07 Jul
2006 - “When I was a little boy, I could walk
into the bush for two kilometres and easily come
back a half an hour later with something that
I had hunted,” Yul explains nostalgically. “But
now I have to walk for hours and hours, sometimes
even days, to catch something.”
The longer hunting days are
worrying and are the reason why Yul Bole Gebze,
an elder from the village of Wambi in the Indonesian
province of Papua, made a two-day journey to Madang
on the other side of the international border
in Papua New Guinea.
Sitting on the grounds of the
Alexishafen Catholic Mission on the palm-lined
shore of the Madang lagoon — a biodiversity hotspot
renowned for its beautiful tropical reefs that
are more abundant with life than the Great Barrier
Reef — a group of community representatives, scientists,
government officials and conservation experts
from across Asia, Australia and the US came together
to help craft a conservation plan for Yul’s home
in an area known as the TransFly.
Protecting the jewels
The TransFly is the environmental
jewel of the Asia-Pacific region. Straddling the
border of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, this
unique coastal landscape of grasslands, savannas,
wetlands and forest habitats — spanning some 10
million hectares — is home to over half of New
Guinea’s 800 bird species, including 80 that are
endemic to the island, as well as numerous species
of birds of paradise. Endemic marsupial cats,
flying possums and a rich diversity of reptiles
make this region a true nature’s paradise.
However, the future of the TransFly
hangs in the balance. The area’s riches are under
increasing threat from hunting and invasive species.
Transmigration and large-scale development of
the region is perhaps the largest threat facing
Yul’s community, which depends on the land for
subsistence.
“The majority of the people
on the Papua side have moved here from other islands
in Indonesia,” explains Yul. “They are yet to
share the same view of the environment as we native
Papuans.”
“When I was a little boy, I
could walk into the bush for two kilometres and
easily come back a half an hour later with something
that I had hunted,” Yul explains nostalgically.
“But now I have to walk for hours and hours, sometimes
even days, to catch something.” The longer hunting
days are worrying and are the reason why Yul Bole
Gebze, an elder from the village of Wambi in the
Indonesian province of Papua, made a two-day journey
to Madang on the other side of the international
border in Papua New Guinea.Sitting on the grounds
of the Alexishafen Catholic Mission on the palm-lined
shore of the Madang lagoon — a biodiversity hotspot
renowned for its beautiful tropical reefs that
are more abundant with life than the Great Barrier
Reef — a group of community representatives, scientists,
government officials and conservation experts
from across Asia, Australia and the US came together
to help craft a conservation plan for Yul’s home
in an area known as the TransFly.The TransFly
is the environmental jewel of the Asia-Pacific
region. Straddling the border of Papua New Guinea
and Indonesia, this unique coastal landscape of
grasslands, savannas, wetlands and forest habitats
— spanning some 10 million hectares — is home
to over half of New Guinea’s 800 bird species,
including 80 that are endemic to the island, as
well as numerous species of birds of paradise.
Endemic marsupial cats, flying possums and a rich
diversity of reptiles make this region a true
nature’s paradise.However, the future of the TransFly
hangs in the balance. The area’s riches are under
increasing threat from hunting and invasive species.
Transmigration and large-scale development of
the region is perhaps the largest threat facing
Yul’s community, which depends on the land for
subsistence. “The majority of the people on the
Papua side have moved here from other islands
in Indonesia,” explains Yul. “They are yet to
share the same view of the environment as we native
Papuans.”
“We hunt deer, wallaby and cassowary,
but only hunt what we need to eat,” he adds. “Sometimes
we hunt to celebrate something or for ceremonial
reasons. However, the people that come onto our
lands hunt to make money and take more than they
need.”
Illegal hunting is not the only
problem Yul’s community is experiencing. Illegal
fishing nets are cast into his community’s waters
to catch as many fish as possible. The replenishment
of fish stocks is then hampered by fish that have
been introduced into the area by settlers, such
as the cannibal fish, which eats the eggs and
larvae of other indigenous fish.
Native gambir trees are also
being exploited on a large scale for their bark,
which is being exported by the tons to lucrative
markets in Java, China and Japan, where it’s used
to make glue.
“If there’s no bark on the tree,
the tree will die,” says Yul, “and the cassowary
will go from the area if there is no food.”
The sweet fruit of the gambir
tree provides an important source of food for
the cassowary, a flightless ostrich-like bird,
which can grow up to 2m in height. The cassowary
is an important source of food local communities
and the feathers of the bird are used to make
traditional headdresses.
“What’s worse is that people
eat the fruit as well, and if they can’t reach
the fruit, they cut the tree down to get at it,
even the younger trees that haven’t reached maturity,”
adds Albertus Moiwend, Committee Chairman of the
Marind-Anim tribe, sitting quietly next to Yul.
Danger lurking
Yul believes that the TransFly
is in great danger. In 20 years time, he believes
much of the TransFly in the Indonesian province
of Papua will be destroyed. The impact of development
and settlement in Papua has also been felt across
the border in Papua New Guinea.
About six or seven years ago,
villagers from Rouku began to notice a dramatic
decline in the population of saratoga and barramundi
fish in the waters surrounding their village in
the Tonda Wildlife Management Area.
