Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Banjarnegara, Central Java – Policeman Supriyanto has a tale to tell about what the simple villagers' feel about the sufferings that last week's deadly landslide has brought them.
"They feel guilty that they had hurt Mother Nature," said Supriyanto, who was part of the effort to recover the scores of people buried alive in Sijeruk village, Banjarnegara. "It's our fault," he quoted a remorseful villager.
In recent years, a large swathes along the slopes of scenic Mount Pawinian have been converted into plantations, and many trees on the slopes have been illegally cut down. Such activities have been on the increase recently as financial pressures mount, he said.
Deputy Banjarnegara regent Hadi Supeno knew about the illegal logging, but decided not speak up until the calamity he feared eventually came. The disaster struck four neighborhood units in the village last week, killing at least 75 people and displacing over 500 residents, as well as causing about Rp 6 billion in losses.
"Top state officials have denied that the disaster was caused by deforestation. Well, my findings prove that wrong," Hadi told visiting State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar on Sunday. "After three days of investigating, we found that some parts of Mount Pawinian, where the mudslide originated, had been denuded."
Then he presented video footage showing piles of logs – pines and rasamala (altingia excelsa), which are endemic to the area – scattered over the 30 hectares of protected forest. He also found a one hectare in the forest that had been converted into banana and ginger plantation to cover up the denuded plots.
Hadi's findings challenge the opinion of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Ka'ban, who have rejected the theory that deforestation caused the disaster as satellite images show that the mountain was covered by thick forests.
It also goes against the argument that deforestation did not contribute to the flash floods and mudslide that hit Jember and Banjarnegara regencies, pointing out that continuous heavy rainfall was the cause. "We are yet to find who was doing the illegal logging," Hadi said.
Minister Rachmat was impressed by Hadi's findings, which he considered to be "hard facts", and thus more convincing than interpreting satellite images. He promised an investigation to find the perpetrators.
He also cautioned people against occupying precarious areas such as hills and riverbanks, which could put them in the path of such disasters.
"For example, people should not have been allowed to reside in Sijeruk village because it stands on a steep incline," he said. In Sijeruk, most of the village was buried under 10 hectares of mud at dawn on Jan. 4.
The Java Regional Environmental Management Office (PPLH Jawa) has its own theory about the tragedy. In its report, it said the area is prone to tectonic movements and has high rainfall. The report also says that in addition to heavy rains that battered the area for seven straight days before the disaster, mild earthquakes shook the area. Banjarnegara Office of Meteorology and Geophysics (BMG) recorded a series of tremors ranging between 1.5 and 2.6 on the Richter scale.
According to the PPLH report, the mudslide came from a section on the slope at 1,200 meters above sea level, where deforestation took place, hitting the village which is located at an altitude of 800 meters.
Another report from the state ministry of environment also shows that some areas in the protected forests have been denuded of endemic trees and therefore allow too much runoff water during heavy rains, which turn into mudslides consisting of rocks and soil.
In 1999, the government issued a decree permitting the allocation of small-scale local concessions of 100 hectares for community forestry to allow them to earn money by exploiting the forest.
However, the PPLH Jawa report says there is no buffer zone drawing the limit lines for residents to exploit, thus tempting the residents to expand outward to more of the forest.
"There is an indication that (state-owned forest concession holder) Perhutani has neglected its monitoring function in the forest, especially when it comes to cutting of pine threes and conversion of land to plantations," the report says.
Sources close to the regencies and the state ministry suspect that some officials at the state forestry company Perhutani, which is supposed to manage the forests on Java, collaborated with the villagers to convert land in the protected forest into plantations.