Illegal land clearing leaves national park in jeopardy

Illegal land clearing leaves national park in jeopardy

PALU, Central Sulawesi (JP): Urgent action is needed to save
the protected forests in Central Sulawesi's Lore Lindu National
Park from illegal land clearing, according to a news report from
The Nature Conservancy, an international conservation
organization.

The report warns that land clearing near Lake Lindu is
destroying the habitat and creating an agricultural corridor
which will isolate a significant section of the park and provide
a permanent base for further habitat destruction.

Lore Lindu National Park, declared a UNESCO "Man and the
Biosphere Reserve", is one of Indonesia's most important refuges
for biodiversity. The park's lowlands and mountain forests
contain more than 190 species of birds and several unique
mammals.

The Nature Conservancy report states that without action
"inward migration and concomitant levels of destruction can be
expected to further increase".

The report's author, consultant biologist Dr. Jim Jarvie, said
damage to the west of Lake Lindu included two newly cleared
"slash and burn" areas totaling 25 hectares, new rice fields and
a new village. Dr Jarvie said the recent clearing meant that
there was only a thin, four-kilometer band of forest remaining
between the edge of the park and the expanding agricultural areas
around Lake Lindu inside the park. The park covers 217,000
hectares.

To the north of Lake Lindu, a road has been built to another
new village, new trails have been cut for illegal rattan (cane)
collection and there is extensive timber removal. Also, a forest
area which has been regenerating for 30 years after being cut
down for agriculture, has been newly cleared.

"We face the possibility of losing a complete habitat of
rolling hill montane forest," said Dr Jarvie. "To the north of
Lake Lindu there's a new settlement of about 50 houses with
families which means that it's permanent. We can hear chain saws
operating, clearing the valley system."

Dr Jarvie also said new settlements inside the park were
polluting water supplies for villages downstream.

Banjar Yulianto Laban, the head of Lore Lindu National Park
management, said he hoped "concrete steps would be taken to
resolve the encroachment" to the north of Lake Lindu by the end
of March, or else "more serious actions would be taken, based on
existing regulations".

One solution is that farmers inside the park who can show they
have no access to agricultural land will be offered land well
outside the park.

News of the forest clearing provoked a demonstration on
Monday, March 20, by about 50 members of the Kelompok Peduli
Taman Nasional Lore Lindu (Lore Lindu National Park Concern
Group) outside Kanwil Dephutbun Sulteng (the provincial forestry
office) and the Balai Taman Nasional Lore Lindu office (BTNLL).
The protesters demanded that the forestry department and BTNLL
take more active steps to prevent destruction of the park.

-- Richard Smithers