“A group of community leaders
went across the border to see how the other side
was managing their resources,” says Abia Bai,
a community elder of the Maiyawa clan in Papua
New Guinea. “We found saratoga fish that had been
caught illegally in the waters of my village.”
It’s a situation that
could get a lot worse if more resources are destroyed.
To understand the current pressures
facing the TransFly in Papua Province, one must
go back to 1969, when the Indonesian government
introduced a major development plan for the region.
The plan aimed to unlock the abundance of untapped
resources in Papua and develop the land, moving
the economy towards one that was market-based
rather than based on traditional subsistence.
As a result, towns such as Merauke, near Yul’s
village, grew rapidly as economic migrants moved
into the area from other islands in the archipelago
seeking new opportunities. Today, this has resulted
in high levels of poaching and forest clearance,
with the land now being used for plantations that
can satisfy the market demand for palm oil, sugar,
and other lucrative commodities.
“There are now plans for a 40,000ha
sugar cane plantation in an area close to the
Wasur National Park and a further 120,000ha elsewhere
in the TransFly,” says Fitrian Ardiansyah, a forest
restoration coordinator for WWF-Indonesia.
A request to develop
260,000ha of eucalyptus for the pulp and paper
industry is also on the table.
“If these plantations are approved
without taking into account environmental or social
considerations, or a commitment from companies
to operate sustainably, then it may result in
large swathes of pristine TransFly monsoon forests
and other unique ecosystems being destroyed,”
Ardiansyah adds.
All the land in Indonesia’s
Papua Province is traditionally owned by local
communities, so in order to acquire land for development
companies must either pay communities cash for
the land or try to influence the regional authorities,
who then convince communities that developing
their land would be a good idea and profitable.
Market economy vs. traditional
livelihoods
The market economy in Papua
is supposed to benefit everybody. However, communities
like Yul’s, which have existed for generations
on a subsistence basis, are poorly skilled to
contribute to or benefit from a market economy.
“We sell potatoes for daily
use, but the economy doesn’t change for us,” says
Yul.
This makes it all too tempting
for landowners to sign away their land for short-term
incentives.
WWF-Indonesia has helped raise
awareness among local communities about the need
to keep their land. All too often, unscrupulous
investors will arrive offering perhaps one million
rupiah (US$100) to landowners for their land.
“This is a lot of money to us,”
says Yul. “Hire it, rent it, but don’t sell it,
WWF advises us. And it’s true – once the money
is gone, what do you have left?”
“The government claims plantations
will benefit local communities, however the reality
is that they mostly won’t,” says Benja Mambai,
Director of WWF-Indonesia’s office in Papua Province.
“This is why we are supporting
local communities with the development of a community
livelihoods programme. We’ve assisted communities
through identifying alternative means of income,
such as the sustainable harvesting of cajuput
oil, an essential oil used for massage. We’re
also involved in the introduction of community-based
sustainable forestry, which will eventually allow
communities to supply certified timber to the
international market.”
The landscape of the TransFly
is not just important for livelihoods. Yul belongs
to the Marind-Anim tribe, one of 60 indigenous
tribes whose lives, customs, beliefs, languages
and knowledge are inextricably linked to the region.
“I want to preserve all things
for my ancestors and future generations,” exclaims
Yul, father of six children and grandfather of
two.
Conservation vision
Tribes are scattered across
the region, a result of the nomadic journeys that
took place long before any modern border was established
so strong cultural bonds exist between the indigenous
communities living in both countries that straddle
the TransFly. It is common for people to own land
on the opposite side, and often people marry into
other tribes across the border.
“It is the unique combination
of biodiversity and cultural values that reflects
the importance of the TransFly for local indigenous
people,” explains Michele Bowe, TransFly Ecoregion
Coordinator for WWF.
“Until now, there have been
no attempts to prioritise conservation efforts
in the region, properly document its biodiversity
or cultural values or identify how conservation
efforts can proceed hand in hand with development.”
She also explains that a transboundary
conservation and development vision for the TransFly
could assist the region to develop in a sustainable
way and prevent the environment being devastated
by logging, agricultural expansion, poaching,
invasive plant infestations, and road and settlement
development.
“The vision is a blueprint for
conservation and development,” Bowe adds.
At the end of three-day conference
that Yul attended, community leaders, government
officials and conservation experts succeeded in
crafting a new vision for the TransFly, one that
takes into consideration the importance of biodiversity
and cultural conservation but also the development
needs of the area.
The plan is a lifeline for the
region that proposes widespread protection from
logging for threatened monsoon forests in Papua,
as well as wholesale protection of important features
on the TransFly landscape, including: grasslands,
which are important hunting grounds; wetlands,
the only wet areas during extreme dry seasons;
and mudflats, which provide critical habitat for
migratory birds. Essential water catchment areas,
which provide major sources of food for local
communities across both Indonesia’s Papua Province
and Papua New Guinea, will also be safeguarded
under the new plan.
However, much work still needs
to be done to turn the vision into reality. The
challenge to safeguard the riches of the TransFly
has only just begun.
“A vision is very important,”
WWF’s Benja Mambai says philosophically. “It’s
like a dream-like guideline for what could be
achieved in ten years from now. “I think the TransFly
has a good future. This is my dream anyway.”
By Christian Thompson*
* Christian Thompson is a Communications Advisor
for WWF’s TransFly Ecoregion Vision.
