Whir of chain saws goes on in East Kalimantan rain forests
Whir of chain saws goes on in East Kalimantan rain forests
By Charlie Pye-Smith
TARAKAN, East Kalimantan (JP): You can't hear the chain saws
in Tarakan harbor, but their handiwork is plain to see.
Vast quantities of round logs, felled in the rain forests of
East Kalimantan, await shipment to Malaysia and elsewhere. Not
long ago most of the timber here came from large-scale
concessions to the west of Malinau, a frontier town over 100
kilometers upstream from Tarakan. But an increasing quantity now
comes from small-scale logging permits.
The idea of communities and district governments having
greater control over the forests may be admirable, but research
undertaken by the Bogor-based Center for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR) suggests that these logging permits, though
individually small, could lead to a massive loss of forest.
"The problem is likely to accelerate and worsen," warned
social scientist Lini Wollenberg, who is working with Dayak
communities in one of Borneo's last great expanses of lowland
forest.
Wollenberg believes that the difficulties of law enforcement,
and the large profits to be made from clear-cutting, mean that
district governments and many communities are ignoring the long-
term implications of forest destruction. They need the income,
but can they afford to lose the forests?
For centuries the rain forests of East Kalimantan have
provided the Dayaks with almost all their needs, and for many the
sole source of income still comes from collecting eaglewood, a
much-prized incense.
"We don't want the forests to disappear," said Emang Mering,
subdistrict leader of Pulau Sapi, a village on a tributary of the
Malinau River. "We depend on them for hunting and many other
things."
But he swiftly added that everyone in the village wanted to
raise their standard of living. Recently, a logging company
offered Rp 200 million for the right to clear-cut 3,000 hectares
of forest. The community accepted. They will lose part of their
forest, but the financial gains -- for some -- will be
considerable.
As part of the move toward regional autonomy, Indonesia's
district leaders can now grant IPPKs, permits for the
exploitation of the forest, and an array of other permits to fell
timber on land claimed by local communities.
Indeed, they are under considerable pressure to generate new
sources of revenue as allocations from the national government
are being severely curtailed under the new autonomy laws. The
speed with which the permits are being granted is astonishing.
So far 28 permits, covering some 30,000 hectares, have been
granted in Malinau district alone since April 2000.
Although communities are supposed to file requests for IPPKs
with the regent, who acts as the district leader, it seems to be
the investors, mostly logging companies seeking new sources of
timber, who are driving the process. In return for the right to
fell timber they offer a package deal. Sometimes they contribute
toward the construction of a public building. They generally
promise to hire villagers during the felling operations.
And they always agree to pay a royalty, on average Rp 15,000
to 40,000/m3. The districts also receive an area-based fee of Rp
200,000/ha and a volume-based royalty of Rp 15,000/m3.
"These fees represent a very small fraction of the commercial
value of the timber downstream," says CIFOR policy scientist
Chris Barr, who is researching the impact of decentralization in
Malinau district. In East Kalimantan red meranti and other
dipterocarp trees are selling for around Rp 500,000 to Rp
600,000/m3, a relatively low price by historic standards.
Profits
In Malaysia, where much of the timber from Malinau goes, log
prices are assumed to be higher. Of course, the investors must
pay to log and transport the timber, and they must provide what
are euphemistically termed "informal payments" to local
officials, but they still make handsome profits.
Analysis of existing IPPKs in Malinau suggests that the fees
are going to a relatively small number of people, often just to
village leaders and favored individuals whose names are assigned
to each 100-hectare block. According to Wollenberg, there is
frequently no consultation process, and villagers are often
unaware of the deals made by their leaders.
"All the same," she conceded, "many people believe that any
benefits, however small, are an improvement on the past, when
they received almost nothing from large-scale timber
concessions."
However, selective logging, as was prescribed by forestry
concessions known by their Indonesian acronym HPH, often leaves
large areas of standing forest, which provides hunting grounds,
food and other products.
With IPPKs, the forests are completely razed.
Investors often promise to replant logged areas with crops
like rattan, pepper and coffee, but many people fear that little
or no replanting will happen.
A recent study of saw mills in three districts in East
Kalimantan found that nearly all were operating illegally, either
because they lacked permits, or because they relied on illegal
logging. Many of the companies which supply them have now taken
advantage of the IPPK system.
"Prior to this," said researcher Krystof Obidzinski, "most
logging companies were operating illegally. Now, not only do the
IPPKs provide them with a new source of timber, they also
legitimize their operations."
Barr believes that the IPPKs are enabling companies to bring
heavy machinery into the area, something they would have found
hard to justify before. Between April and October 2000, the
number of timber-extracting machines in Malinau district doubled
to over 400.
"Most of it is being shipped in by Malaysian investors, and
industry officials in the region have reported that the volume is
far in excess of what they need to log the areas thus far
allocated under IPPK permits," Barr said.
Political patronage
During Soeharto's New Order period, the central government
used timber concessions as a form of political patronage. The
indications are that a similar process is now taking place at the
district level.
"Local officials, if they want to retain power, need the
backing of the business elites, who are often involved in
logging," Barr said. In return for permits, officials secure the
support they need to stay in office.
This goes some way toward explaining why many districts are
interpreting the laws so broadly and granting IPPKs -- in effect,
clear-cutting permits -- for areas the central government has
designated as permanent forest estate, intended either for total
protection or rotational felling. This has already brought
investors into conflict with the state forestry enterprise,
Inhutani II.
There are also growing signs of tension in Malinau district.
In Setarap, villagers mounted a protest when the investor
failed to employ them, as had been promised. In Adiu, they halted
work as the investor failed to make an up-front payment. A
company which had an agreement with one village carved its access
road through the old swidden fields of another, destroying fruits
and timber trees. And communities which have refused to cooperate
with investors have reportedly been subjected to intimidation.
In the meantime, the chain saws keep whirring.
Wollenberg believes there is an urgent need to raise local
awareness about the threats to the forests, and the fact that
most of the financial gains are accruing to relatively few
people. In Pulau Sapi, Emang Mering agrees that villagers need to
think of the long-term consequences of felling forests.
"But it's hard when people are being offered big lumps of
money," he added.
CIFOR scientists also suggest that districts, together with
the communities and technical agencies, need to determine in a
transparent way exactly where the permanent forests estate should
be. They also advocate that logging companies should be required
to lodge a bond as a guarantee that they will pay the correct
fees and replant logged areas.
For these measures to work, policymakers need to reexamine,
and agree on, appropriate roles and responsibilities among
district, provincial and national agencies. "Otherwise,
decentralization may accelerate the loss of Indonesia's forests,"
Wollenberg said.
The writer is a consultant science writer at CIFOR.