Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Five-year-old Trimo is placed in an old babywalker every now and then. Although his feet can touch the ground, he isn't able to get it moving as other children usually can.

The boy, blind at birth, was playing alone in front of his 12-square-meter house with plaited bamboo walls and a dirt floor.

Trimo, who also suffers from malnutrition, is a child of Rasidi, 45, and Tatik, 37, from Pemerihan village, Bengkunat district in West Lampung.

Rasidi and Tatik, who originate from Pacitan, East Java, cultivate farmland within the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. While they are poor, and do not own the land they live on or cultivate, the park is their source of livelihood.

Pemerihan village, established in the 1950s, borders the park and was previously a vast forested area. Its population of about 4,000 mostly originate from Cawang Ara village inside the park area. In the 1970s, they were evicted and relocated to Pemerihan.

Squatters from areas outside Pemerihan openly clear forest land to make way for the cultivation of coffee, pepper, cacao and vegetables without any fear of being caught by forest rangers, while those from Pemerihan usually play cat and mouse with forest rangers, disappearing whenever they sense the presence of rangers and outsiders.

Rasidi said he decided to cultivate land within the national park to seek a sustainable livelihood. According to Tatik, she and her husband moved to Pemerihan a few years back. They previously lived in Kalianda, South Lampung, working as farm laborers.

"We had to move here to survive. But, we don't own a farm here, and we built this house on this land with permission from our neighbor," said Rasidi.

The pace of deforestation in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park is about 1,630 hectares per year. Tens of thousands of people like Rasidi who live within the park area cultivate crops on state land. Data at the park's office showed that no less than 26,242 squatter families cultivate land inside the park.

They began to cultivate 53,000 hectares of land after illegal loggers had finished removing the timber in the area. The highest extent of damage occurs in Sekincau, Suoh and Rantauagung areas (bordering Bengkulu province).

"We are actually benefiting from what is left... rather than leaving the areas barren," said Rasidi.

Head of the park's office Tamen Sitorus said that the largest deforested area was in the Sekincau area in West Lampung, where more than 21,353 hectares had been turned into coffee farms.

Besides the threat of deforestation, the area which has been listed as a world heritage site is under constant threat of theft of trees with high market value, such as meranti, a mahogany-like hardwood.

The park's management faces difficulties in evicting the squatters who have been cultivating the land in the national park for decades.

"Land clearance and illegal logging are obviously a threat to flora and fauna in the park," said Tamen.

A recent study by the Lampung office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) indicated the presence of new deforested areas, a process that continues at quite an alarming rate in the park, stretching from Pematang Sawa, Bengkunat, Rata Agung and Merpas to Bukit Benungla and Sekincau, all in West Lampung regency.

"The areas are the habitat and vital reproducing areas of large mammal species," said Lampung WWF consultant, Joko Santoso.

Joko said that the deforestation problem could not be resolved by applying forceful approaches to evict the squatters, but through a comprehensive approach to the problem.

Based on observations by the Post, a number of logging routes which were previously only narrow trails, have turned into roads passable by four-wheeled vehicles.

The path which connects Suoh and Menanti villages in Bengkunat district, for example, is used by trucks daily to carry harvested coffee beans out of the area.

Head of the West Lampung Forestry Office, Warsito, said that his office had done all it could to prevent deforestation, but due to limited personnel, illegal logging still continued unabated. "We have also carried out patrols involving the community," he said.

The Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park spans 356,000 hectares, stretching from Tanggamus and West Lampung regencies in Lampung province to Kaur regency in Bengkulu province.

The park is of great significance for the preservation of a number of large mammal species, such as the Sumatra elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis), Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrensis), Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorphinus sumatrensis), tapir (Tapirus indicus) and honey bear (Helarctos malayanus).

The Gunung Leuser, Kerinci Seblat and Bukit Barisan Selatan national parks have together been named world heritage sites by UNESCO.