Kalimantan buffer-zone: Palms oil or eco-tourism?

Kalimantan buffer-zone: Palms oil or eco-tourism?

Siswo Pramono, The Hague

Indonesia should develop an economic buffer-zone in the
northern parts of Kalimantan in order to improve security in the
areas along its border with Malaysia. Economic activities will
bring a modicum of administrative presence, which in turn will
improve the sense of security in border areas.

The increasing global demand for logs and cheap labor, the
rampant poverty in Indonesia, and the economic disparity between
Indonesia's Kalimantan and Malaysia's Sabah and Serawak, have
become the driving force of illicit cross-border activities. Such
activities include illegal logging, the smuggling of logs and the
trafficking of illegal migrants.

If an extensive and profitable alternative is offered, the
illicit business will be less attractive. The (preliminary) idea
to develop a curtain of 1.8 million hectares of oil palm
plantations extending along the border, for some, is considered
"the" alternative.

Two million hectares of oil palm plantation could provide
US$87.5 billion of foreign exchange earnings, 200,000 on-site
jobs, six million jobs in oil palm-related industries, and, most
importantly, boost the development of small- and medium-scale
enterprises and cooperatives. For Indonesia, palm oil is also a
good material for clean energy.

But the oil palm curtain concept has already created debate.
Attempts to promote the social welfare of the people should not
be prejudicial to the interest of preserving the Kalimantan
forest.

After all, Indonesia was a participant to the "Heart of
Borneo" workshop held in Brunai Darussalam this year, which
sought to establish 225,000 square kilometers of conservation
area along Indonesia and Malaysia's shared border. The areas
suggested for oil palm plantations will overlap these proposed
"Heart of Borneo" regions.

Many are worried that the development of oil palm plantations
would upset the biodiversity of the forest area. A study revealed
that a primary forest can host 75 mammalian species, while oil
palm area hosts only 13 (New Straits Time, Feb. 13).

While oil palm cultivation may debatably have only a minor
impact on the environment, the forest-clearing process can
destroy the water resources in the hinterland of Borneo, which
supplies 14 major rivers. And these rivers are vital to the
livelihood of the whole island.

Environmental impacts aside, there are also some concerns
about the economic feasibility of planting oil palm in central
Borneo. According to experts, oil palm plantations are unlikely
to be productive in areas higher than 200 meters above sea level.
However, most of the border area in northern Kalimantan is
located in highlands at altitudes of between 1000 and 2000
meters.

The question is not whether oil palm plantation, and hence
industry, is good for our economy; but rather, how should we
manage this industry in the most feasible and sustainable way.
What to plant is important; where to plant is equally important.
A comprehensive study is needed to settle this oil palm
controversy and it will take a long time to complete.

We thus have to figure out another more practical, yet
sustainable way to fill in the economic buffer-zone. If
practicality matters, then we should contemplate the feasibility
of an eco-tourism industry.

We already have the beautiful forests, mountains, lakes,
rivers, flora and fauna, and, at least, six national parks along
the border. That they are "already there" offers the opportunity
and hence the challenge for us to manage them into an
economically feasible and well-integrated eco-tourism industry.

Sabah alone, for instance, with its main eco-tourist
destinations of Mount Kinabalu, Tanjung Simpang Mengayau, and the
island of Sipadan, managed to attract 1.6 million tourists last
year, or about one third of the total people visiting Indonesia.

Eco-tourists come for nature, for the forest. In eco-tourism,
the need to make a profit and the need to conserve the forest are
mutually reinforcing. You conserve the forest, you conserve the
industry. You destroy the forest, you destroy the industry.

Since eco-tourism businesses would require a particular
standard of infrastructure, a thorough environmental impact
analysis is nevertheless needed. The constructions of roads,
airports, sea and river ports, clinics, and tourist resorts
should not hurt the preservation of Borneo's forest.

If eco-tourism is the alternative, then our task is to attract
foreign parties to invest in this sector. The international
community could provide the badly needed financial support.

For instance, in the Netherlands, a program called PSOM
(program for cooperation with emerging markets) provides grants
to projects in developing countries that are commercially
feasible, supportive to the local economy, and environmentally
friendly.(www.evd.nl/psom).

Under the PSOM arrangement, a joint venture of Dutch and
Indonesian companies who want to start eco-tourism businesses
could apply for a grant of 500,000 euros. And for the year 2006,
the allocated PSOM grant for projects in Indonesia is two million
euros.

We need to learn how Frank Lloyd Wright, the great American
architect, worked with nature. And in our effort to build an
economic buffer-zone in northern Kalimantan, his wisdom applies:
"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never
fail you".

This article reflects the personal views of the writer, who is
a minister counselor at the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague.