Deforestation in the upstream area of Batang Merao is believed to be the cause of the floods that inundated the Kerinci highlands for more than a month.
Dozens of firefighters from the Sungai Banyak City Fire Department helped clean up the grounds of SMA Negeri 5 Sungai Banyak in Jambi Province, located in Sangat Serumpun Village, Hamparan Rawang, on February 8, 2024. They sprayed away the mud that covered the entire school yard, including the basketball and volleyball courts, which had been covered in ankle-high mud due to flooding from December 31, 2023, to February 4, 2024.
The school remained closed because the flood, which reached adult height, had damaged all the school equipment. “Besides, students and their parents have just returned to their homes after being evacuated due to the floods,” said Hadi Sutrisno, head of SMA Negeri 5 Sungai Penuh.
The sofa in the teacher’s room had been cleaned but was still wet. According to Hadi, none of the equipment could be used—chairs, tables, cupboards, books, televisions, and computers were all damaged by the water.
“I can’t even calculate the school’s losses that I need to report to the government,” said Hadi, who oversaw the school’s cleaning that day.
Hadi’s house was spared from the flood because it was in the center of Sungai Penuh town, 3 kilometers from the school. The flood occurred while the school was on semester break.
Hadi did not witness the flood that hit the school on New Year’s Eve, but school guard Febrizal, who lives near the school, did. According to Febrizal, the school is prone to flooding during heavy rains, but usually, the water only floods the yard, at most reaching knee height.
The school is located near the Batang Merao River, separated only by the main road. Under normal conditions, the river is only 11 meters wide.
Febrizal said that on the afternoon of December 31, heavy rain poured down on the city. By night, the water entered his house, which was 200 meters from the school. Initially, the water only reached the yard but continued to rise until it entered his home.
As a result, he and his family quickly packed their belongings and fled to the Paling Serumpun Village office, located on higher ground. There, they found many other residents who had also fled.
“The next day, it was still raining, and when I checked on my house, it was still chest-deep in water. There was nothing left to save, but at least our lives were safe,” he said.
He tried to approach the school, which looked like a pool with chest-high water. The classrooms and teachers’ rooms were filled with water, with overturned tables and floating televisions and computers.
Since the flood continued to inundate his house, he decided to evacuate to a relative’s home that was not affected by the flood. While evacuating, his family received food assistance from a public kitchen set up by the Sungai Penuh City Government for flood victims during the emergency response period. However, he noted that they did not receive other assistance, such as basic necessities.
“There were residents who received assistance and others who didn’t, even though many people in my village were affected by the flooding,” he said.
Febrizal and his family were displaced for a month and four days—the duration of the flood in his village. When the water receded in early February 2024, he returned to his home.
He found that many of the floors and walls of his house had become brittle from being submerged in water for over a month. None of his household items survived.
“This is the biggest and longest flood I’ve ever seen in my life,” said the 50-year-old man.
The Batang Merao River, near both Febrizal’s school and home, returned to normal levels on February 4, 2024, although the water was still murky. Trees growing along the river, such as bamboo, jackfruit, and bananas, had died from prolonged flooding.
The rice fields, previously submerged, were still covered in mud and some remained flooded with brown water.
Several farmers were seen trying to salvage the remaining rice plants by harvesting them immediately. Some of the grain, dried in the sun, appeared black from being submerged in muddy water for so long. Even though the rice inside was yellowish, they still harvested and dried it.
The National Disaster Management Agency Operations Control Center (Pusdalop BNPB) noted that floods had inundated 10 sub-districts in Kerinci Regency and six sub-districts in Sungai Penuh City, affecting 40,700 people.
The Batang Merao River, the flood’s cause, originates from the west side of Mount Kerinci. It flows for 51 kilometers through Kerinci Regency and the edge of Sungai Penuh City, then empties into the western part of Lake Kerinci.
Adi Junaedi, Director of the Indonesian Conservation Community (KKI Warsi), confirmed that deforestation in the upstream area of Batang Merao was the primary cause of flooding in Sungai Penuh and Kerinci Regency.
