Burning Barns and Growing Barns

Providing open access to conservation areas for communities could reduce land conflicts, increase people’s welfare, and protect the environment. It has been proven by the ability of indigenous people to manage the sustainability of their forests and seas.

Sorong, Ekuatorial – Enos Sakaipelly stared at the water rushing in and out beneath the pier of the sea near his village in Salio, Wageo Island, Raja Ampat islands of West Papua. He was waiting for the ‘sasi’, ban on fishing for a certain span of time, to be lifted on November, last year. It had been three years that he was not allowed for fishing fish, sea cucumbers, clams, and lobsters at the sea located just infront of his village over the sasi practice. Indeed, three years was not a short time for Enos who was a small fishermen. He usually fished at the neighboring village when the sasi took place. However, his wait did pay off after seeing a nest of fish beneath the pier as the result of the ban. In 2009, he had earned a few millions rupiah when the first sasi was lifted. Hence, he predicted more earnings compare to that year. “There are so many fish, even if I only fish at the pier, I would still get more [money],” he said in excitement to Florence Soebroto of Energi Today – ET. Petrus Gimla, a young fisherman from Salpele village, neighbor of Salio village, shared the same enthusiastic attitude when he had received a few millions from lobsters and lola clams [Trochus snail] harvesting after they lifted the sasi. He was confidence to get more money after seing sea filled with fish in his village. Several fishermen of Salio said that sasi’s result this year could be higher than Rp 165 million from the previous sasi in 2009.

For the past few years, Raja Ampat Marine Conservation Area was still known for its fish theft, bombings, and poaching on endangered marine species, such as Green sea turtle. Big ships arrived from Makassar, Ambon, and Jayapura would take any natural resources that they could sell from the conservation area. More than once local fishermen had caught these poachers red handed in stealing off of their seas. It led to clashes between two sides. Local fishermen even confiscated their ships but the thieves kept on coming back to the area. In a short time, fish catch then had decreased drastically and local fishermen started to find it difficult to make ends meet.

It all begun in September 2008 when elders from various fishermen villagers in Raja Ampat finally decided to establish a “fish bank” by implementing the sasi  or fishing ban period. It was initiated in Waigeo island, Batanta, Salawati, and Misool. The ban meant to give around a thousand species of coral reefs and 1,500 species of fish in their area a chance to breed. The mechanism much the same with the conventional banks on saving money. If those fish and other species were left alone in a certain time period, their population would automatically increase. As a result, the fishermen reaped Rp165 million from the sales after one year of sasi implementation. Without the ban, it would only be enough to provide limited to daily needs and not making any profit. The hopes were then sets high by fishermen for the third sasi to be ended on November on making more profits.

Conflict Prone Area

By 2010, conservation area in Indonesia has reached 37.1 million hectares, comprise of 28 million hectares of terresterial conservation area and nine million hectares of marine conservation area. However, both areas are still conflict laden even up until today. Based on Forest Watch Indonesia data, there were 2,585 conflicts on tenure involving indigenous people in 27 provinces between 1990 t0 2010. The root of the problem is demand on open access and benefit from their natural resources. Professor Hadi Alikodra, expert on conservation of the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), said that one of the reasons for these conflicts was area designation mechanism conducted without proper field check on area boundary that excluded indigenous people settlement also traditional boundaries which already long existed. “The area boundary is mostly considered merely on conserving the nature thus excluding humans living in the conservation area,” he said. As a result, overlapping boundaries, land grabbing and dispute on access to manage conservation area have been increasing.

Conservation Area in Indonesia  (by year 2010)

From various sources

The eviction of local people out of the Leuser National Park, South Bukit Barisan, Kutai, house and rice hull burnings, eviction at the Perkasa Protected Forest in Sumbawa, fishermen shooting in Komodo National Parks, among other examples of land conflicts related to conservation area management. Secretary General of Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), Abdon Nababan, said that indigenous people living on conservation areas were never been approached to discuss on the status of their forest areas becoming protected areas which led to increasing conflicts. Furthermore, he said that the Indonesian government has yet to acknowledge indigenous people’s rights to benefit on the natural resources at the conservation area.

