The folly of pushing ahead with a huge rice conversion project in Central Kalimantan without any environmental impact assessment, is becoming evident. Problems are arising in all aspects of the million hectare project, which was announced by Presidential decree last year and launched in February 1996.

The project will devastate huge areas of peat swamp forests, whose rich biodiversity may now never be fully discovered. Money from the national reforestation fund is being used to clear these forests, home to indigenous Dayak communities, in an over-ambitious attempt to create rice-fields, which scientists say is bound to fail. (See DTE 29/30 for more background)

Because the project was ordered by President Suharto, initially, there was little public opposition. But as the massive scale of the impending disaster becomes clear, critics, including leading figures in the Indonesian scientific community, are beginning to voice their reservations.

In September a seminar on peatland development held at the University of Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta provided an opportunity for scientists, some of them involved in the project, to issue warnings about its possible impact. Among them were well-known academic Otto Soemarwoto, who listed impoverishment of biodiversity, land and hydrological degradation and increased greenhouse gas levels as potential impacts. Among the points specifically mentioned by various scientists at the meeting were the following: The main contractor, the Sambu Group, plans to build a dam at the river-mouth. This will prevent the flow of sea-water into the peat area, thereby depriving it of minerals and changing its ecology, and also increasing the likelihood of flooding.

It will be extremely difficult technically, and prohibitively expensive to control and manage the behaviour of water in the project area, given the unpredictable behavour of peat and the extremely high rainfall. The risk of failure is high.

The large amounts of pesticides needed (about 2.4 million litres a month), will pollute the water used for drinking, washing and cooking by people living downstream.

To minimise the risk of environmental degradation, through pests or disease, the areas to be cultivated should be in small sections, divided by green belts. This means a total of only 350,000 ha, not 633,500, should be allocated for rice-cultivation. (TIRAS, 10/10/96)

WALHI calls for a rethink

In August Jakarta-based environmental NGO, WALHI, condemned the project as off-target and environmentally degrading. WALHI suggested that the government reconsider its whole approach to the question of food production, given the current practice of converting fertile areas in Java into industrial, housing and tourist (including golf course) development areas. "No less than 30,000 hectares of agricultural land in Java are turned into industrial and housing areas every year," said WALHI spokesperson Lili Hasanuddin. The NGO also warned of the impact on the peat forests' fauna and flora, which include orang utans and proboscis monkeys. (Jakarta Post 9/7/96)

Despite the increasingly public criticism, the government has shown no sign of having any second thoughts. On the contrary, its profile remains high as the saviour of rice self-sufficiency, a matter of national pride as Jakarta sees it. No less than five ministers have been sent to the site and most recently, it was announced that large incentives (about US $2,174) would be awarded for each voluntary transmigrant family joining the project. Indigenous peoples' rights ignored

The customary rights over forests, rivers and resources of the original Dayak inhabitants of the project area, have not been taken into consideration. These communities live mainly along the river banks. They use the forests for hunting and gathering forest products, and fish in the rivers.

These people have not been consulted as to whether they agree or not to the project. Their lands have not been demarcated, neither has the project's impact on their communities been taken into account, since there has been no kind of environmental or social impact study before the start of the project.

The government has tried to play down the possibility of land conflict. One local official even said the case could not be compared with the Kedung Ombo case (the notorious World Bank-financed dam project in Java) since not much land owned by local people was affected and those people would have the opportunity to get rice fields in the project area. What about those who don't want to participate?

One report, in the daily Kompas, quotes the public relations officer of PT Sumatra Timor Indonesia, a subsidiary of the main contractor, the Sambu Group, describing how traditionally owned (adat) land is appropriated for the drainage canals. First he points out that it is not the company's job to deal with such matters as this has to be sorted out by the local government. He goes on: "There is already a high level of understanding of the importance of the project so that they release their land without compensation.." (Kompas 20/6/96)

Indigenous insult

The social affairs department says there are around 17,150 "isolated peoples" (the official term to describe indigenous communities) or 3,515 families living in Central Kalimantan province. According to William Sendok Rabu, provincial head of social affairs, isolation, ignorance and lack of skills causes poverty and backwardness among these people. Thus far, around 1,017 families have been "guided" by social affairs through resettlement schemes.

