Tribes involvement in conservation sought
Tribes involvement in conservation sought
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government should recognize the rights of tribal communities
to manage natural resources in Indonesia's conservation areas, an
environmental forum said.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said it knew
of many tribal communities who were evicted from and had no
access to conservation areas despite having lived in them for a
long time. The government regarded the tribes as a threat, it
said.
"Conservation areas and the communities living within them
should be inseparable. However, in Indonesia, the concept of
natural conservation does not respect the people's rights," said
Walhi executive director, Longgena Ginting.
The forum, a grouping of non-governmental organisations,
issued the statement ahead of the Seventh Conference of Parties
on the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kuala Lumpur between
Feb. 9 and Feb. 20. All 188 countries that signed the convention
in 1992 -- including Indonesia -- will take part in the
ministerial meeting.
The convention was legally binding after Indonesia ratified it
in 1994 under Law No. 5/1994, recognizing tribes' rights in
biodiversity conservation.
"Various global commitments on natural conservation signed by
the government remain a collection of papers," Longgena said.
Emil Kleden, of the Indonesian Tribal Communities Alliance,
said escalating conflicts in conservation areas were proof the
government was not committed to people's rights.
Walhi had evidence 10 tribal fishermen had died, three had
gone missing and hundreds more had been injured for trying to
enter the Komodo National Park in East Nusa Tenggara since it was
declared a national park in 1980 and a world heritage site in
1986.
In the latest incident, nine fishermen were arrested on April
25, last year for entering the park.
Emil said the treatment of local people and tribal communities
contrasted with a laxer attitude towards illegal loggers or pit
miners in the conservation areas.
An estimated two million hectares of forests were cut down a
year in Indonesia and there was widespread illegal hunting for
endangered species, such as Sumatran rhino and tigers, in
conservation areas, Emil said.
Indonesia's biodiversity was shrinking due to deforestation,
natural disasters and exploitation of conservation areas, Walhi
statistics showed.
In 2002, 772 species of flora and fauna were endangered and
240 species of flora, including 52 species of orchids were
declared extinct.
The forum said it would use the Kuala Lumpur conference to
encourage Indonesia to revise legislation that protected and
acknowledged the rights of tribespeople to benefit from and
manage conservation areas.
The conference will also discuss the Cartagena Protocol on
genetic engineering. Indonesia signed the protocol in 2000, but
has not ratified it.
Indonesia, although it only accounts for 1.3 percent of the
total land area in the world, is extremely biologically rich. The
country is a home to 12 percent of the world's mammals (515
species), 7.3 percent (511 species) of reptiles, and 17 percent
(1,531 species) of bird species.