07
Aug 2008 - By Michael Stuewe & Desmarita
Murni - The Orang Rimba people have inhabited
the jungles of Sumatra for centuries, traveling
in tight-knit family groups in the Indonesian
forests, hunting, fishing and collecting
non-timber forest products on their traditional
lands. Members of this indigenous tribe
occasionally trade goods with villages on
the edge of the forest, but prefer to keep
to themselves. Now, as Sumatra’s forests
disappear under the relentless onslaught
of chainsaws and bulldozers, even keeping
to themselves is becoming impossible.
Experts who have studied
the culture of the Orang Rimba, which literally
means “forest people,” estimate that there
are fewer than 3,000 individuals. They are
one of two indigenous tribes that live exclusively
in Jambi Province in central Sumatra. The
Orang Rimba are nomadic and dependent on
forest resources. And like much of the wildlife
that inhabit the same forests, the Orang
Rimba’s survival is endangered by logging
that is clearing Sumatra on a scale unseen
almost anywhere else in the world.
WWF researchers have long encountered Orang
Rimba people while in the forest. And occasionally,
WWF camera traps set up to to record the
comings and goings of wildlife have snapped
candid photos of families as they move through
the forest.
Recently, a team from
WWF and Jambi-based NGO WARSI met with a
group of four families trying to survive
on land that is being logged under legally
questionable circumstances by companies
affiliated with Asia Pulp & Paper (APP).
The head of the group, Bujang Rancak, recalled
that they used to be very prosperous, when
the forest still provided them enough food
and other resources to sell or trade.
“Now, a greedy PT (company)
took away our forests. We can no longer
live in our own forest because the PT forbids
us to use or plant it. Anything we do is
wrong to them,” said Rancak.
Until 2006, the Bukit
Tigapuluh forest block where they live,
which is divided between Bukit Tigapuluh
National Park, protection forest and many
logging concessions, was relatively free
from large–scale commercial forest conversion.
But APP is rumoured to have dramatically
increased the capacity of its Jambi pulp
mill, now requiring more wood than ever.
And a police investigation into illegal
logging in adjacent Riau Province forced
a de facto moratorium on all logging of
natural forest there, prompting logging
companies like APP to move to Jambi Province
instead. The results have been disastrous
for the forests and forest-dwelling people.
A team of investigators
from WWF and other NGOs working in the area
found that the Bukit Tigapuluh forest block
where the Orang Rimba live will soon be
split into two by a massive logging highway
that connects forest concessions associated
with APP to APP’s pulp mills in Riau and
Jambi provinces.
“Orang Rimba families
have become marginalized wherever their
forest was opened, easily infected by new
diseases and extraordinarily poor without
forests to hunt and gather,” says Diki Kurniawan
of WARSI, who has studied the tribe for
the last decade.
“Bukit Tigapuluh has
become the last retreat for many families
who have migrated here trying to avoid the
wave of forest conversion. But with the
arrival of forest conversion giant APP here
at the very edge of Bukit Tigapuluh National
Park, there is no more place to run. The
Orang Rimba’s way of life will go with their
forests.”
The Orang Rimba’s disappearing
forests are of high conservation value and
five NGOs have called on the government
to include the remaining unprotected forests
into an expansion area of the Bukit Tigapuluh
National Park. They have also called on
the companies associated with APP to stop
construction of the logging highway and
clearance of more forests with high conservation
values.
“APP is stealing natural
forests away from the indigenous tribes
who depend on this forest area for their
existence,” an investigative report by WWF
and four other organizations working in
the area concluded earlier this year.
Also under threat are the Talang Mamak,
a sedentary tribe who live only in the Bukit
Tigapuluh forest block. These are people
whose whole existence depends on these forests.
The Bukit Tigapuluh
Forest Landscape contains some of the richest
biodiversity on Earth. It is one of the
two last remaining ideal habitats for endangered
Sumatran elephants, with an estimated population
of more than 50 individuals. It has also
been identified as one of 20 “Global Priority
Tiger Conservation Landscapes” by some of
the world’s leading tiger scientists. And
Sumatra, the largest island in Indonesia,
is the only place in the world where endangered
elephants, rhinos, orangutans and tigers
co-exist.
The government of Indonesia
does not account for the traditional land
rights of indigenous peoples when it leases
logging concessions to industry. Some Orang
Rimba are now forced to live part of the
year on palm oil or pulpwood plantations
because there isn’t enough natural forest
left. The Orang Rimba have long practiced
a system of forest resources management
that protects their resources and has allowed
them to survive on forest produce for generations.
But as their forests disappear, according
to Rancak, the government’s solution has
been to provide them with pre-fabricated
houses to live in, without shade, without
water. It hasn’t worked. What they want
is their forests.
After the companies
logged the Bukit Tigapuluh forest and destroyed
the resources they used, the Orang Rimba
turned to slashing and burning in the destroyed
forest to plant food such as corn, paddy,
cassava, or harvest rubber to sell in the
market. They said they now have no choice
other than farming. The remaining forest
surrounding them no longer provides enough
resources to support them, no more animals
to hunt, no more rattan and resin to collect
and sell, and fewer and fewer fish.
“Perhaps we should just
cut down all our forests before the PT take
them all away from us,” Rancak said.
Michael Stuewe is a
scientist currently working with WWF in
the United States. Desmarita Murni is the
campaign coordinator for WWF Indonesia.
