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)