officers tasked with cleaning up the beach. They do their chore early at dawn so as not to disturb visitors or tourists who would flock the beach to watch sunrise.

“We often forget about their existence. We come to the beach, a clean one, and watch sunrise and often we don’t even notice that the beach is clean, let alone contemplate on the existence of these workers who clean the beach on daily basis,” Iwan said.

To some extent, the exhibit is an effort to provide sunrise with meanings and contexts, different visual narratives on the different meanings of sunrise and Sanur to the photographers behind the camera as well as the people who were in front of their lenses.

Training In The Morning. Courtesy Nyoman Widiyana

The displayed images also underline technical experimentations pursued by the local photographers.

Some used HDR (High Dynamic Range) techniques to render their images dramatic colors and haunting contrasts, while others played with fish eye lenses to give birth to images with extreme perspectives.

Young photographer Krisna Wirajaya employed a classical technique of multiple exposures to capture a series of movements in a single frame in Morning Rhythm.

As it happens, “Sunrise in Sanur” also has a non-photographic agenda.

“Through the images displayed here and in the Facebook account, we would like to send a message to potential travelers and photographers abroad, that Sanur is a good place to visit, a good place with many outstanding spots to take photographs,” Iwan Darmawan said.

Once a small fishing village ruled by influential Brahmin families, tourism has transformed Sanur into a modern, upscale resort village with luxurious eateries, avant-garde galleries and exotic boutique hotels.

Yet, the influential Brahmin families are still there, guiding the modern community with age-old wisdoms.

Each morning, the Brahmin priests commence their day by conducting Surya Sewana, the devotion to the sun. They will utter a sacred mantra wishing for the well-being of all creatures, Hindus and non-Hindus alike, as well as for the happiness of the whole universe.

The sun is considered the perfect symbol of this universality of good hope since it provides warmth and light to everybody and everything on this Earth.

Classic Dox - A boat trip through Borneo

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Anne Blair Gould

(Photo: rnw.nl)

Borneo is one of the top five places on earth where wildlife is most endangered. One area seriously threatened is the Sebangau peat swamp forest in Kalimantan where the world's largest population of orangutans is dwindling fast.

Ten years ago there were 15,000 orangutans; now there are only 7,000. Illegal logging robs them of their home; illegal pet trading robs the young orangs of their mothers. And the worst thing is, these are not even the greatest threats right now. What's really going to put paid to the peat forest of Sebangau is a vast network of canals that's draining the whole swampy area.

Peatland drying out

"These canals were dug by illegal loggers to float the logs out to the larger rivers bordering this area," explains Helen Morrogh-Bernard who is studying orangutan ecology and behaviour in Sebangau. The net result of all these canals is that the peat swamp forest has been drying out.

"As the canals drain the area, the peat dries out, the trees fall over and forest fires start more easily," adds Simon Husson, who like Helen Morrogh-Bernard works for CIMTROP (Centre for International Co-operation in Management of Tropical Peatland) and studies Sebangau's orangutans. "It's the biggest single problem we have here," Simon continues.

"Because the canals are draining this peatland, we get very extended dry seasons where the water-table can be one-and-a-half metres below the surface, whereas it use to be only 30 centimetres."

Thanks to much work on the part of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, Sebangau was declared a National Park in October 2004, and environmentalists are hopeful that this will at least reduce if not stop illegal logging.

Orphan orangutans

In other part of this same forest, we find the Nyara Menteng rehabilitation centre for orphaned orangutans. This is the second centre built by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, founded by Dutchman Willie Smits. The first, 'Wanariset Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre,' built in 1991, is in East Kalimantan.

Communications officer, Jo-Lan van Leeuwen, explains what the BOS Foundation is trying to do:

"All the little orangutans here have been orphaned when hunters shot there mother in order to capture the baby for the illegal pet trade. Baby orangs usually stay with their mother for the first seven or eight years and they learn how to find fruits and how to make nests from their mothers. So here we provide them with human 'surrogate mothers' who take the little orang-utans into the forest every day and try and them teach them the skills they need."

Orangutan exams

They will eventually need these skills as the BOS Foundation plans to reintroduce as many of the 300 or so young apes back into the wild as possible. But first each orangutan has to pass its exams.

"Not far from the centre we have three islands where we bring our orang-utans when we think that they might have the right character and the necessary skills to make it on their own,” says van Leeuwen.

“Here on these islands we observe them closely to see if they make the grade - and if they pass the test, then we will release them into a protected area where there really will be on their own - although we will still be observing them."

Planting season: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono plants a mangrove tree in the Angke ecotourism park in North Jakarta on Monday as part of efforts to rehabilitate the mangrove forest. Antara/Widodo S. Jusuf

Related Articles:

President plants mangrove trees in Angke

President: Indonesia to preserve environment more seriously

Green concept compulsory for all development projects : minister

Logging Firms Accused of Intimidating Journalists

RI to apply sustainable CPO standards

Govt not to develop oil palm plantations on peat land

Greenpeace hails SBY`s deforestation moratorium plan