Lampung to resettle forest dwellers

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.