Governor Warsito Rasman said recently that isolated peoples' backwardness meant that as a human resource they could not yet be used efficiently in development. (BPost 14/10/96, 24/10/96)

This negative attitude towards indigenous peoples is typical of government officials in Indonesia, and in line with the official policy of bringing indigenous groups into the mainstream of national life. No acknowledgement of indigenous knowledge or skills is made, let alone the suggestion that outsiders may have something to learn from them.

Local Transmigration

As with many large-scale development projects affecting indigenous lands, it is assumed that the people will join the project as local transmigrants, along with families brought in from Java. Altogether, 316,000 families are to be sent to the project, according to Transmigration Minister Siswono Yudohusodo, speaking in October.

Minister Siswono says that 60% of the 3,000 families due to be settled on the project by the end of March 1997, will be drawn from the local population. "We will make sure that natives benefit from the project before outsiders are brought in", says National Planning Minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita. (Jakarta Post 5/10/96) This, presumably, is supposed to make indigenous communities who will lose land and livelihoods and probably their own sense of identity, feel better about the prospect.

Wildlife

The swamp forests are one of the last natural habitats of orang utans and proboscis monkeys and house a immense range of animal and plant life. (see DTE 29/30 for more details on wildlife).

In September, Forestry minister Djamaludin said that ideally there should be areas within the million hectare area set aside to conserve biodiversity. Even if the full million were converted to agriculture, the fauna and flora [?] would be moved to a new habitat, he said.

According to one September news report which refers to a Presidential instruction, areas of peat more than 3 metres deep would be set aside as water catchment and biodiversity protection areas. (This would immediately exclude a large percentage of the project area from cultivation. The following month, the same newspaper reported that there was "the possibility" that peat of more than two metres deep would be set aside. (Banjarmasin Post 5/10/96, 17/9/96)

Whether any conservation areas will materialise and whether they will be big enough to sustain wildlife is another matter. As pointed out by one MP from Central Kalimantan, unless there is legal back-up, it is all just talk. (Banjarmasin Post 17/9/96)

But at least there is talk. It is a sorry state of affairs that more official concern should be expressed over the fate of the wildlife of the peat forests than that of the indigenous communities who live there.

Technical problems

Technical problems have meant that project development in the field has got off to a slow start. Lack of heavy machinery and the hilly topography are two reasons cited by officials. By June 1st only 33km of the targeted 585 km of primary channels had been dug. Less than a quarter of the 570 pieces of heavy machinery targeted were in operation. (Kompas 29/7/96)

The demand for timber

One of the benefits of the project, as declared by President Suharto, is the timber produced by clearing the forests. This addition to the national supply is designed to ease the log supply crisis in the plywood and other processing industries (see DTE 29/30). According to the President, the clearance of forests will free up some 6 million cubic metres of timber – over a quarter of the amount that is supposed to be cut in one year from all timber concessions in the country.

However, it has since been pointed out that by using the timber to ease the national plywood crisis, the government will only be creating a timber supply crisis at the local level. As calculated by members of the Centre for Environmental Research at the University of Palangkaraya, local timber needs of transmigrants alone will amount to 1.75 million cubic metres of timber allowing for housing and boat-building needs. This doesn't even take into account the needs of indigenous people who build almost everything, including their traditional longhouses, boats and jetties, out of timber. (Kompas 24/6/96)

In October, the head of the local forestry office in Kapuas announced that half a million cubic metres above 30cm in diameter would be allocated for building transmigrant homes. This is less than a third of what will be required according to the calculations of the Centre for Environmental Research. The needs of indigenous communities also requiring timber are not mentioned. (Banjarmassin Post 4/10/96)

One huge experiment...

The project has been criticised because of the complete absence of preparation in the form of environmental and other impact studies. Although these are usually only a way of rubber-stamping project proposals, one would hope that any half-serious study would find grounds for at least delaying the project until pilot projects had been undertaken. But in one sense, the project is itself one huge pilot project. According to head of the Indonesian Peat Association, Bambang Setiadi, if successful, the Kalimantan project could open the door to the conversion of 27 million hectares of peatlands in Sumatra, Irian Jaya and other islands. (Kompas 6/8/96)

Let us hope that this experiment will be stopped before the costs become too great and before too many forests, communities, wildlife and a whole region's natural flood control system are sacrificed.