Illegal logging crackdown adds to problems of border dwellers

Bambang Bider, Contributor/Pontianak

People in the remote hamlet of Sungai Utik, Embaloh district, Kapuas Hulu regency, had laid out the red carpet to welcome Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban, who had planned to visit the part of West Kalimantan bordering Malaysia in mid-October.

The plan was called off, however, to the disappointment of locals who after hearing about the high-profile visit had immediately asked for talks with the minister to tell him the problems they were encountering.

Unggam, 57, was eager to meet the minister personally so that he could ask him about his forest concession, which had been withdrawn. He wanted to tell the minister that despite the revocation of his 100-hectare forest concession a few years ago, he still paid levies to the Kapuas Hulu regional administration until 2004.

For Thomas Langit, a youth leader from Badau regency, Kapuas Hulu regency, the minister's visit would have enabled him to find out what steps the government would take to overcome the economic effects on people in border areas resulting from the crackdown on illegal logging.

"In December last year, I together with five community leaders met the minister. We relayed to him the views of the people in the border area. The minister said that because he had just taken office, he had to establish coordination with other relevant ministers, such as the agriculture minister, before drawing up a program that would benefit the border area," Thomas recalled.

If the second meeting had gone ahead, Thomas would have asked the minister whether he had fulfilled his promise. Illegal logging, Thomas added, was a crucial issue in border areas.

"It is only natural that locals continue to fell trees in the forest. About 90 percent of the people depend on the forest to support themselves. If what they have been doing is considered illegal, then what must be done to make it legal? Unless the government provides an alternative, how can they give up their long-standing activities?" Thomas asked.

People on Sumatra or Java islands can easily make choices as a lot of alternatives were available. But the same was not the case in West Kalimantan's border areas, he added.

"It is ironic to see a lot of confiscated logs rot away because they cannot be sold. Both the local community and the state must be suffering great losses this way," Thomas said.

The government has launched a joint operation, code named Hutan Lestari, to crack down on illegal loggers in Papua, Kalimantan and Sumatra in February of this year. The operation involves the police, military, prosecution service and civil service investigators from the forestry ministry.

A Kapuas Hulu legislative council member, Pilipus Pian, expressed the hope that the President would quickly address the problems facing people in the border areas against the backdrop of illegal logging campaign.

"We would call on the central government to immediately find a solution to the problems facing the people here, especially the unemployment problem," Pian said.

The rising cost of basic necessities is adding to the problems of the members of the Sungai Utik community, who have conserved their forests and generally earn their living from rubber tapping and unirrigated agriculture.

One local man, Simon Salim, said he had taken up rubber tapping for about a month, but had to give it up after the price of rubber collapsed. Now rubber fetches Rp 7,000 (70 US cents) per kilogram.

"Still, we cannot rely completely on rubber as the price fluctuates," Simon said.