Kalimantan Island at a Glance: The Historical Background of the People, Destruction of Tropical Forest, Environmental Pollution and the Issues of Oil Palm Plantation, Logging Concession, Locust and Gold Mining

 

 

by Albertus

 

Researcher and Journalist of Institut Dayakologi Pontianak,

West Kalimantan – Indonesia.

 

 

Borneo is the third biggest islands in the world, after Green Land, and Papua New Guinea. This island is divided by three countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam. The part of Borneo which is of Indonesia’s territory named Kalimantan and the parts of Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam still attained the name Borneo. Before the countries of Indonesia and Malaysia established, Borneo-Malaysia was ruled by Rajah James Broke, the king of Borneo from England (1839-1908), and Kalimantan-Indonesia was ruled by Netherland Indische Colonial. Malaysia country’s border was determined by England colonial’ administrative border and Indonesia by Netherland Colonial areas. Although Borneo is divided by the three countries, the indigenous peoples who dwell on in that island is from similar ancestor, they are identified as the Dayak. In the ancient time, the Dayak was identified as pagan, primitive, inland and even cannibal people who applied head-hunting. Those stereotypes made the Dayak feel inferior in the social interaction with other ethnic groups. Furthermore, discriminating treatment from the authority also give big contribution toward the marginalization and oppression of the Dayak.

 

Kalimantan is the biggest island in Indonesia Archipelago. This island consists of four provinces, they are West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and East Kalimantan. The indigenous people of Kalimantan has a collective name “Dayak” as stated above, they are natural men which always live harmoniously with the nature, such as forest, river, mountain, etc; they were the first shelter and buffer for environment’s protection. Bamba said that, “land, river and forest are the most important elements which enable a man lives as the genuine Dayak. For centuries, these three elements had formed a unique identity that we now know as the Dayak people, Dayak culture, Dayak customary law and Dayak religion.” Basically, Dayak custom and traditions promote the peace living culture, especially between human being and nature and among the human being. For instance, every social problem among the community is solved peacefully without blood stained; compromising is usually become the priority in solving social problems. When the earth quake happens, Dayak custom and traditions have a special ceremony for making peace with the nature; there are Dayak customs and traditions named “Balala’” and “Nyimah Tanah” to relate the men and the nature, these customs will aware the men about the influence of nature toward human life. The Dayak farming system is also promote land and forest’s protection, we call this system as integrated indigenous farming system. This system applied 5 basic principle such as (1) sustainability; (2) collectivity; (3) biodiversity; (4) sub-system; (5) obey to customary law (Bamba, 1999).

 

Nowadays, the Dayak indigenous community are undoubtedly threatened by the development programs which stirred and regulated by the Indonesian Government for collecting state income via taxes; and these programs then carried out by national and trans-national companies. Therefore, the government and companies have close collaboration. Those programs are Nucleus Small Holder Plantation Estate like Oil Palm Plantation and the other monoculture plantations, Logging Concession, Industrial Tree Plantation, and Mining. Those programs require the indigenous Dayak’s land in a large scale. It means that there is a great exploitation on land, forest and biodiversity in the Dayak’s settlement areas. Whereas, the land, forest, river and its biodiversity have a direct and profound impact on the survival and well-being of the indigenous Dayak community. Beside that, the other negative impact toward the environment in West Kalimantan are forest fire and locust.

 

In 1996, Pontianak city was full of smoke. Air pollution due to the forest fire nearly happened every dry season every year. The bog or peat lands in West Kalimantan are very vulnerable for forest fire and there’s an intention set of fire also by oil palm companies to clear the land in the dry season. The Indonesian Environmental Forum data (in Pilin &Edi, 1999) stated that, in 1997, there were 264 hectares forest set of fire. In early 1998, there were 515 hectares of forest again burned. The lost due to the forest fire in 1997 reached 10.25 trillion Rupiah.