The upstream area is part of Kerinci Seblat National Park (TNKS), where forest encroachment for farming has occurred for years.
“The forest has been converted into open fields with intensive farming using plastic mulch, so rainwater doesn’t seep into the ground but flows directly into the river,” he explained.
Adi said the KKI Warsi GIS (Geographic Information System) Team had analyzed forest cover loss and land use changes in the Kerinci landscape using Sentinel satellite imagery, Google Earth, Citra Spot 6, and SAS Planet.
“Our 50-year analysis from 1973 to 2023 showed a loss of about 67,000 hectares of forest cover in the Kerinci landscape, most of it in the TNKS area,” he said.
The most significant forest loss in the TNKS area has been on Mount Kerinci and its surroundings, such as Belibis Lake and the Gunung Tujuh area. This area has been extensively farmed by the community over the past 25 years.
Deforestation, Adi said, was exacerbated by the shallowing of Batang Merao due to sand mining activities in Siulak. This shallowing prevents the river from accommodating high water discharge during heavy rainfall.
The headwaters of Batang Merao on the slopes of Belibis Lake are in Kebun Baru Kayu Aro Barat village. After the flood on February 5, 2024, the river upstream appeared as it did before, with water flow reduced to a small tributary.
The river’s headwaters are on the western slopes of Belibis Lake, a small lake covering 2.45 hectares located on a hill at an altitude of 2,082 meters above sea level, facing Mount Kerinci’s peak.
The slopes of Mount Kerinci to the back of Belibis Lake, once connected by forest, have now turned into intensive vegetable fields growing potatoes, chilies, onions, and cabbage. Silver-colored plastic mulch lines the farmland.
Forest encroachment activities in the Mount Kerinci area continue. Observations on February 5, 2024, showed fields recently cleared by encroachers near the Mount Kerinci climbing route. Large trees had been deliberately killed by stripping their bark, and the land beneath them had been partially cleared and planted with vegetables and Arabica coffee.
Land conversion in the TNKS area on Mount Kerinci’s west and east sides appears to be approaching the montane and subalpine forests at an altitude of 2,000 meters above sea level.
A farmer, who wished to remain anonymous, said he bought 1 hectare of land that had been cleared last year (2023) from a squatter for IDR 25 million. The squatter had cleared the land, felled the trees, and left the new owner to clean and burn the fallen wood.
“I know it is a TNKS area, but there is no longer any land for farming below. The encroachers who sell say there is no problem working on the land in TNKS as long as it is planted with cinnamon bark trees,” he said.
On that land, he is now planting chilies. However, transportation to the fields is very difficult because there is only a steep path that is hard for motorbikes to traverse.
Basuki, the head of Batang Sangir Village, whose village area is in front of Mount Kerinci, is worried that ongoing illegal encroachment will cause floods to hit his village and the villages along the river more frequently.
“Previously, there was never a flood. But in the last few years, just fifteen minutes of heavy rain immediately causes water to flow down from the open land on Mount Kerinci and from Belibis Lake,” said Basuki.
The flood destroyed agricultural land and flooded roads. Moreover, if it rains overnight, residents’ houses in low-lying areas along the Batang Merao River to Lake Kerinci will be flooded. This means that flooding occurred at several points along the Batang Merao watershed, which crosses Kerinci Regency and Sungai Penuh City.
Basuki said that the upper reaches of Batang Merao in Kebun Baru Village had been overflowing since mid-December 2023 when the intensity of the rain increased.
“On January 31, the intensity of the rain was high and evenly distributed throughout the slopes of Mount Kerinci and its surroundings, which caused major flooding,” he said.
In his village, the flood caused three bridges connecting hamlets to break down due to the overflowing river. He estimates that next year the flooding will be worse.
“The disaster will get bigger because there are no more forests to absorb rainwater. I hope that TNKS, as the forest area manager, can take action against forest encroachers,” he said.
According to Basuki, encroachment for farming started in the 2000s and has become more massive in the last five years. “Residents also can’t do anything because they don’t have the authority to stop it,” he said.
