Fires and man ravage national park's wildlife
Fires and man ravage national park's wildlife
By Iskandar Zulkarnaen
TELUK PANDAN, East Kalimantan (Antara): A mother orangutan and her two young were panicky as they tried desperately to flee an advancing forest fire by crossing a road in the Kutai National Park.
"I witnessed the scene myself during the forest fire in the Temputuk-Teluk Pandan area," the head of the park, Warsito, said sadly.
Most of the estimated 2,000 orangutans living in Kutai were returned to their natural habitat in a program run by the center for the socialization and rehabilitation of orangutans at Wanariset Semboja, Bukit Soeharto.
Now back in the wild, the animals face a new danger.
Although there have been no reports of deaths of orangutans in fires which have destroyed 1,774 hectares since Feb. 13, some animals may have perished.
Orangutans, which usually forage in an area of up to two kilometers, will use their survival instinct to flee over greater distances as fires approach.
But more dangers await them in the park's surroundings of settlement areas, timber processing sites and companies.
During last year's catastrophic fires, at least three orangutans were killed by local residents.
Although other endangered flora and fauna exist in the park, there are fears environmental damage from the fires, logging and mining may render it a wildlife haven in name only in a few years.
The park, including the Bontang conservation area, spans 200,000 hectares. A UNESCO survey found a quarter of a hectare is destroyed each month.
Fires, most often caused by slash-and-burn practices, accelerate the destruction as they occur every dry season.
They are reportedly not the only destroyer. Community reports to the regional office of the Ministry of Forestry claim forestry concessionaire PT Porodisa is increasingly encroaching on protected areas of the park.
Although the firm was questioned on the matter by the East Kalimantan provincial legislature, no further steps were taken.
Mining maneuvers
Coal mining companies are also moving into the park.
After the failure of a national investor to exploit some 100,000 hectares of land last year, PT Taraco Mining is now exploring opportunities in the conservation area.
The province's environmental impact control agency -- while surveying damage from forest fires early this year -- discovered PT Taraco Mining was preparing to exploit the core zone of the conservation area.
"The discovery startled us greatly because the activities of the coal mining company are a serious threat to the conservation of the nucleus zone of the Kutai National Park," said Awang Farouq Ishak, the agency's chairman.
The former legislator, a member of the environmental section of the National Development and Planning Board (Bappenas), wondered how the company could have obtained a mining permit for inside the park.
He explained that Law No.5/1990 on natural resources conservation and the ecosystem outlined that no individual or enterprise was permitted to alter the nucleus zone of a national park.
Penalties for doing so include a Rp 200 million fine and five- year jail term.
The survey found the company began its activities in the park last year.
Domestic companies conducting mining activities classified as types A and B -- vital and strategic -- seldom report them to the East Kalimantan regional administration.
The company, which entrusted exploration to PT Geoid Reksa Bumi, is now planning to divert the current of the Banumuda and Sanggata rivers because it found its largest coal deposit in the waters, found in the nucleus zone of the park.
Awang said the exploitation could be the final nail in the coffin for the park's environment.
"If the activities continue, the Indonesian government will be in the international spotlight because there are various international research institutes, one of which is UNESCO, in the park."
He regretted the granting of the permit for coal exploitation did not take into consideration the problems of environmental conservation.
Despite his warnings, many enterprises are now vying to exploit the area for coal mining.
The National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management mobilized two Transal C 160 aircraft on Feb. 9 to fight the fires.
The initial efforts succeeded in extinguishing several hot spots in the vicinity of Teluk Kaba village in the park.
Commander of the Aji Suryanata Kesuma 091 Regiment, Col. Inf. Djali Yusuf, assisted by Suwarna Abdul Fatah, the head of the disaster management unit, also led 150 Armed Forces members and dozens of residents on the ground in putting out the fires.
Ludwig Schindler, team leader of the German-Indonesian integrated forest fire management project, put the size of burned East Kalimantan forests at 20,000 hectares, and added that Kutai was probably the most affected.
"Compared to last year, the Indonesian government is now very quick in handling forest fires like in East Kalimantan," Schindler said.
East Kalimantan's deputy governor, Suwarna Abdul Fatah, who is also the leader of the coordinating unit, deplored the use of fires to clear land, a practice of hundreds of families which have settled in the park.
They come for the job opportunities as the park is ringed by industries: PT Badak LNG and Pupuk Kaltim fertilizer companies to the east in Bontang, and forestry firms of PT Surya Hutani Jaya, PT Porodisa and PT Kiani Hutani Jaya to the west in Memamang.
The provincial administration has spent tens of billions of rupiah in efforts to relocate the inhabitants, but these have failed, despite assistance from the Ministry of Transmigration.
All this has environmentalists worried. They warn that if both the fires and man's encroachment are not curbed soon, the park will eventually be decimated.