Wood supply becoming problematic for Dayaks

Wood supply becoming problematic for Dayaks

By Indra D. Himrat

KUTAI, East Kalimantan (JP): Forty-two Dayak families in this
village are homeless as they find it difficult to find wood, the
main construction material for housing, in the area.

These 169 Dayaks live in Jelmu Sibak village, Bentian Besar,
Kutai, East Kalimantan. They account for one third of the
population of Jelmu Sibak and their names are on a list at the
office, which is also the home, of the head of Jelmu Sibak rural
community resilience agency.

Wood is getting scarcer. Wood is a means of living for many
villagers and can no longer be depended on as the primary support
in their lives.

Many villagers complain that they must go deep into the forest
to find wood when they want to build a house. Sometimes they
cannot get any wood at all because the forest is controlled by a
forest or timber estate concessionaire.

"Yes, the wood which is good for house building is available
far away from the village and also you cannot fell a tree just
anywhere," said Nyaran, a state elementary school teacher.

Salmiah, an activist added, "It may not make sense but it is
reality. It is getting more and more difficult for villagers to
find wood for house building even though their village is
somewhere in a forest."

Also, she said, villagers can no longer go freely about
looking for wood because the land and the forests are now
controlled by forest concessionaires.

All this can only mean that it will be increasingly difficult
for these villagers to build a house, especially since other
materials needed in building a house are also difficult to
obtain. This will be the next serious problem that the villagers
are going to encounter, after the problem of food scarcity.

Some village elders, including the tribal chief of Jelmu Sibak
village, have suggested that a special location be designated as
a reserve forest for the villagers. This would mean that not all
the villagers' forest areas would be handed over to forest
concessionaires.

"No forest concessionaires may touch the forest area in the
east, across the Lawa River," said Yahya Holeh, the tribal chief
of Jelmu Sibak village.

"That area is a reserve forest area for villagers, whose lives
are very dependent on the forest," said Yahya in a recent
interview at his relative's house in a housing compound owned by
Timber Dana Kali Manis Group, where he has been staying lately.

Socioculturally, there are several types of houses particular
to East Kalimantan. The first type is a lou, which is known as a
longhouse and normally called lamin by the locals, indigenous or
otherwise. This is a traditional house, where a large family
lives. The second type is an ordinary house for a small family,
but may also be occupied by more than one family. These two types
may be found in a village or a residential area. The third type
is a resting house, which is also a rice storehouse. This house
is located in a paddy field.

Traditionally, an estimate of the need for houses in a village
does not depend on the number of families in the village but,
rather, on the need and the development of a family. So it may
happen that a family has two houses or more. On the other hand,
there are families who do not have a house of their own; they
live in a house along with other families.

In Jelmu Sibak village there is a longhouse measuring about 15m
x 40m which is owned by the tribal chief. The villagers'
houses are made of wood all through, are smaller in size and
stand along the road in the central part of the village, at the
side of the Lawa River. Both the old lou and the villagers'
houses are built on many large and small wooden poles. Some of
these poles have lasted three generations but are still strong
because the wood they are made of is ironwood, which is water-
resistant. Unfortunately, this ironwood is no longer easily
available to the villagers.

The present wood "crisis" has made locals fear that there will
soon come a time when it is no longer possible for the villagers
to build their longhouses. "It is very likely that this village
will no longer have a longhouse in future," said Nyaran.

In fact, a lou is a cultural center for the Dayaks. It is here
that they carry out various sociocultural and religious
activities. If no more lou can be built, this will signify the
rural community's cultural doom because the continuance of their
culture depends on the presence of a lou, and their own survival
depends largely on the different types of wood around them.

This is a phenomenon which needs further disclosure because
tree felling continues not only in this village, but also in
other villages where the villagers rely on the forest as their
means of living, not simply as a place where they can obtain wood
for house building.

The writer is an anthropologist