TNKS forest police have difficulty stopping the activities of forest encroachers because the number of personnel is less than the number of encroachers. According to a TNKS forest police partner officer at the Gunung Kerinci Resort, forest encroachers are increasing in number and are difficult to stop. He said the encroachers come from Siulak and Semurup Villages, Kerinci Regency, which is about 20 kilometers from the encroached area.
“They secretly clear the Mount Kerinci forest by peeling the bark around the trees so that the trees die, then cutting them down and leaving the wood to rot. The fields are occupied for a while, then sold for Rp. 25 million to Rp. 40 million per hectare to local residents,” said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous.
He is a Forest Police Community Partner (MMP) officer from the local community who was hired to help guard the TNKS area.
“I once participated in arresting forest encroachers on Mount Kerinci with a team. After that, my family was marked, my mother was marked, and I was also marked and threatened,” he said.
The Kerinci Seblat National Park, established by the government with an area of 1.386 million hectares in 1996, covers four provinces: Jambi, West Sumatra, Bengkulu, and South Sumatra.
The TNKS area is a habitat for important animals, such as the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis), Sumatran antelope (Muntiacus montanus), Sumatran rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri), Asian tapir (Tapirus indicus), and more than 372 types of birds. Apart from that, it is also a place where giant padma (Rafflesia arnoldii) and Sumatran pine (Taxus sumatrana) grow.
In Jambi Province, TNKS is located in the Kerinci area (Kerinci Regency and Sungai Penuh City) covering an area of 215 thousand hectares.
Nurhamidi, the head of the TNKS Section for the Kerinci and Sungai Penuh Regions, said that the number of forest police guarding the area is only 18 people, which is very small. To guard areas in the northern region, such as Mount Kerinci and its surroundings, there are only five forest rangers. They also manage tourism activities, community empowerment, and patrols.
TNKS also recruited 15 forest ranger partners from the community to help in the field. “But that is very lacking, whereas during the patrol, we face a large number of encroachers and they are armed,” he said.
According to Nurhamidi, the ideal number of forest rangers in the Kerinci TNKS area is around 30 people. “We can deploy them all in one patrol in one area; I think that number is sufficient,” he said.
Nurhamidi said that TNKS management is currently collaborating with farmers who have been farming in the TNKS rehabilitation zone for an extended period, such as on the slopes of Belibis Lake to the south, in front of Girimulyo Village, and on the slopes of Mount Kerinci.
Floods inundated roads and houses in Kubang Village, Depati Tujuh District, Kerinci Regency, on January 2, 2024. There are six farmer groups with 25 members each bound to collaborate with TNKS as forest farmer groups. Each farmer group was allocated IDR 50 million for various activities, including creating a tree nursery from the forest to plant on their land. Additionally, there is assistance with cows and the establishment of homestays for ecotourism activities.
“They were asked to replant their land with tree seedlings taken from the forest between their horticultural crops. Later, gradually, they can vacate that location, and as an alternative, they can develop ecotourism there for a livelihood,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the southern part of the hill at Belibis Lake to the newly encroached slopes of Mount Kerinci in front will remain a jungle zone. “The jungle zone cannot be utilized for new farming. Enforcing the law based on legislation must still be carried out,” he emphasized.
However, Nurhamidi clarified that legal action will be taken against squatters who operate after the implementation of the Job Creation Law.
“For those who entered before the Job Creation Law was passed, they can be categorized as having occurred already. We can invite them to work together to restore the ecosystem. However, those who encroach after the Job Creation Law comes into force will be subject to legal sanctions,” he stressed.
Forest police who patrol to apprehend encroachers are also frequently misled. When they arrive at the location, the squatters are no longer there.
“They seem to be playing cat and mouse with us; when we arrive, they flee and hide. For some reason, the operations we conduct to catch squatters often leak,” said Nurhamidi.
KKI Director Warsi Adi Junaedi called for joint efforts to address the causes of flooding in Kerinci. “So far, people in Kerinci have felt that TNKS is useless. Now, this is the focal point of protecting the TNKS forest area. We must evaluate how much loss has been caused by flooding lasting more than a month due to forest loss,” he emphasized.