Reducing Damage to Forests Caused by Sanctioned
Logging
Indonesia, like many
countries, uses its forests to provide timber for local industry and export. Research has
shown that timber can be harvested in ways that considerably reduce damage to other forest
resources as well as future yields. Experiments on reduced-impact logging (RIL) have been
a core research project at Bulungan.
‘The goal is to provide an idea of harvesting techniques in natural forests
that reduce environmental impacts, including damage to soil, trees and animals, to help
sustain ecological functions’, explains Kuswata Kartawinata, the Director of Bulungan
Research Forest.
The techniques and results of reduced-impact logging vary according to local
conditions. The experiments at Bulungan are being conducted to determine appropriate
approaches for natural forests in Indonesia. Specifically, the experiments are
investigating the effects on local vegetation and other forest conditions of harvesting
using RIL techniques compared with the impacts of conventional logging methods.
CIFOR recently expanded the RIL studies, adding four more permanent experimental
plots in 2000, for a total of 28. Plinio Sist, a forest ecologist at CIRAD-Forêt in
France, has been supervising the experiments, which are being conducted in cooperation
with a state-operated timber enterprise, PTINHUTANI II, at a site near the district
capital of Malinau.
Extensive ecological data—on tree varieties, species diversity and
composition, and soil conditions—was collected as a foundation for studies of how
forest dynamics may be affected by logging done at different intensities and with various
treatments. Preliminary results demonstrated that RIL significantly reduced damage to the
forest stand; in comparison with conventional harvesting techniques, RIL methods damaged
38 percent fewer remaining trees. The main benefit of RIL was significantly reduced
impacts from skidding (hauling logs to centralised locations). Based on the findings,
guidelines for RIL field operations in Bulungan have been developed.
Two other components of the RIL research got underway in 2000, one to monitor tree
growth and survival in forest blocks that were first logged two years ago, and the other
to determine logging impacts on the young trees that will provide future harvests.
Related cost-benefit analysis of RIL over conventional logging methods continued at
the Malinau site, done by Hariyatno Dwiprabowo, Stephane Grulois, Sist and Kartawinata.
Previously, the researchers reported encouraging results from the studies so far, which
showed that the RIL approach increased the productivity of felling and skidding by 25
percent or more compared with conventional harvesting.
In one of the most significant developments in the project, the results of the
initial RIL experiments led INHUTANI II foresters who participated in the studies to
change their attitudes about the effectiveness of the approach. Of their own accord, they
decided to adopt RIL methods in harvesting three additional blocks. ‘The approach is
no longer regarded as an experimental tool for forest scientists’, says Kartawinata,
‘but as a method for increasing logging efficiency’.
Training in RIL:
Putting It All Into Practice
Training is crucial for
reduced-impact logging to be implemented effectively. CIFOR co-sponsored a number of
related training programmes in recent months. In two courses funded by the Tropical Forest
Foundation, ITTO and CIFOR, 27 people from timber companies, research centers and training
institutions learned the use of computer-assisted contour mapping to plan field
operations. The software programme, known as ROADENG, can be combined with data from
various sources to produce maps that resemble AutoCAD presentations. The second course
covered road design and how it can be done to minimise environmental damage and also
reduce field costs for logging companies.
A dozen staff members of the Berau Forest Management Project (an INHUTANI I and
European Union project in East Kalimantan) visited the experimental site at the Malinau
concession to learn more about RIL and do comparative studies of the technique. The
Ministry of Forestry’s Center for Forestry Training, the Indonesia Australia
Specialised Training Project and PT. INHUTANI II also held RIL field training at the
Malinau site for 33 participants from state timber enterprises and forest concessions,
several agencies within the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and universities in
Kalimantan.
‘Mapping’
and Community Negotiations
Research in the
villages of Bulungan Forest is providing a foundation for CIFOR’s broader work to
develop effective methods for community forest management. Once fully developed, these
techniques will provide a framework for different groups to negotiate their varied
interests in a forest and jointly devise management strategies for mutual benefits.
These studies are based heavily on ‘participatory action research’, a
social science approach that responds to real problems of the target beneficiaries and
engages them in the research process. ‘Community mapping’ is one way of bringing
local issues to the front. As such, it is being used as an entry point for much of the
research being done at Bulungan and other sites by CIFOR’s Adaptive Collaborative
Management of Forests Programme.
At Bulungan, the researchers are using community mapping to explore ways of helping
communities resolve land disputes and other conflicts. ‘Mapping has drawn immense
interest from all stakeholders and proved to be an excellent base for looking at issues
related to conflict and negotiation’, says Lini Wollenberg, a community forestry
specialist who is coordinating the research at Bulungan on multi-stakeholder relations.
But mapping is more than just a tool for conflict resolution, she explains. It also
provides an underpinning—a baseline of spatial information about a
community—useful for broader deliberations among stakeholders.
