National park project involves locals

TANJUNG PUTING, Central Kalimantan (JP): Even after the orangutans have arrived at Tanjung Puting, they are not entirely beyond the reach of human need or greed.

Recognizing that the park's borders are threatened by the lack of economic development in the Kumai-Pangkalanbun area of Central Kalimantan, Tanjung Puting has embarked on a course integrating conservation within the national park with community development outside of it.

This approach, representative of new thinking throughout the archipelago's nature reserves that waves a banner of eco-tourism, positions the park within the ecosystem of the larger community.

The thinking, under the stewardship of Tanjung Puting head Herry Susilo, says that a park is not safe until the local residents view it as a magnet for economic opportunity rather than a patch of forest off-limits to their livelihoods.

As such, Susilo takes an activist role outside the park, working regularly with the office of economic development of the regional administration, with community groups, and potential tourism operators in the area.

Susilo and the park's 21 field employees who are stationed throughout Tanjung Puting's 415,000 hectares are constantly reminded of the park's community mission by the threat of illegal woodcutting.

Since July of last year, park officials have nabbed 200 people for logging within park borders, Susilo said. In December 1995, a one-month operation by park rangers caught 179 people illegally cutting timber in the park.

But park management decided that educating local residents about the park and building community relations would accomplish more than prosecution, and they took the opportunity to give poachers information about why they shouldn't violate park borders.

"It's not easy because they need something to eat," Susilo said, also noting that the park did find prosecution prudent in other cases, which has sent 10 people to jail since 1994 for logging within park borders.

People try to cut trees from the park because they need money, but often they are hired by other people who are economically well-off to log in the park.

"Why do they come into the park? Because they can't find what they need outside," Susilo said.

Meanwhile, around 1,000 gold prospectors a few kilometers upstream dump mercury and sand into the Sekoyner River and shatter the tranquility of the park by zooming to the mine in speedboats in search of greater economic well-being (see related story).

Tanjung Puting's park rangers are also the ambassadors of the orangutans outside of the park. Most of the rangers have not completed high school -- exactly the people likely to end up as logging or working in the gold mine -- but they have become the devoted guardians of the orangutans. One ranger at Camp Leakey carves wooden statues of orangutans in his plentiful spare time and sells them to visitors.

Rangers say residents of nearby Kumai and Pangkalanbun know who they are when they venture into town on days off, and that they are the envy of the community.

A ranger at Pondok Tanggui, Ismail, who used to work as a logger before coming to Tanjung Puting, said living in the forest with the orangutans changed the way he values nature. "I think about the forest and the animals differently now."

Susilo points to the potential for developing recreational offerings within the park, eco-tourism and success of community programs already in place which reveal a brighter future for Tanjung Puting and nearby residents.

In 1996, 3,980 visitors came to the park -- more than double the number of visitors in 1990. Forty percent of the visitors are foreign, and Susilo's conservative estimate is that they pump between Rp 300 million (US$124,223) to Rp 700 million into the local economy each year.

Susilo believes that even more tourists would come with improvements to the park. Canoe trails would allow visitors to enjoy more of the park's land and would enable local people to earn money by renting canoes and working as river guides. If the park could purchase the land on the opposite bank of the Sekoyner River, it could ensure that the river will stay a tranquil place that tourists would want to visit and remain a viable economic commodity over the long run.

Park management says that eco-tourism around Tanjung Puting could bring more money into the area for an indefinite span of time rather than exhausting resources for short-term economic gain.

Susilo points to the Eco-Lodge as a model of eco-tourism, referring to the practice of environmentally and culturally- friendly tourism business that is structured to keep profits within the community.

The Eco-Lodge, which opened last fall to Tanjung Puting tourists, donates 10 percent of its profits to a community organization it started. The Eco-Lodge and its foundation have established a rice field behind the village, supports the development of home and handicraft industries, and local cultural traditions.

As part of Tanjung Puting's regional vision, the park has given fruit trees to local villages and supports a pepper plantation.

Susilo says that integrating conservation, resource management and community development is not a choice. He warns the alternative is that, in a decade, "Tanjung Puting will become an island." (Becky Mowbray)