Cultural diversity must be maintained: Expert

Cultural diversity must be maintained: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): The government must preserve cultural diversity
and give greater recognition to the achievements of Indonesia's
indigenous people in sustainable development, a law professor
said.

Loekman Soetrisno of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University said
respect for cultural diversity must be maintained in spite of the
development fueled trend toward uniformity.

He was speaking a discussion at the Indonesian Environmental
Forum (Walhi) on sustainable development and indigenous
communities.

He said a Dayak tribe leader, Loir Botor Dingit of Bentian in
east Kalimantan, had recently achieved international recognition
for his community's fight to maintain their traditional
sustainable land use practices.

"Irrigation is not the only agricultural technique recognized
here and abroad," Loekman said.

Dingit, a tribe leader since 1995, won the prestigious San
Francisco-based Goldman Environmental Foundation Award on April
14, for his community's sustainable development achievements in
spite of shrinking lands.

The award was founded in 1990. It honors six individuals from
each continent a year for their environmental preservation
achievements.

"The international community's respect for the earth is
refreshing and timely given many Indonesian's focus on material
achievement," he said.

But Loekman said that Dingit should keep his tribe's knowledge
of the forest a sacred secret to prevent further exploitation of
the Dayaks by large mining and timber companies.

"Environmental damage in the areas has affected the rivers
resulting in smaller fish catches and higher transport costs on
goods like sugar, salted fish and gasoline," he said.

Forest dwelling communities have little control because 1979
Law no. 5 on Rural Government does not recognize tribal leaders.

Walhi's director Emmy Hafild said a 1989 Business Law
restricted indigenous tribes' access to their traditional forest
land.

"The forest is their livelihood," she said.

Dingit, who also attended the discussion, said Walhi had
brought the plight of the indigenous people and forest dweller's
communities to the public's attention.

"The public is now aware of the fight against the forest
logging concessionaires owned by well-connected people," he said.

Walhi's director Emmy Hafild said concessionaires had to
channel their products through timber and furniture associations
run by timber tycoon Mohammad (Bob) Hasan.

She said the Ministry of Forestry's 1993 internal report
showed there were 94.3 million hectares of forest, but that 2.4
million hectares of forest had disappeared each year since 1982.

Meanwhile, activist and lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution said the
paradigms of development were attempting to achieve uniformity in
the villages at the expense of Indonesia's rich diversity.

"Social and development costs should be factored into the
country's development," he said.

"Focusing just on economic development is easy even under
colonialism. Hong Kong prospered under British rule. But economic
development should not be our country's only development goal,"
he said.

Emmy said the cost of fighting for environmental preservation
was high. This was attested by the death of Nigerian activist
Ken Sahoriwa, who was hanged, she said. (01)