Herry Purnomo, forestry expert of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), pointed out indigenous people’s ability on sustainable forest management as long as they remained firm against short term agreements over their forest areas. He said the best way to include community in conservation area was through ecotourism and non timber forest products, such as natural medicines, resin, rattan or crops. He cited a sucessful joint management model in Kerinci Seblat National Park, where the community was granted 100 hectares of  the areas to be managed by their own to fulfill their daily needs.

Although conflict prone, during New Order era in 1966 to 1988, there were relatively little disruptions on conservation areas due to repressive security. The government issued the 1990 Law on Biodiversity Conservation and its Ecosystem, known also as Biodiversity Law. The law stipulated that no activities allowed at the conservation area. However, communities were allowed to use the utilization zone at the border areas for farming which mostly could be found at national parks in Java island. After 30 years, the condition inside of the conservation areas were still intact rather than outside protected areas which were overexploited.

Based on the Ministry of Forestry data, there are 6,200 villages with 48.8 million people living near or inside forest areas. More than 25 percent of them is classified as poor. Meanwhile, there are 35 million people depending their lives on marine and coastal areas. It is not so surprising for conflicts to occur as these people were left out from the conservation area stipulation process.

Despite underlined the 1990 Law on Biodiversity as the legal ground to manage conservation area, the government also issued the Emergency Law in 2004 allowing 13 mining companies to operate in the protected forests. The community who were kicked out of their lands immediately blasted on the new law. They dubbed it as unfair as it was instead opened doors for destructive companies to destroy forests and not to protect it. Based on Greenomics data, at least 920,000 hectares of conservation areas turned to mining areas is equivalent with Rp 70 trillion of state loss per year. “The loss is ten times compare to state’s revenue from those 13 mining companies,” said Greenomics Director, Elfian Effendi. The apathetic government gesture had sparked resistance from the communities, much alike the case on whaling of Lamalera village, East Nusa Tenggara.

Lamalera Lesson

One morning in May, while gazed at the beautiful Sawu Sea, Bona Beding, a young man wearing sarong and t-shirt talked about his rejection towards government’s plan to designate Lamalera as Sawu Sea Marine Conservation Area or SSMCA. “If it becomes a conservation area, we will be banned to whaling. We refuse [the plan],” Bona said. Lamalera is well-known for its traditional whaling handed down by their ancestors. Currently, there are only five spots for traditional whaling in the world.

The villagers have been gently persuaded to stop whalling by the government supported by several conservation NGOs. However, Bona said that people of Lamalera were never invited to talk on detailed plans on their livelihood if they were no longer allowed to whalling. Fishermen said that they were given training on making and using fishnets. In addition, their children were also trained to use camera for tourism activities. However, it was still not enough to meet their daily needs. “Several whales we caught would be enough [to feed] for 15 families in one year,” said Keraf, a Lamalera fisherman.

As NGOs and government did not able to provide alternative livelihood for them, people of Lamalera then rejected Marine Protected Area (MPA) by closed down its office which ran by several international NGOs. The rejection might have been avoided if the people were given access or sufficient alternative, such as Conservation International – CI Indonesia has done in Raja Ampat islands, Papua.

Raja Ampat Lesson

“The aim to establish marine conservation is to ensure that people of Raja Ampat could always get access for fishing,” said Director of CI Indonesia, Ketut Sarjana Putra, who supported sasi tradition in Papua. He said fishermen of Raja Ampat depended their lives on seas and its resources. “The conservation program need to support their lives also,” he said.

Furthermore, he said that all institutions working in conservation areas need to ensure people’s access for its natural resources. “These people need to be guaranteed that they still have access to get fish and shrimps from the area so that both aims on welfare and protected environment can be achieved,” he said. Abdon also said that indigenous people already have traditional knowledge passed on for many years for protecting environment in the conservation areas, including core zone at the national parks. Indigenous people living in harmony with nature and use them in accordance with their traditional knowledge and values.