Like official maps, community- generated maps illustrate the locations of local
settlements, resources, infrastructure and land use. But community maps often point to
boundary disputes with the government and outside interests, such as timber concessions
and plantation companies, over access rights and land claims. Lacking secure land tenure
and a voice in decision making, local people have had little recourse to challenge the
situation.
The studies at Bulungan show there are conflicts at various levels. Villages have
grievances with outside groups over water quality, compensation for land, levels of
government assistance, and the loss of hunting grounds and forest products. Among
villages, conflicts tend to be mainly political, while internal village conflicts stem
from unfair advantages by local elites and lack of transparent decision making.
Differences in the traditions and patterns of settlement among the area’s ethnic
groups also pose tensions, and have to be taken into account in selecting those who will
participate in local planning.
Field Work
Opportunities for Young Scientists and Other Partners
Bulungan Research
Forest provides many opportunities for field research by forestry students and other
partners. The results of this work support CIFOR’s larger research programme. A
number of faculty members from Mulawarman University in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, have
conducted research at Bulungan, for example, including a team headed by Dady Ruhiyat that
did soil studies in 2000 at the site of CIFOR’s reduced-impact logging experiments
near Malinau.
The MacArthur Foundation provides grants to support research at Bulungan by
Indonesian students. CIFOR has a formal agreement with the Graduate Program of Forestry at
Mulawarman, to provide research opportunities for students studying aspects of sustainable
forest management and forest-based livelihoods.
Several Mulawarman University graduate students have done research for their M.Sc.
theses at Bulungan. Atika Nostalgia, for example, studied the interrelationships of the
forest, honey bee feeding and nesting, and traditional uses of natural honey. Nursuyata
Haslindah Hamzah analysed socioeconomic aspects of community-based forest management and
its development prospects in Malinau. Harlinda Kuspradini did an analysis of the calorific
value of fuelwood species used by rural communities in the vicinity of the PT. INHUTANI II
operations near Malinau.
Another recipient, Agni Klintuni Boedhihartono, has studied life, death, health and
disease among the indigenous people of Bulungan as part of Ph.D. requirements at the
University of Paris 7. Based on his previous work at Bulungan, Iwan Kurniawan received
assistance from MacArthur to support research for his master’s thesis.
Also near the Malinau timber concession, Arman, an intern from Mulawarman, has
worked in the field with Jérôme Chabbert, a graduate student at University of Paris XII,
collecting and analysing data on logging damage. Sigit Budiarta, an intern in the RIL
project for the past two years, recently prepared a scientific report on post-logging
residual stands in the PT. INHUTANI II concession to complete requirements for a degree in
forestry from Bogor Agricultural University.
Among the general
lessons so far from the mapping work at Bulungan, which will be used to shape models for
joint management of community forests under a variety of conditions, are these:
• Local
conflict is multi-layered, requiring multi-dimensional negotiations.
• Local
conflict changes in response to various factors, requiring a phased and flexible
negotiation process.
• Alliances
between village leaders and other elites hamper transparent decision making and
management.
• The
negotiating process is seldom genuinely participatory and democratic, which tends to make
any agreements inherently partial and temporary.
Says Wollenberg: ‘Reaching a community agreement is not necessarily a good
thing if it is not built on transparent and legitimate social foundations’.
The researchers found that in cases where successful agreements were reached,
disputes were settled more quickly where boundaries were seen not as ‘fences’
but as delineated ‘bundles of resources’ governed by certain entitlements and
sanctions. And because of mutual dependency on each other’s territories, people were
more likely to achieve a widely acceptable outcome if agreements were written to include
provisions of local forest access for livelihood needs.
New Species in Bulungan
During field work at
Bulungan Forest, scientists in CIFOR’s Multidisciplinary Landscape Assessment project
have observed what appear to be several species new to science. Ike Rachmawati of the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences found two previously undescribed fish species, while
Djoko Iskandar of the Bandung Institute of Technology recorded several unknown reptiles
and amphibians. In related botanical surveys, the group, headed by Doug Sheil, also
discovered a new fruiting tree (genus Mammea, family Clusiaceae). Verifying the
discoveries will take some time.
Biodiversity
Conservation and Local Interests
The biological and
other natural resources of a forest and the surrounding area are usually critical to the
people living there. But that importance is generally not well represented in planning for
biodiversity conservation and other forest use because common biological survey methods
fail to adequately ‘capture’ local and environmental values of a forest in a way
that is useful for decision makers.
To improve the situation, CIFOR biologist Doug Sheil and a multidisciplinary team
of scientists have been working in Bulungan Forest to develop a more broad-based approach,
which they call Multidisciplinary Landscape Assessment. Sheil says: ‘Doing the
surveys at a landscape level is important because effective land use planning requires
looking at a forest and its resources as part of a broader agro-ecosystem that provides a
variety of community needs’.