 

In Kalimantan, since 1968 until 1998, there were 301 logging concessions. These logging concessions required 31.2 million hectare forests from the total Kalimantan forest area as 44,496 million hectares. It means that there are 69.2 % of Kalimantan forest are belong to Logging Concessions.  In West Kalimantan, since 1968, there were 75 Logging Concession, now some of them not active. They required around 74,32% of the total forest areas in West Kalimantan. (Sources from Community Forestry System by Pilin & Edy, 1999). New resource from Forest Watch Indonesia 2002 stated that there are 67 logging concessions registered, among 67 concessions, there were 53 concessions have already mapped with the total area 4,064,056 hectares. Industrial Tree Plantation which operated in West Kalimantan as many as 40 companies, among 40 companies, there are 30 companies have already mapped with the total area 1,184,859 hectares, and there 10 companies not mapped yet. The other plantations, especially Oil Palm Plantation takes 2,068,504 hectares area. Whereas, the area for conservation as the protected forest which was prepared by the local government just as 1,285,543 hectares, unfortunately, in this protected forest, timber theft along the West Kalimantan and Sarawak Border is rampant; there is a huge quantities of stolen timber flowing across the region’s borders, it worth millions of dollar a month. How big is the forest destruction which are conducted by Logging Concession, Oil Palm Plantation, Industrial Tree Plantation, Forest fire and Mining which also required land and forest in big scale?.”  According to the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) or Indonesian Friends of the Earth that, “the forest destruction acceleration  in Indonesia reached 2,4 million hectares per years” and the rest of Indonesia tropical forest just located in Kalimantan, Irian Jaya, and Sumatera. Now, tropical forest in West Kalimantan are being rapidly destroyed, although President Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono has declared new forest law in President Instruction, No.4, year 2005.

 

The Dayak suffering started in 1970 year, it was about the year when the exploitation toward land and forest started. Before 1970, the land and forest were cultivated and mastered by the Dayak  based on the local wisdom and knowledge, after the 1970, it was begun taking up by the government and private companies. It should also be necessary to be mentioned that, the military and police make huge amounts of money from West Kalimantan tropical timber. The cutting of forest in the name of illegal logging weakens local community and breaks down the rule of law.

 

In Ketapang District, since 1995 until 2005, locust devoured nearly all the crops like paddy field, corn, various beans, and all vegetables fields which are grown by the indigenous community. Markus Oyen, a researcher from Ethno Agro Forest-Pancur Kasih Foundation, said that “the main factor which triggered the spread of locust epidemic is the environmental destruction, such as lost of forest due to the forest fire, the activities of logging concession, oil palm plantation, industrial tree plantation, illegal mining, and human error by setting of fire the forest without applying local knowledge to prevent fire. In case that nearly 70% of the Kalimantan area consists of peat land (swamp land), where as, when this type of land burned, it would be very difficult to be extinguished. The forest as a place for locust to stay and look for something to eat, has already changed to be coarse grass field (emperata silindrica) and oil palm plantation areas. The abrupt changing of the ecosystem from virgin forest to coarse grass field and oil palm plantation is really the main factor which caused the spread of locust epidemic.”

 

Recently, the dangerous chemical pollutant threatened nearly all the big rivers in Kalimantan. Uncontrollable illegal gold mining destroy the land and forest; and its dangerous chemical pollutant named mercury thrown in those rivers. These polluted rivers are aggravated by the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to exterminate pest and coarse grass in the land clearing for Oil Palm Plantations. The land clearing by burning the stick of woods or forest has also contribution to air pollution and forest fire.