Ketut Sarjana added that indigenous people could absorb conservation trainings very well. The story went back in 1975 when fishermen of Wayag Island, one of the island of Raja Ampat, could no longer harvest lobsters due to international ships fishing activities which were too exploitative. To restore it, CI Indonesia then introduced “close recovery system” by completely banned lobsters harvesting and protected its spawning for two years. “The system turned out fit in with their sasi tradition. They harvested lobsters again in 2008,” said Ketut.  In short, he said, people can manage natural resources by using conservation knowledge on their own.

Change Menu To Save Turtles

The CI Indonesia managed to change eating habit of the Ayau tribe of the Wayag island, Raja Ampat, in 2005. Papua is known as the heaven for world’s turtles with five out of six of turtles species inhabit its seas. All of the turtles, such as Green sea trutle, are already protected by law. The Ayau tribe usually feasted Green sea turtles meat on major occasions. Then, CI offered pork meat which also favorite dish for Papuans instead of turtles meat. To support the diet changes, ten elders sent to Bali to learn on raising pigs, processing its waste into biogas and learning coconut farming to feed the pigs. The Ayau tribe developed pig farms within three years and started to replace turtles meat as their main menu. “Since Christmas three years ago, they already stopped eating turtles meat,” said Ketut.

Right Recognition

The strong will of indigenous people to gain access for their natural resources, such as forests, sea, rivers, and minerals in conservation areas span from Aceh to Papua. In addition, the law guarantees their rights for the access considering they have lived in the areas for hundred years even before declared as conservation areas or mining areas.

It clashed with government’s firm stance that people need to be cleared out of the core zone of the conservation areas and not allowed to take anything from the zone. Darori, Director of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation, said that anyone who were on the conservation areas, such as national parks considered as breaking the law. “They did reside in the conservation areas for generations but there are already regulations. If they did not obey it, it’s crime,” he said.  As a result, the government has not yet acknowledged indigenous people’s rights in conservation areas officially.

However, Abdon said that there was only one condition for forest management to work, including on conservation areas, recognized their indigenous territories and rights. On the other hand, indigenous people also needed to acknowledge state’s present to protect the forests. “Mutual respect is a precondition for a bigger management,” said Abdon. He added that core problem of the management was that people’s recognition towards their territories were based on passed on histories by their ancestors, meanwhile, the government was presented by the State Law. “So, they’ll never meet eye to eye,” he said.

To deal with the gap, co-management and open access on natural resources slowly being done in several conservation areas. Several indigenous people signed agreements with head of national parks, camat, and bupati. Will those agreements be strong enough as legal basis for indigenous people to manage conservation areas?

 Forms of Co-Management in Conservation Areas

From various sources

Agreement or Law?

A research by US international institution, USAID, published in 1999 on conservation area management in Indonesia revealed that agreement made by villagers which in the process had included their involvement did not need a higher authorization anymore.

The report cited an agreement between people of Kerinci Seblat National Park and second level government, which is Bupati. With the bupati’s recognizition, people and villagers then could fully implement the agreement. In case of Lempe village, Lore Lindu National Park, there was only agreement between the people and national parks. No other parties were included because only those two who has the needs.

Head of Forest Management, Forest Faculty of IPB, Hariadi Kartodihardjo had different opinion with Darori. Hariadi said the core zone must not be completely restricted for people’s activities. “It’s the agreed management that is important,” he said. Concerning the agreements, he said that related ministeries need to open dialogue with indigenous people and started to map boundaries of the conservation areas management. The results then delivered to the Minister of Forestry to get recognizition. In addition, regional regulation could set access and indigenous people’s participation in these conservation areas.

Furthermore, he said that participative mapping conducted by Participative Mapping Network, an NGO focusing on helping indigenous people to map out their natural resources, should also be included to strenghten their claims in the conservation areas. Recently, AMAN had submitted several of its member mapping results to the REDD+ Task Force to set up One Map Indonesia for forestry sector.

The Minister of Forestry, Zulkifli Hasan, gave signal that his office will give access on managing natural resources to indigenous people in the conservation areas through 3-T principles. “Touch land, touch water, and touch culture,” said Zulkifli. Indigenous people have long touch and take care of their land, water, and earth. Their big barns and houses were burned down due to conflicts, but, there is hope as new barns being built in conservation areas. (IGG Maha Adi, Bellina Rosellini)