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.