The last phase of fieldwork was completed in December 2000. The team is now
reviewing the data and compiling a comprehensive manual on the work so far, in preparation
for scientific review. Several of the methods employed are novel, and an account of the
tree plot method has already been accepted for publication in Tropical Forest Science.
The study area encompasses seven communities in the Malinau watersheds of two
rivers. From 200 experimental plots, the team compiled extensive records on local
vegetation, soil characteristics, animal species and other biophysical features, along
with sociocultural information such as the history of settlement, people’s attitudes
toward the forest and its resources, and traditional uses of those resources.
The team members include ethnobotanists, anthropologists, biologists, soil experts
and economists, to insure that a broad range of forest values was represented in the
surveys. Local villagers worked closely with the researchers acquiring the data. As part
of the surveys, local inhabitants were asked to rank the various features of the forest
and surrounding land according to how highly those elements were valued by the community.
More than 2,000 plant species were recorded, about 10 percent of which have not yet
been fully identified. Information about the uses of these plant resources is still being
processed, but more than half of the species recorded so far have some practical use or
value to local residents; 20 percent are consumed as food, for example, and 13 percent are
used for medicinal purposes.
Wild pigs (Sus barbatus), whose natural history is little known, were generally
cited as the region’s most important species because of their value as a source of
protein.
The goal is to develop
the novel survey approach into a method that will eventually be applicable to different
locations. For now, the project is revealing site-specific information that could help
guide policies on local forest management and land use.
The studies found, for example, that rattan, a locally important resource, has
grown scarce. A major factor in its decline is government logging regulations that require
timber companies to slash all undergrowth and climbers, which is intended to promote
regeneration within the concessions. The practice has clearly hurt local communities while
its silvicultural benefits are debatable, say the researchers, who suggest that the policy
should be reconsidered.
This finding, Sheil explains, is the
kind of information that policy makers and planners need to make more informed and
balanced decisions about forest conservation and land use. ‘If we can demonstrate
that local biodiversity matters to communities, and why’, he says, ‘it is harder
for decision makers to ignore that in policy making and land use planning’.
Cultural Crossroads: Will New Options Erase Traditional Way of Life?
From a wide body of
research, a broad picture of rapid social and economic change in Punan and Dayak
communities along the Malinau River is emerging. The information offers a strong
foundation for long-term research at the site, and is useful in developing policies for
managing the forest.
Bulungan Forest is an especially rich environment for studies of forest livelihoods
and dependency on local forest resources. Patrice Levang, a scientist at CIFOR seconded
from the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) in France, is coordinating a
number of studies in this area. Many of them illustrate the tensions and complexity of
issues that make forest management today a tough task.
From a recent survey and similar research in 1993, Lars Kaskija found that
settlement history and territoriality is an important issue today. Punan and other
indigenous groups, including some who migrated to the area not long ago, want financial
compensation from outside interests, such as logging and mining companies, for land they
claim was theirs. Says Levang, ‘The people seem less interested in the defense of
their environment and livelihood than in getting appropriate compensation from wealthy
outsiders’.
Similarly, researcher Nicolas Césard found that many rural inhabitants who have
long been highly dependent on the forest for subsistence increasingly view forest products
mainly as a source of income to buy goods such as chainsaws, televisions, VCDs and
motorboats.
As commercial enterprises in the region expand, companies now operating in the area
would seem a likely source of much needed jobs for local communities. Yet research by
Soaduon ‘Edo’ Sitorus shows that the companies tend to hire few villagers,
saying they lack adequate education and are not reliable enough.
Villagers cite the influx of outside workers as a major cause of the growing
scarcity of locally important resources such as ironwood, birds, fish and game. Josni
Mannes is investigating the scarcity of fish that were once plentiful in the area. Tidung
fishers from Malinau and workers from local timber and mining concessions are seen as the
culprits. Both groups are known to use poison and electric fishing equipment to catch fish
that they sell to local markets in Malinau. Water quality has deteriorated steadily, and
the water in many villages is no longer drinkable. Recourse is difficult, however, because
it is hard to prove blame and the local people have no legal basis to act on.
Many local communities, especially in the most remote areas, are highly dependent
on traders, who sell locally collected forest products and bring manufactured goods. Iwan
Kurniawan traced the chain of trade in forest products—especially gaharu, or
eaglewood—from the upper Malinau River to several main trading centres in Kalimantan.
He found that traders often provoke their suppliers into indebtedness. This makes the
collectors highly dependent on their relationship with the traders, thereby allowing the
traders to exert control over the products.
What new changes and opportunities will arise at Bulungan under Indonesia’s
new programme of regional autonomy? Researcher and Ph.D. student Krystof Obidzinsky
suggests that one trend may be an increase in illegal logging. It has been on the rise in
East Kalimantan since 1998, and his studies indicate that more and more local people are
involved. Far from being spontaneous, he found, the activity is often very well organised
and conducted with the full knowledge of some local authorities, who get their share of
the business.
|
