Deforestation threatens Riau tribespeople

Deforestation threatens Riau tribespeople

Like many other provinces, Riau has been fast losing its
forests due to illegal logging and land clearing to make way for
plantation projects. The activity has not only destroyed the
forest and its rich biodiversity but also endangered the survival
of the minor Talang Mamak and Suku Rimba tribespeople, whose
lives depend on the jungle. The Jakarta Post's reporter Haidir
Anwar Tanjung in Pekanbaru , Riau's capital, looks into the
issue.

The fate of the Talang Mamak tribespeople gives rise to
increasing concern not only due to the devastation of their
habitat by illegal logging now rampant in the resource-rich
region. The jungle tribespeople with their strong animistic
belief are even losing the "Gods" they believe coexist with them
in trees and sacred places in the forest.

To date, around 6,400 Talang Mamak people living in the Bukit
Tigapuluh National Park's buffer zone in the Riau-Jambi
provincial border area continue to perform rituals under large
trees they consider sacred. Now with much of the forest being
illegally denuded, particularly in the Indragiri Hulu regency,
350 kilometers from Pekanbaru, it is difficult for them to find
huge trees for their worship.

"Since the majority of the Talang-Mamak people embrace animism
with the practice of making offerings to what they believe are
sacred trees, the timber looting amounts to losing their God,"
Dr. Tabrani Rab, a Riau cultural expert, told The Jakarta Post.

The tribe can be found only around the Bukit Tigapuluh
National Park (TNBT), which is between Riau and Jambi. In Riau,
the park is located in Indragiri Hulu and Indragiri Hilir
regencies, and in Jambi it is in Tanjung Jabung and Bungo Tebo
regencies.

TNBT and its surrounding forests play an important role in
maintaining the hydrological function of the area, with many
water springs forming river streams. The park also serves as a
major catchment area for the Indragiri river in Riau and
Batanghari river in Jambi, with six lesser rivers, Gangsal,
Cinaku, Reteh, Keritang, Pengabuan and Sumai.

The catchment areas enhance the hydrological function of
TNBT's eastern part because the peat layers along the eastern
coasts of Sumatra are highly dependent on the rivers in TNBT's
upstream areas. Any hydrological imbalance in the east will
reduce the rate of flow of clean water, and in the case of
dryness the peat land will shrink and pose a fire danger.

These pristine forests have 82 vegetation species, including
rare mushrooms, while the Talang Mamak utilize 110 herbal plants
to cure 56 diseases. There are also 42 mammalian species, some
face extinction like beavers, Sumatran tigers, elephants and
tapirs. Of the 192 bird species found in the park, 18 are
endangered.

"Illegal logging has threatened the local flora and fauna,
with the tribesmen being increasingly cornered," said Nazier
Fuad, director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia.

According to Nazier, Bukit Tigapuluh was declared a national
park in 1995. However, of the 250,000 hectares proposed, only
127,698 hectares were finally approved pursuant to a decree of
the forestry minister.

"It was owing to pressure from forest concessionaires with
high-level political access, which also enabled them to become
the main contractors involving a million hectares of land in
Kalimantan," he said.

The concession holders operating in TNBT border areas are PT
IFA (Barito Pacific Timber Group), PT Dalek Hutani Esa and PT
Inhutani V, the first two being joint ventures with state owned
Inhutani V. Nazier indicated that such concessionaires failed to
abide by the logging regulations in force and tended to exploit
the TNBT buffer zone on a large scale.

This situation is worsened by the presence of plantation and
timber estate (HTI) companies obtaining forest conversion
permits, so that the areas that must meet protection criteria
have turned into monocultural forests providing no habitat for
protected wildlife.

"Various rare plants with medicinal properties have even been
indiscriminately cut down," said Nazier.

Based on a WWF investigation, with the introduction of
Government Regulation No. 6/1999, which opens the opportunity for
local communities to utilize forest products through groups or
cooperatives, logging in the buffer zone has been on the rise
particularly following the monetary crisis that began in 1997.
The local people need cash and concessionaires support such
cooperatives.

"Consequently, logging has gone beyond control and the firms
are seen as saviors while the locals only serve as cheap labor,"
Nazier pointed out, adding that the devastation of forests around
the park was also supported by at least 31 sawmills in the area,
ready to process the loot.

Despite the highly endangered state of TNBT, the Riau
administration still plans to reopen the 18,783-hectare timber
estate area west of the buffer zone to PT Surya Dumai Industri.
Furthermore, some 38,950 hectares of pristine land in the zone's
Indragiri upstream area in Indragiri Hulu regency, will be
converted into a timber estate in 2003.

Regent Raja Thamsir Rachman issued conversion licenses to
local firms, PT Bukit Batabuh, PT Sei Indah and PT Citra Sumber
Sejahtera in April, 2002.

"If the forests are converted into timber estates, Talang
Mamak people will inevitably lose their Gods. They have never
received proper attention from the government and are now even
being driven out of their own dwelling places," Tabrani said.