 

There’s an intentional ignorance from the Indonesian government on the issue of environmental destruction. There are five main reasons which make the Indonesian government seemed ignore the environmental destruction. First of all, Indonesian Forestry Law, Number 5, year 1967, article 2 UUPK stated that, all the forests which grow in the indigenous community customary lands becomes the right of state….. this law enforcement is used by the capitalistic companies to exploit the land, forest and biodiversity in it in a large scale. Second, during the New Order (1972-1999) under Soeharto as the Indonesian President, Indonesia faced obstinate corruption, collusion, and nepotism problems which were conducted by Soeharto and their cronies. The Indonesian economic policy which taken up the capitalism at that time applied exploitation approach to the natural resources in a huge scale for the sake of collecting money as much as possible. This was aggravated by the coming of investors to invest their money in the trans-national companies, which were funded by Foreign Investors, World Bank and IMF. The Third is that, political instability and economic crisis have created a chaos situation where law enforcement has broken down. The Fourth is the political euphoria with the freedom of expressions after the toppling of Soeharto Regime. The freedom of speech and the demand for freedom among the Indonesian people have triggered so many street demonstrations against the government. And the latest Indonesia state problem is about the rise in price of oil has caused economic achievement to fluctuate; lately the household basic needs such as rice, sugar, coffee, vegetables, eggs, meat prices have been increasing incessantly, this situation triggered unsatisfied action toward the government policy. The Ambalat Island dispute and the encroachment of land border between Indonesia and Malaysia, have become the heated political issue which shifted the government’s attention toward the environmental issue, moreover, the Tsunami in Aceh and Earthquake in Nias. Bearing in mind and considering the environtmental massive destruction, Indonesia President Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono, made and applied Inpres of Illegal Logging (President’s Instruction) No. 4, year 2005. It is about the forbidden to cut off woods or tropical timber illegally in the part of Indonesia forest areas and selling it in all over Indonesia. The indigenous community is still waiting for the effectiveness of regulation in stopping the operation of illegal logging.

 

At a journey to Tanjung Village, Ketapang District On 21^st - 24^th of March 2005, to accompany Profesor Ulf Johansson Dahre. On my way to Ketapang from Pontianak, I was very surprised to see the scene of Oil Palm Plantation all around the Ketapang district areas, because it was the first time for me to go to Ketapang by airplane. From Ketapang to Tanjung, we faced a very challenging road, with free discotique dancing without music. Fortunately, we have a fantastic car and driver. The attractive rural scene along the road consisted of illegal gold mining, ex-forest fire area, oil palm plantations, and locusts. The virgin unique forest with fresh water and paradise for wildlife as stated by European Adventurers a hundred years ago was over. It seems that the virginity is just now an imagination or fantasy to describe nature and its people. When we arrived in Tanjung Village, I was assigned by my institution to investigate about heated contradictory opinion among the villagers in referring to the coming of oil palm companies (PT. Sinar Mas and PT. Borneo Kathulistiwa Sawit companies) to grow oil palm in five sub-districts in Ketapang. According to the map, the oil palm plantation will also take the Tanjung Villagers’ lands. The early result of my investigation stated that there are two parties which divided themselves as pro and contra parties. The party as pro-oil palm seems lured with the promise of short term advantages which is promoting by oil palm company without considering the environmental destruction. While, the party as contra-oil palm plantation really awares the danger of exploitation toward land and forest in the big scale.

 

When we were back to Pontianak, by coincidence, I sat next to a man from Pangkalanbun. He is an assistant manager of the oil palm plantation company in Central Kalimantan. He said that, “the oil palm plantation in Central Kalimantan is very developed, nearly all the jungles are changed become the Oil Palm Plantation areas. This situation is quite different with the oil palm plantation in West Kalimantan, the entrepreneurs get difficulties to persuade the indigenous community in order to give their lands for oil palm plantation.” The community empowerment programs which started in West Kalimantan in the early 1980, really had something to do with the community attitudes, especially the awareness of environmental protection, the mutual relations between men and nature if the natural balance guaranteed. Community empowerment program is the only crucial method to protect tropical forest, to tackle illegal logging, to ban oil palm plantation, gold mining, Industrial tree plantation in huge scales. The empowered community can control the law enforcement conducted by the government. The local community should be the buffer and shelter for environmental protection, therefore community empowerment is very crucial to be conducted and the main program in every empowerment activity should emphasize community as the basis, before it is to late or hundreds of thousands of forest dwelling people who will be losing their homes and for vast tracts of dense forest biodiversity.