Community Logging in the Buffer Zone of Gunung Palung National Park in 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

The BCN project in the Gunung Palung buffer zone will likely be the first model of community-based forest management put forth by the Directorate General of Forest Utilization. It was highlighted as an approach to communitybased forest management at a workshop on the Consultative Group on Indonesia Forestry a policy roundtable of NGOs, international donor agencies and officials from the Ministry of Forestry. It is obvious that BCN has created a clear and direct link between community needs and high-level policy making.

The project has generated interest from NGOs and donor agencies who have pledged additional support contingent upon initial field implementation. Thus, the BCN grant has provided the necessary initial investment for a project beyond the BCN's original scope and time limitations. However in the past year, it has become apparent that this project must be extended beyond the initial threeyear funding period in order to ensure legal, economic and biological sustainability.

Harvard (LTFE) has been developing links with Bina Swadaya, an Indonesian NGO, to assist in the community organization and enterprise development components of the project. Bina Swadaya would fill a special role in bringing together the necessary stakeholders at the district and village level. This is exciting as it helps develop technical capacity within Indonesia, and perhaps lays the groundwork for project continuity once BCN is no longer present. We look forward to further solidifying this cooperative effort.

Community members previously affiliated with the LTFE have helped lay the groundwork for BCN monitoring. This includes conducting regeneration studies and background biological monitoring that will complement monitoring in the proposed project site. They have been the key resource for designing the education and training programs necessary for successful project implementation.

Challenges

It seems that the necessary political hurdles have been crossed and now the project will finally enjoy the challenges of field implementation. The main concerns include responding to outside threats to the park and surrounding area, and the development of internal consistency among cooperating parties.

Illegal logging continues to threaten the park, especially in the swampy areas accessible by river. The recent, nearby construction of small sawmills that process illegally harvested wood poses a serious threat to the old growth within the park. Loggers from outside the local communities have begun to enter the park as well. In addition to felling trees, these groups have been hunting park wildlife. Recently, a visitor to the park encountered a logging group that had killed and eaten rare and endangered hornbills. Eliminating all illegal activity from the western park area will be a daunting task.

This project will bring together a wide range of stakeholders who have claims, real or imagined, to the park and buffer zone. Working relationships among these parties are crucial for park security. Such relationships are possible, but developing the appropriate forum will require the cooperation and commitment of parties who have not previously worked together. The coming year should be an exciting time.

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