Walhi award torn up in protest at Lore Lindu illegal logging
Walhi award torn up in protest at Lore Lindu illegal logging
Erik W., The Jakarta Post, Palu
The director of the Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi,
Banjar Yulianto, tore up on Friday a Walhi (Indonesian Forum for
the Environment) Award he received two years ago in protest at
Walhi's support for the resettlement of a group of people whom he
accused of damaging the ecology of the national park.
"I received this award and other ones from the government in
2000, but now I feel deceived and embarrassed by them because of
the rampant illegal logging taking place in the national park,"
he said while tearing up all the awards in his residence in Palu.
He added that other awards he had received for allowing local
people to resettle in the national park without damaging the
environment were hanging in his house in Bogor, West Java, but
these would be also torn up because, according to him, they were
no longer relevant.
He said he appreciated the Walhi award at the time because of
the non-governmental organization's strong commitment to
supporting the resettlement of a number of communal groups inside
the national park.
But all that had now changed.
"I decide to dump the awards as neither the government nor
Walhi did anything to prevent the Dongidongi communal group from
looting the forest," he said.
He stated that 3,800 hectares of the total 228,000 hectares of
forest in the park had been badly damaged and another 1,000
hectares had been occupied for resettlement purposes.
"On the other hand, Walhi has supported the occupation of the
forest and done nothing to prevent the people from felling trees
in the park in its effort to win financial support from its donor
agencies," he said.
Banjar and the local Walhi branch have been involved in a
increasingly acrimonious dispute following the killing of two
people in clashes between the Dongidongi people and forest
rangers.
The dispute was triggered by the shooting to death of a
Dongidongi man, who was caught red-handed felling mature trees in
the park on Oct. 8, 2002. The situation threatened to further
spiral out of control after hundreds of Dongidongi people killed
a forest ranger in retaliation for the shooting.
Banjar said the ranger was killed by an angry mob led by Papa
Gola, a supplier of illegal logs to Palu.
Meanwhile, Harley, chairman of the local Walhi branch,
regretted Banjar's action, saying Walhi had given the award to
the wrong person.
"The award should have been given to the Toro, Katu and Doda
people who have preserved the environment inside the national
park and not to Banjar," he asserted.
He said the rampant illegal logging had a lot to do with the
local administration's failure to provide land for the Dongidongi
people outside the national park.
Ridha Saleh, deputy director of Walhi, said Walhi would start
a campaign among the Dongidongi people to encourage them to stop
the illegal logging as the national park was protected by the
law.
"We regret the rampant illegal logging and Banjar's action in
tearing up the award. Of the utmost importance is that both sides
remain committed to preserving the environment in the national
park," he said.