Community Logging in the Rain Forest of West Kalimantan, Indonesia

by Harvard University Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology

Partners:

Harvard University Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology (LTFE) Government of Indonesia, Ministry of Forestry (GoI-MoF) Local Community Groups

Success Stories

Thanks to our long history of good working relations with hand loggers in the site, their own keen desire for the project to be implemented, and the work coordinating park and community forest signposting activities, logging came to a complete halt along the Meliya river system by late 1995. Ironically, at a July meeting in Jakarta, the government Parks expert for Gunung Palung then presented his opinion that project location should be changed because illegal logging is not a problem there! Apparently, it seemed inconceivable that local people would organize themselves to begin managing and protecting forest resources because the conservation based enterprise linkage makes sense to them.

To illustrate the serendipity of enterprise-based conservation: the Indonesian passenger across from me on an August flight from Jakarta to Pontianak strikes up a conversation with me by asking me where I am from. For amusement, I reply that I am from Sukadana, the small town and district on the west of Gunung Palung National Park, where the project is to be based. Catching my drift, he jokes that he is from America, and it turns out that he spends a lot of time in the US where his son is going to college. We talk some more and it turns out that he is from Sukadana and is now a wealthy businessman! Further, because of his strong commitment to his poor roots and his love for the enchanting small village where he grew up, he just obtained a license to build a paper pulp mill to provide employment. I gave him a quick discourse on conservation biology, and the likely horrific effects of this pulp mill for the National Park, and of course described the option that our proposed sustainable forestry project might provide. This led to my presenting the project to he and his staff that night in Pontianak in a long seminar and discussion which resulted in his sincere commitment to back the project.

Challenges

Coordinating national, provincial and district government agencies in the face of staff turnover and a complex project in both its rationale and implementation remains our greatest challenge. We are frequently caught in the vice of tensions between these hierarchical levels of government, each of which can feel left out. While central authorities admonished us to avoid giving presentations to or updating provincial authorities, this then led to recriminations by local authorities. We need to develop better means of disseminating information among these agencies on a faster time frame. This is part of a broader problem of identifying a good set of relationships.

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