Locals want more say on forests
Locals want more say on forests
JAKARTA (JP): The government promised yesterday to involve
more indigenous people in the management of the country's
forests.
Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo admitted that
indigenous people should play a larger role in making the
country's program of sustainable development a success.
"We believe sustainable forest management will be more
successful if the natives' involvement is intensified,"
Djamaludin said when opening on Saturday the Asia Region Public
Hearing on forests and sustainable development.
The two-day hearing is co-organized by the Indonesian
Biodiversity Foundation and the World Commission on Forests and
Sustainable Development (WCFSD).
The 1945 Constitution guarantees public participation in the
utilization and management of Indonesia's natural resources.
"Therefore, the government has promulgated regulations to
enable the private sector to participate in the management of
natural resources," he said.
The government's promise was applauded by the 300 or so
participants that came from private businesses, non-governmental
organizations, indigenous communities and the Indonesian
government.
"The knowledge of forest management should not only be
monopolized by academicians. It should also be disseminated to
the indigenous people," said Sandra Moniaga, an environmentalist
from West Kalimantan.
Similar support also came from Intan, another environmental
activist. "Indigenous people should be trained in forestry
management," she said. "These people know their areas better than
the government."
Debate
The hearing was colored with heated debate on alleged human
rights violations and the unlawful acquisitions of communal land
as reported by two Irian Jaya natives, Josepha and Bartolomeus
Magal.
"We have long demanded our land back, which has been
unlawfully acquired for a mining project by PT Freeport
Indonesia," Josepha, who speaks only in her Amungme dialect, said
through an interpreter.
"What did we get for our demand? I and some other native
people were tortured and kept for weeks in a container," she
said.
"We have lost a lot of our natural resources. We have lost our
land inherited by our ancestors," Bartolomeus added.
Their plea for assistance generated sympathy from the other
participants, with Hemmo Muntingh, a commissioner from the
Netherlands, and Yoichi Kuroda from Japan saying they were
touched by the two accounts.
Surna T. Djajadiningrat, an assistant to the state minister of
the environment, also stated his sympathy with the Amungme case.
He advised the tribal people to arm themselves with more data.
However, he asked the participants not to get emotional,
saying that the topics being discussed cover the whole of Asia,
not only Indonesia.
Production, trade and environment will be discussed at the
next session.
The public hearings are part of a week-long workshop, which
will include an on-site visit to forests in East Kalimantan.
(imn)