Jambi indigenous people losing their jungle<\/p>\n
By Pandaya<\/p>\n
BANGKO, Jambi (JP): Although he has no clock, Nudin was as
\npunctual as a Swiss watch.<\/p>\n
When a group of visitors came to his shack in Rejosari village
\nat an appointed time, he would be there, having just gotten back
\nfrom hunting and clutching a dead giant monitor lizard in his
\nright hand and a sickle in his left.<\/p>\n
Accompanied with an interpreter, he would lead his guests into
\nthe complex of shacks in the bush by a country road where he
\nlived with four relatives. His home consisted of four rudimentary
\nbenches made of raw tree trunks. Two shacks had black plastic
\nroofs and the other was roofless.<\/p>\n
\"Life is getting hard now while the forest is dwindling,\" said
\nNudin, one of an estimated 1,000 isolated Kubu tribespeople
\nliving in Bukit Duabelas, a five-hour drive east of Bangko.<\/p>\n
The lizard, measuring about one meter from head to tail, was
\nhis only catch for the day. Gone were the days when Orang Rimba
\n(indigenous people, as the Kubu proudly call themselves) took
\nhome pigs and deer.<\/p>\n
Nudin and several dozen tribe members were displaced from
\ntheir home and have settled at the edge of the forest. Unlike
\nother fellow tribespeople in the jungle, they already had much
\ncontact with outsiders and were accustomed to the modern economy.<\/p>\n
Bukit Duabelas, home to 1,024 of the estimated 2,670 Kubu
\npeople across Jambi, is in grave danger due to rampant illegal
\nlogging.<\/p>\n
According to Warsi, a Bangko-based nongovernmental
\nenvironmental group that sponsored a media tour to Bukit Duabelas
\nlast week, the forest's destruction is unstoppable because it
\ninvolves a conspiracy between corrupt government officials from
\nall levels and greedy businessmen.<\/p>\n
Many tribespeople, who see the jungle as their single source
\nof livelihood, believe that the end of the world is coming soon.
\nThey cannot do anything to stop the chainsaws and sawmills that
\nare devouring their forest.<\/p>\n
Statistics at the provincial forestry office showed that in
\n1997, Jambi had registered nine plywood factories, 73 sawmills
\nand one pulp factory. Illegal sawmills are believed to outnumber
\nlicensed ones.<\/p>\n
The indigenous people are quickly losing their jungle where
\nthey have lived for generation after generation.<\/p>\n
They have always lived on the generosity of mother nature.
\nThey collect forest products like wild tubers, animals, honey and
\nfruit, aside from their cash crops of rattan and resin they sell
\nto tauke (city entrepreneurs, usually Chinese, who come regularly
\nto the forest).<\/p>\n
\"Where else can we go when all the trees are chopped down and
\nevery inch of the forest has been turned into oil palm
\nplantations,\" asked Tumenggung Mija, a Kubu tribal chief of
\nKejasung Kecil.<\/p>\n
Bordering Batanghari river in the north, Tabir river in the
\nwest, Merangin river in the south and Tembesi river in the east,
\nBukit Duabelas supports the indigenous people with its fertility
\nand rich biodiversity.<\/p>\n
Since much of Bukit Duabelas has turned into desert, the
\ngovernment has concentrated conservation efforts on the 26,800-
\nhectare hilly biosphere in the center. Most of the people live in
\nthe low-lying area north of the hill, where forests are thin. The
\ngovernment has earmarked land there for plantations, housing and
\nfarming.<\/p>\n
Bukit Duabelas has been increasingly threatened since the
\n1970s when the Indonesian government offered a private company,
\nPT Alas Kesuma, a concession to cut trees.<\/p>\n
As the government has heavily relied on forest products and
\noil for foreign exchange, it has issued more permits to various
\ntimber companies to exploit Bukit Duabelas and forests elsewhere
\nin Jambi since then.<\/p>\n
The tragedy for the indigenous tribe at Kejasung Kecil is the
\ntotal loss of over 20,000 hectares of forest. The land is now a
\ndesert and there is no activity there.<\/p>\n
