West Sumatran forests in distress

By Tantri Yuliandini

PADANG, West Sumatra (JP): Driving through the countryside around the provincial capital, there is no way you can miss the natural wealth endowed on this part of Indonesia.

There is a sea of lush green forests spread out as far as the eye can see, rising and falling gently following the contours of the land, broken only by small villages and the winding country roads.

Just outside Padang, at the Dr. M. Hatta forest reserve, you can distinctly hear the calls of gibbons as they jump from one tree to another.

West Sumatra boasts a multitude of animal and plant species. An estimated 61 percent, or 2.6 million hectares, of the total area of the province consists of forests -- some 975,926 hectares of these are protected by law.

The province is host to two national parks (Kerinci Seblat and Siberut); five nature reserves (Rimbo Panti, Lembah Harau, Batang Palupuh, Lembah Anai, and Beringin Sakti); 22 wildlife sanctuaries; four parks (Rimbo Panti, Lembah Harau, Mega Mendung, and Bukit Batu Patah); two game parks (Bukit Sidoali and Sipora Island); a forest reserve (Dr. M. Hatta); three marine parks (Saibi Sarabua Bay, Pieh Island, and Pagai Island); and two wildlife reserves (Panjang Island and Penyu Island).

Unchecked logging

But the "green carpet" is imperiled by unchecked illegal logging and uncontrolled land clearing activities, which have been blamed for the loss of one million hectares of protected forest, according to chief of the West Sumatra Agriculture and Forestry Office Johny Azwar.

He says loggers steal at least two truckloads of logs a day. This, of course, is not as bad as what is happening in Kalimantan, where plundered logs no longer go by the truckload but by freighterload.

He says the denuded land in West Sumatra could cause serious flooding in two neighboring provinces, Riau and Jambi.

West Sumatra serves as a water catchment area for the southern coastal areas of Sumatra island. The Batanghari River which flows through Jambi, and also the Kuantan River and the Kampak River which flow through Riau, all originate in West Sumatra.

"The preservation of West Sumatran forests, therefore, is in the best interests of Jambi and Riau as well," Johny says.

He pointed out that illegal logging is rampant in Sangir to the south of Solok district and Muaro Sakai in South Pesisir district, both bordering the Kerinci Seblat National Park; in the Sigontong and Sungai Aur forest reserves in Pasaman district; the production forest in the 50 Kota district; and forests in Asam Pulau and Padang Pariaman districts.

Illegal sawmills

Chief of the West Sumatra Forestry Agency Zulkifli Mulsani says local people have only recently started to plunder the protected forest as demand from sawmills in the area increases.

According to Zulkifli, only 57 of the 122 existing sawmills in West Sumatra have the necessary permits.

Protected forest areas have become a target for illegal loggers because of their high quality timber.

Between April and May of this year, some 247 cubic meters of timber were confiscated from 16 trucks by forest rangers. During a raid last month, rangers seized 13 cubic meters of timber.

"We were unable to raid them earlier because the funds only came in April, and in June we had to stop the operation again as we ran out of money," Zulkifli said.

The stolen logs were sold in Medan, North Sumatra, for a better price, he explained.

Meranti (Dipterocarpus) timber could fetch up to Rp 2 million per cubic meter there, while in West Sumatra it is worth only Rp 1 million, Zulkifli says.

Efforts to close down illegal sawmills have so far come up against a brick wall as shutting them down would mean many local people losing their jobs.

The timber and timber products industries absorbed some 4,096 workers in 1997, according to the West Sumatra Bureau of Statistics.

Logging is not the only menace to protected forests. Land clearing is also a major threat.

Chief of the West Sumatra Natural Resources Conservation Unit Suyatno Sukandar says that in the Solok district, more than 750 hectares of the 123,970 hectares of protected forest there has been cleared by people who claim the land is their ancestral property.

They turned the land into farms or sold it for between Rp 1 million and Rp 1.5 million per hectare, he said.

Suyatno said the people's claim is based on a law passed by the Dutch colonial government in 1935, which gave the people of Kanagarian Batang Barus a portion of the land.

Kanagarian now comprises the villages of Kayu Jao, Kayu Aro, and Selasih.

In 1983, some of the land given by the Dutch government was voluntarily handed over to the Solok administration, which then turned it into a wildlife sanctuary in 1999.

"Misunderstandings occurred because of differences in the map scale between the Dutch documents and the local administration's," Suyatno said.

The village chiefs and the local administration have agreed to stop their respective activities on the disputed land until a final solution is reached.

"But the locals keep pillaging the land," Suyatno says, adding that thus far the local administration has been reluctant to resort to coercive action as the matter was more of a social problem than a criminal one.

"Eventually we will have no choice but to take coercive action if the villagers keep on violating the accord," he says.