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.