The state-owned forestry company, Inhutani V, in cooperation
\nwith the private company, PT Sumatera Utama Timber, has set up a
\njoint venture called PT Sumber Hutan Lestari (PT SHL) to make the
\ndenuded land an industrial forest estate.<\/p>\n
To assure the public that the project was well-intentioned,
\nthey recruited people under the state-sponsored transmigration
\nprogram. But there are no signs of the project starting.<\/p>\n
The project was strongly opposed by environmentalists and the
\npublic because converting the area into an industrial forest
\nwould mean PT SHL was licensed to indiscriminately cut the
\nremaining trees.<\/p>\n
\"We will defend our forest if our home is at risk, no matter
\nwhat may happen,\" Mija said.<\/p>\n
Agus, a Warsi activist, said the 20,000-hectare area was now
\ndenuded and the surrounding forest was designated as a selective
\nproduction forest where no tree under 60 centimeters in diameter
\nwas allowed to be cut.<\/p>\n
But destruction of forests in the area and elsewhere in Jambi
\ncontinues despite protests from all quarters. Last week, hundreds
\nof students staged a demonstration demanding that the provincial
\ngovernment do something to stop the illegal logging across Jambi.<\/p>\n
In their petition, they said that the looting of timber was
\nmade possible due to the involvement of corrupt government
\nofficials.<\/p>\n
Theft of timber was also reported to have destroyed much of
\nBukit Tigapuluh and Bukit Berbak reserve forests in Jambi.<\/p>\n
\"We have done our best to stop illegal logging at Bukit Berbak
\nin cooperation with the Army and police but we did not succeed,\"
\nSupriadi, chief of Bukit Berbak reserve forest, told Antara.<\/p>\n
As in Kejasung Kecil, Bukit Tigapuluh and in other places,
\nillegal logging in Bukit Berbak involves local villagers that
\ntauke pay to cut trees for them.<\/p>\n
Minister of Forestry and Plantation Muslimin Nasution promised
\nimprovements to forest conservation efforts when he visited Jambi
\nlast week.<\/p>\n
Nasution pledged to revoke the permit the local government
\nissued for PT SHL to turn Kejasung Kecil into plantations. He
\nsaid the (denuded) forest should be relinquished to the
\nindigenous people who have customary rights to it. He also
\nlamented the lenient punishment served on those found guilty of
\nillegal logging.<\/p>\n
He ordered the local forestry office to question the light
\npunishment the local court handed to 14 cases of timber thefts
\nbetween 1997 and 1998. The criminals were put on probation and
\nordered to pay small fines.<\/p>\n
\"I declare war on illegal loggers,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Although Nasution's statement for journalists and
\nenvironmentalists sounded sincere, its implementation may not be
\nthat easy as supervision in the field is a tough job.<\/p>\n
It is a jungle out there. The culprits, involving corrupt
\ngovernment officials, security authorities, tauke, journalists,
\nvillagers and hoodlums are well-organized.<\/p>\n
Warsi pointed out the most damaging policy was Inhutani V
\nwhich awarded the timber use permit (IPK) that allows loggers to
\ncut trees outside the area agreed to without authorities being
\nable to do anything to stop it.<\/p>\n
A group of reporters and environmental activists who visited a
\nquay at Batanghari river, a port used for shipping stolen timber,
\nwere confronted by a group of hoodlums. They threatened to kill
\nthe uninvited guests.<\/p>\n
In this same area, four Kubu protesters were killed and the
\ncase was never taken to court.<\/p>\n
Marid, another Kubu tribal chief, said the logging companies
\nin his area threatened to kill anybody who insisted on cutting
\ntheir trees.<\/p>\n
\"We are afraid of their guns... we don't have anything to
\nstop them,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jambi-indigenous-people-losing-their-jungle-1447893297",
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