Experts fear forest will turn to desert

Here and there in the mountainous East Kalimantan province, beds of white sand are making their way into the thinning forests and housing areas.

It is a scene that gives rise to a sense of dread among experts and environmentalists, who do not want to see the krangas -- the local name for the white sand -- as it is a nemesis of forests.

"When the big trees are gone, the land is bound to turn into krangas. Nothing can grow on it. In the not-so-distant-future, the whole land could become a desert," the comanager of the Samarinda-based Center for Social Forestry, G. Simon Devung, told The Jakarta Post.

Ramon Janis, director of East Kalimantan's Coordinating Body for Natural Resources Protection (BKSDA), said the krangas phenomenon started in the early 1990s, when the trade in forest products was booming.

That is why Ramon insisted on handing over management of the forests to the local people, whom he said have traditional wisdom in dealing with the environment.

"Otherwise, we will have to pay the cost (for destroying the environment) the rest of our lives."

Most of Kalimantan is covered with immature soils such as the leached red and yellow podzolik soil and peaty soil. The fertile layer at the top of the soil is approximately as thick as the palm of a grown man's hand.

For three centuries now, indigenous Dayak people have lived in the forests. Their livelihood has largely depended on the forests.

To subsist, they open small plots of agricultural land, hunt and fish, and take building materials, firewood and medicine from the forest.

Their traditional nomadic slash-and-burn farming technique has made them an easy scapegoat for forest fires and unchecked logging, which are rampant in East Kalimantan.

Devung, who is also an anthropologist and social education expert at Mulawarman University, said the farmers burn their farmland after several harvests in a bid to keep the soil fertile.

"Before burning the land, they first mark a plot to be burned to localize the fire so it will not burn the rest of the forest. In no way would they burn the whole forest because the forest provides the proper humidity needed to grow paddy.

"They will move in circles and will return to the starting point after two or three decades, never going deep into the forest, which the people consider sacred," Devung said.

"This traditional way of managing the forest still exists. Based on the fact that no hot spots have ever been found along their trails, especially during the disastrous 1997 and 1998 forest fires, the government should recognize the indigenous people's rights to the forests," he said.

Kalimantan's forests were badly damaged in the 1997 and 1998 fires, which recurred in 2001. Most of the hot spots were located along the coastal areas, where 70 percent of the population is non-Dayak, such as the Malaique Kutai people, who make their living farming and trading.

Most of the non-Dayaks do not have as harmonious a relationship with the forests as the Dayaks. The Kutai people, for example, tend to view the forest as a source of cash and allow timber companies to manage the forests.

Devung suggested that the central government establish community forests in non-Dayak areas.

"Allowing the community to have a bigger role in managing the forests instead of companies means we could protect the environment and at the same time still be able to produce nontimber forest products," he said.