musang s.x.

guarding the source of life…

2009.06.09 11:10

Living close to nature is probably what some of us in the cities dream of. But rarely do we realize the great responsibility that comes with such a privilege, one that Wehea tribe head Lidjie Taq has taken up so well.

“For us, the forest is a source of life. It is like a barn where we can obtain anything: from meat, plants, seeds, and especially for us, naturally-recycled water. Protecting it means we are protecting our own lives,” explained the man who leads some 2,500 people living in Nehes Liah Bing, a village in East Kalimantan’s East Kutai area.

Lidjie’s effort in protecting the forest goes from literally guarding it to fighting for the legal conservation status of the Wehea forest, which is located some 40 kilometers from his community and five other neighbouring villages.

And it is an effort that has been recognized by the recent Kalpataru award for conservation of nature. An example set for others, a grassroot activism that hopefully will snowball into a greater movement.

“We were only concerned by the destruction of nature,” Lidjie said.

“Around us, plantations are opened and are contaminating the water with the fertilizers they use. Having a protected forest that also functions as a catchment area will hopefully help re-purify the water.”

Keldung Laas Wehea Long Skung Metgueen.

The phrase in Wehean Dayak refers to the protection and limited use of the forest, a line that represents local consensus in guarding their source of life.

“We are close to the forest and realized that it was dying,” he said, pointing out the turning point for locals in intensifying their conservation efforts through the forest guardian program.

In early November 2004, locals from three surrounding districts started discussing what they wanted to do with the forest. A day after that, they already reached an agreement to manage and protect the 38,000 hectare area as a community forest.

Despite the Kalapataru recognition, the Wehea forest have yet to be legally recognized by the government as a conservation area.

But in spite of all that, there are currently some 30 people who have been appointed as petkuq mehuey, or guardians of the forest, taking turns supervising the protected areas from illegal hunters and loggers.

While today’s green activists are busy formulating what a conservation area is and how it should be managed, the Weheans have done it customarily for centuries.

The key word for them is keldung, a concept that translates into the modern day’s understanding of a conservation area, explains Taufik Hidayat, who is coordinator for the East Kutai chapter of environmental organization The Nature Conservancy.

The green group has been fighting along with locals to have the customary practice of forest conservation recognized by the government.

Keldung is actually a simple, straight-to-the-point concept.

“If, for example, two brothers would like to open their own fields, they should not open it side-by-side. There should be a keldung in between, some 50 meters wide,” Lidjie explained.

This buffer zone serves not only as a shaded place to rest after a hot day under the sun working in the fields, but also as what Lidjie referred to earlier: a source of life. From that area, biodiversity thrives, locals obtain timber to build communal huts and animals can still live in the wilderness.

“Actually, the forest is divided into areas that could not be touched at all and ones that still could be of limited use. But, until today, we are tying as much as we can not to touch even the latter,” he said.

From the latter area that Lidjie mentioned, locals could still obtain timber only for constructing communal buildings and hunt boars in a limited amount.

“It’s the only animal that is still allowed to be hunted as they could quickly grow in population. But, still, if we are reckless in hunting boars, it will soon be extinct, too,” Lidjie added.

“There are still violators, though, both locals and especially outsiders, like from Lombok and Java, who are not aware of our custom are still hunting and logging in the forest.”

The illegal hunters and loggers, who are known in the local term as pencari garu, are then detained by the community, but are released after they are reprimanded and have their hunting and logging tools seized.

While for the Weheans such a conservatory custom is already inherent, but for outsiders –-including the government-– it is still a concept that is difficult to grasp, let alone recognized to be of parallel with the positive law.

For outsiders, Dayak’s slash-and-burn agriculture form might seem destructive at first sight. But, unwritten rules like keldung seem to proof otherwise.

Describing similar practice of Amazonian tribes, writer Charles C. Mann very well explained the reasons behind it.

“With little soil wealth to extract, Amazonian farmers face inherent ecological limitations. Farmers clear small fields with axes and machetes, burn off the chaff and refuse and plant their seeds. The ash gives the soil a quick shot of nutrients, giving the crop a chance,” he wrote in his book “1491″.

Such concept “minimizes the time in which the ground is unprotected,” and in a way, when farmers move to open another area, give time for the soil in their previous field time to regain vitality.

According to Mann, groups that have survived with such approaches will build the knowledge into their ideology and behaviour with taboos and other kinds of things. Pretty much like what the Weheans do.

However, maintaining customary agricultural practices is not as easy as it seems, especially in today’s era of cash-crops and intensive agriculture.

“Our area is shrinking, pushed back by commercial plantations and settlement areas. Thus, we have to adapt our form of agriculture,” Lidjie said, adding that nowadays Weheans no longer open new forest areas and have to make do with the existing fields.

“If in the future the soil is no longer fertile and no longer allows our old way of farming, then like it or not, we have to start using fertilizers,” he said.

Change is one of Lidjie’s concern, change for the worst that is.

“Time will change things. Each and every day there are outside forces that require us to change our ways of living. Ready or not, like it or not, we will gradually adapt,” he said.

“We will never know about the future generation. But, as long as we are here, we will try to protect the forest. If it is destroyed, then the four villages in the downstream will be flooded. Our culture will also vanish. If that happens, then Wehea will be history.”

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