Illegal logging crackdown adds to problems of border dwellers
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withdrawn.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.