Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP) Design ...

ATTACHMENT 1. LIVELIHOODS, SOCIAL ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT, GENDER EQUITY AND PEATLAND USE IN
THE KFCP AREA
1. BACKGROUND
The recent century has witnessed dramatic changes and transformations in the KFCP target areas.
Formerly a remote, sparsely populated peat landscape, the south central part of Borneo is now
vulnerable to a rapid conversion to estate and cash crops.
The Ngaju Dayak people are the most prominent indigenous group and the most dominant ethnic
group. Besides Christianity and Islam, Keharingan or Dayak religions and world views are the most
commonly adhered to beliefs. This group has been relatively well studied. They are part of an
immigration wave, most likely from China, which entered these areas via the rivers, moving
northwards. While evidence exists that migrants have moved far inland prior to European
colonisation, most of those living in the area depended upon forest gathering, swidden agriculture and
collecting of non forest timber products for trade albeit at a relatively limited scale. There is ample
evidence that trade relations have been in existence at least since the first centuries AD 19 .
The first major change occurred in the early 20 th century when demand for rubber started to increase 20 .
The first major rubber price boom in the years 1909 -1912 trigged a widespread increase in the crop
throughout Kalimantan. 1 After 1920, Dayak farmers began to plant rubber in former shiftingcultivation
fields. In addition, considerable areas of forest around villages were cleared and planted
with rubber. The village of Katujung was established in 1930, and is a good example of the
settlements that emerged when rubber cultivation started to become the most prominent source of
livelihoods.
The second major change was the exploitation of the forests of Kalimantan for timber. The impact has
been significant. The introduction of timber concessions in 1970‘s and 80‘s meant that access to land
became restricted and communities were often alienated from their ancestral land. These concessions
were driven by the agricultural law reform which was initiated in 1960. Most of the forest land
managed through Adat law, with the forestry law of 1967, was converted to forestry land and given
out as concessions. This process had not involved the actual land managers. The lack of engagement
laid the foundation for later conflicts over land and forest resources. This was followed by a
transmigrations program that was initially small scale, and focussed mostly on tidal swamps areas 21 .
However in 1994, the Indonesian government launched an effort to convert 1.4 million ha of peat
swamps into rice paddy fields. This ill-fated attempt led to the degradation of peatland ecosystems
and significant greenhouse gas emissions from fire outbreaks and oxidation. Livelihood assets, such
as traditional fishpond and rubber gardens, were also lost.
Decentralisation in 1999 led to the end of massive transmigration schemes and initiated widespread
illegal logging. This caused conflict over forest resources between district and central government and
saw a rapid increase in illegal logging which provided income and employment to many in illegal saw
mills, logging operations and led to claims over ancestral lands being asserted. Customary leaders
often acted as brokers and were selling off timber.
The Mega Rice Project was terminated in 1999. In 2003, the Indonesian government compensated
those who had lost livelihood assets due to the digging of channels. The compensation was perceived
as modest and has created different perspectives on land ownership. These differences continue to
19
K. MacKinnon, G. Hatta, H Halim & A Mangalik, 1996. The Ecology of Kalimantan. Singapore: Periplus.
20
Harold Brookfield, Lesley Potter, and Yvonne Byron, 1995. In place of the forest, United Nations University
Press: Tokyo/New York/Paris.
21
E Frankenbeg, D. Mckee & D Thomas, 2004., Health Consequences of forest fires in Indonesia, California Centre of
Population Research, University of California. On line Working Paper series 36p.
KALIMANTAN FORESTS AND CLIMATE PARTNERSHIP (KFCP) DESIGN DOCUMENT 1-1