Way Kambas National Park on the brink of ruin

Way Kambas National Park on the brink of ruin

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post/Bandarlampung

Famous for its elephant training school, the Way Kambas National
Park in East Lampung is deteriorating, with more than 60 percent
of the park being pillaged of its trees and thousands of hectares
turned into cassava and corn plantations.

From the outside, the 125,000-hectare park appears intact, but
upon entering, vast areas have been overgrown by tall grasses
where once hardwood trees such as meranti, tenam and others grew.

A resident, Nardi, said he had been cultivating cassava on a
plot of land in the park for the past seven years, claiming he
was forced to do so in order to support his family.

As a native of the place, he claimed that he had never
received any benefit from the park. "What happened was that a
herd of wild elephants from the park frequently ravaged my paddy
field and farm located outside the park," said Nardi.

He claimed that he and other residents living around the
forest had been cultivating the land in a number of areas inside
the park because the land had already turned into idle grassland.

"It's not because we cut down the trees. Those who cut down
the trees are outsiders. They are hired by logging financiers
from Jakarta and Bandarlampung," he said.

Since the beginning of the so-called reformasi (reform) era in
1998, after former president Soeharto was deposed from office,
the rate of forest destruction in Lampung has drastically
increased. Residents have collectively cleared forest areas on
the pretext that they inherited the park from their ancestors.

This situation has been exploited by timber financiers to reap
huge profits by paying residents to fell large trees, then buying
them up at low prices.

Traders buy a cubic meter of meranti for only a few hundred
thousand rupiah. It is then sold for millions of rupiah on the
open market. Unfortunately, those who get this money are not the
residents living near the park.

Residents living around the forest are only left with smaller
parts of the trees, remnants from the illegal logging activities.
After all the trees have been completely plundered and the area
turned into grassland, only then will residents start cultivating
cassava.

Executive director of the Lampung chapter of the Indonesian
Environment Forum (Walhi), Mukri Friatna, disclosed that the
problem of illegal logging in the Way Kambas National Park was
not only caused by a limited number of forest rangers guarding
the park.

According to Mukri, the most important factor was the
seriousness on the part of park management and police to unravel
the timber trade syndicates.

"Since logging and transportation of the timber are done in
broad daylight, how is it possible that they get away with the
sawn timber unnoticed? It's rather strange that they (park
management and police) have difficulty getting hold of the
perpetrators, because their exit routes are obvious," said Mukri.

One entry point used by illegal loggers, for instance, is in
Cabang village, in Seputih Surabaya district and Rasau village,
Gaya Baru district -- both in Central Lampung, as well as Sadewa
village, located at the mouth of Seputih Surabaya river in
Central Lampung.

According to Mukri, access through Sadewa is the easiest way
to bring timber out as the area directly borders the Way Seputih
River estuary.

"Timber can be gathered and transported by trucks from the
river, or they can be directly moved by large boats and then
cross the Sunda Strait to Karangantu Port in Banten," said Mukri.

Head of the East Lampung Forestry and Plantation Office, Edwin
Bangsaratu, said the loggers were not from the area, claiming
that security personnel and illegal loggers were frequently
involved in shoot-outs during raids.

"It shows that they (the loggers) have been armed by the
financiers," said Edwin.

Edwin said that even if the area's residents were to blamed,
they were not fully at fault for the damage because most of them
were poor.

The residents, he said, cultivated the land but harvests were
not adequate to meet their families' needs, forcing them to enter
the park to take forest products, or hunt for animals.

Head of the Way Kambas National Park information office, Mega
Heryanto, acknowledged the presence of illegal loggers and
poaching, but limited numbers of forest rangers made it hard to
catch the perpetrators.

"We have conducted night and day patrols. We have caught
several perpetrators, and some of them have been brought to
trial," said Mega.

According to Mega, his office has also conducted a public
awareness campaign for residents living around the national park
in order that they refrain from illegal logging and poaching
practices.