Lampung to resettle forest dwellers
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung, Lampung
The destruction of Lampung's forests has prompted authorities here to press forward with plans to resettle some 5,000 families who have been living in a forest community for several years.
The local forestry office was prevented from resettling the families of the Wan Abdul Rahman People's Forest Park in Mount Betung, South Lampung, last year because of fierce resistance on the part of the families.
The settlers have been blamed for quickening the destruction of the 22,249-hectare forest, 65 percent of which has been damaged.
Sutono, the head of the forestry office's protection division, said on Wednesday removing the settlers would help check the destruction of the forest.
He could not say where the illegal settlers, numbering some 5,000 families, would be relocated.
"We are thinking about that. But they are squatters, not transmigrants, so we do not have any obligation to resettle them somewhere else," Sutono said.
He said the families, most of whom came from East, Central and West Java, and South Sumatra, made money by exploiting the resources of the forest.
"Hopefully, we will be able to relocate the forest settlers in the near future," Sutono said, adding that his office had begun to replant the damaged forest two years ago.
He said the planned relocation did not mean the settlers would be banned from growing hard trees like durian and candlenut, which would give them no more reason to cut down trees for logging.
Ali Kabul Mahi, an environmental scientist at the University of Lampung, voiced support for the plan to expel the settlers from the forest, which helps protect the water supply for the provincial capital Bandar Lampung.
Sutono said the number of illegal logging cases around Mount Betung had begun to drop because the settlers had already looted most of the large trees.
"What we are doing now is to intensively reduce the number of forest settlers in an effort to stop the illegal logging," he said.
In support of this effort, the local forestry office has stationed forest rangers around areas prone to illegal logging, he said. "We also plan to deploy civilian guards to help protect the forest."
Meanwhile, a leading environmental watchdog said illegal logging in Lampung not only involved settlers but also local businesspeople.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said it opposed any new approvals for investment in the forestry sector.
"We have obtained evidence that many trees are being logged to make charcoal," the director of Lampung's Walhi chapter, Mukri Friatna, said.
Mukri accused the Lampung forestry office and the provincial administration of failing to deal with the problems of illegal logging and the exploitation of the forest.
The forestry office is even promoting a program to make use of the forest by growing plants like peanuts and vegetables, he said, adding that this would only encourage settlers to further loot the forests.