Action needed to protect Kayan Mentarang park

Action needed to protect Kayan Mentarang park

Kayan Mentarang National Park is the largest protected area in
Kalimantan and is the most impressive of the protected areas in
the country due to its wide range of habitats and rich flora and
fauna, as well as its unique management.

A Joint Expedition on Biodiversity of Indonesian and Malaysian
scientists was held from April 1 to April 23 in a small part of
the national park in Pa'Raye hamlet, Krayan district, Nunukan
regency, East Kalimantan.

The expedition was organized by WWF Indonesia's Kayan
Mentarang Project, the East Kalimantan's Coordinating Body for
Natural Resources Protection (BKSDA) and the Kalimantan Forestry
Research Agency.

The expedition recorded large numbers of flora and fauna on
the island, including what are believed to be new species. These
discoveries confirm that the national park is one of the most
important protected areas in the region, and maybe the world.

The Jakarta Post's Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak was among the
reporters invited to take part in the expedition. The following
are her reports.

Stretching across 1.3 million hectares of land bordering the
Indonesian part of Kalimantan and the Malaysian states of Sabah
and Sarawak, the Kayan Mentarang National Park stands out among
other protected areas in the country.

While rampant logging is eating up other protected forests,
the Kayan Mentarang has survived the ordeal and kept most of its
plant and animal habitats intact.

Dubbed the last pristine forest in the archipelago, the park
owes its survival to its unique collaborative management that is
a result of years of struggle of the indigenous Dayak people who
live in and around the park.

Since last year, the management of the park has been entrusted
to head the Kayan Mentarang National Park Policy-Making Council
(DPK-TNKM) that consists of the Consultative Forum of the
Indigenous Society (FoMMA), local administrations and
environmentalists, making it the only national park in the
country to be managed by local residents.

It was a shift from its previous status as a Cagar Alam
(nature reserve area) given in 1978. By law, the status means the
park management is in the hands of state apparatus and nobody is
allowed in the protected area.

It was later, during a biodiversity mapping project carried
out by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), that the government
found out that approximately 7,000 people lived in the area and
that they rejected the Cagar Alam status. For the people, the
status could almost be seen as a death sentence.

"For us, the forest is not only what you people see as a mere
bunch of trees. A forest is our community. We live off of and for
the forest," Lakai Tabari, the head of the Krayan Hilir
indigenous society, told The Jakarta Post in broken Indonesian.

Besides the Krayan Hilir, the other nine largest indigenous
communities within the national park are the Krayan Darat, Krayan
Tengah, Krayan Hulu, Lumbis, Mentarang, Tubu, Hulu Bahau,
Pujungan and the Apokayans. The latter comprises the sub-
communities of Kayan Hilir and Kayan Hulu who live by the Kayan
river.

These people then formed the FoMMA and asked the WWF to
support their demand for self-management of the forest.

In 1996, Jakarta issued a ministerial decree changing the
Cagar Alam status into a national park and asked the WWF to help
establish a management plan and to involve the people in the
process.

It was during this undertaking that the FoMMA learned that the
new status did not guarantee that their Wilayah Adat
(traditionally-inherited land) would not be pillaged by capital
owners, or even the government which has converted many national
parks into industrial estates. The indigenous people then
proposed that they be involved in the park management.

Eventually, Minister of Forestry Mohamad Prakosa signed a
decree in April 2002 to sanction a collaborative management of
the forest as recommended in the management plan.

Two other decrees were signed on the same day, one authorizing
the management plan and the establishment of a proposed
ecotourism project in the park and another on the establishment
of the DPK-TNKM. The council is chaired by the Malinau regent
because around 75 percent of the forest lies within his regency.
The Nunukan regent -- the regency where the remaining part of the
forest is located -- was appointed deputy chairman, while the
FoMMA chairman serves as second deputy chairman.

The council was assigned to form a management unit with the of
implementing the management plan.

"The management unit will be established later this year. It
will comprise locals who have the commitment to protect the
forest but who also have entrepreneurial skills," FoMMA chairman
Martin Labo told reporters at his residence in Malinau regency.

Unfortunately, the commitment shown by all stakeholders is
apparently not enough. The Malinau administration has approved a
plan to build a road through the park to connect Tanjung Nenga
and Long Pesiak. The road, with construction is already underway,
will end near the park's outer zone. Meanwhile, certain groups
have continued illegal logging activities as it means easy money.
On top of everything, there is a dispute between the elders and
the younger generation about how to benefit from the forest, said
the Tarakan coordinator of the WWF, IGNN Sutedja.

The park is also surrounded by industrial estates on both the
Indonesian and Malaysian sides. Satellite images taken by the
Tarakan office of the WWF show large swaths where logging
activities have denuded the forest reaching from as far as
Sarawak and into the park.

Sutedja suggested that intervention from both the Indonesian
and Malaysian governments was important.

Unfortunately, tension between the two countries caused by
rampant illegal logging -- despite a bilateral agreement that
outlaws the import or export of logs to and from either country
-- has stalled talks on establishing cooperation to protect the
national park.

"It takes two to tango. Firm action from both countries are
badly needed to stop intrusion into the forest. And we need it
fast before we have to pay the cost of losing the forest
forever," Sutedja said.