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VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES REPORT - August, 2002
Tanjung Puting National Park
Dear Friends
Greetings from FNPF
First of all we would like to thank those who keep supporting us in the current difficult situation. We continue to try to maximise our contribution to the village; in August we provided teachers for the elementary school at Tanjung Harapan as the school only has three teachers including the headmaster for 6 classes. We are also trying to start planting a natural dye plant " Morinda citrifolia " that we hope could provide some other options for the villagers to make a living in the near future. Thanks to Kalpataru Foundation for allowing us to use their greenhouse for this project and also to Threads of Life who have agreed to market the product when it is ready.
In this month we had several meetings to discuss the situation at Tanjung Puting National Park with the central government ( Directorate Conservation and Biodiversity ), local government and parliament, NGOs and the park management. I attended the meeting that was arranged by the Directorate Conservation and Biodiversity. The meeting was attended by CI-I ( Conservation International Indonesia) , OFI ( Orangutan Foundation International), Mr. Dante the member of parliament for Kota Waringin Barat ( Central Borneo ), Mr. Herry Djoko Susilo (the previous park director before Mr. Suherti Reddy ) and the director of Directorate Conservation and Biodiversity Mr. Adi Susmianto and his staff.
In this meeting we basically sat together to discuss how we could work in a synergistic manner that hopefully could improve the actions we are taking. As you might be aware, illegal logging and mining are still the major problems in the park and more work is needed to stop it. In general everybody at the meeting agreed that we need to improve the co-operation amongst NGOs and government to take care of the problems at the park and in the areas surrounding it.
Mr. Dante informed us that there will be a kind of consortium to be formed in Pangkalan Bun to accommodate the ideas of any NGOs willing to support the park and also to co-ordinate the work in order to avoid any competition and waste.
In this meeting I also found out that FNPF is still the only NGO which has a legal permit to work in situ with orangutan rehabilitation. We hope everybody will understand that whatever we have been doing at the park is courtesy of park management permission and there is no intention from us to take over anybody else's work. Mr. Adi Susmianto was very clear to everybody in that meeting that we need to work according to the MoU that we have with the park.
This month there was a movement from the group who are occupying the orangutan rehabilitation post to drive us from the village, not only from the park. This group is always claiming to represent Tanjung Harapan village to get land compensation money. The reason why we are back in Tanjung Harapan village is because we have been requested by most of the villagers to work as usual at Tanjung Harapan. Unfortunately most of the villagers do not have the same "power" as this group and they have been unable to offer us support. I hope that the local government and the police department will undertake law enforcement to make this group realise that they cannot move against us in this manner.
We understand that the government will not compensate the villagers and that FNPF do not have a right to be involve with the land compensation matter. Instead of giving money, the government will create several projects that will encourage local participation and will allow the villagers to make a better living.
Please find attached the report from our staff and a commentary from a member of the Safier Group who are assisting us to do research at the park and the village.
Once again thank you for your kind support.
Sincerely yours,
Drh I Gede Nyoman Bayu Wirayudha
Director of FNPF.
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Activities report by FNPF staff
Orangutan rehab
On August 18th we found that Butet our latest male 8 months old baby with 10 Kg weight, only ate very little banana (1.5 pcs ) and he drank one liter milk. His genital organ also swollen. Drh. Herman the veterinarian from the agriculture department gave the necessary treatment to him. After the treatment on the 20th August he showed some improvement. He ate 3 bananas and drank one litre of milk and in day time he drank 3 glasses of sugar water. On August 23th he ate 5 bananas and 5 apples and he have also drunk 4 glasses of milk. Right now his weight is about 10.5 kg.
Adong and Lady's condition are well and they still been kept in at Ainun the babysitter's house. Every day she brings them to the tree behind her house to practice their climbing and nesting ability. They both consume about 20 Kg of bananas, 3 pineapples, 2 Kg sugar and 800 gram of milk powder a week.
Adong is bigger than lady and his hair thicker and longer then before. Adong's weight 21Kg. He is 3 years old and Lady 19.5 Kg and 4.5 years old.
Reforestation
During this month we keep working with our nursery unit. Kalpataru Fooundation allow us to use their green house behind Eco-lodge. We do not only use this green house for our reforestation project at the park but also for the natural dye tree " Morinda citrifolia". We plan to plant this tree at any unused land around the village that we hope in three years time it could be produce fruit for medicine material and the bark of the of the root for natural dye material. Right now we have 28 different species totally 1530 seedling that ready to be re-planted.
The villager asked why the fisheries project of FNPF was stopped. Erwin explained to them that they first want to figure out the problem with the fishponds. If possible, FNPF will start the fishpond project again.
Education program
Some of our staff Andreas, Erwin, Suriansyah and Danson are teaching at the elementary school in the village. They teach math, history, art, English and Bahasa Indonesia. They mostly teach the 4th, 5th and 6th grade.
Other Events
On August 27 we asked to meet with a group of villagers who occupied the orangutan rehabilitation post conducted by Yusup. They want Bayu to come to Tanjung Harapan and meet them to explain about the reason why FNPF work at the park and also at the village. If Bayu do not come in 8 days they will kick FNPF out from Tanjung Harapan.
On August 31, 2002 we attended a public hearing meeting with the local parliament / DPRD of Kota Waringin Barat which was also attended by CII (Conservation International Indonesia program ), OFI (Orangutan Foundation International ) Yayorin ( Yayasan Orangutan Indonesia / Indonesian Orangutan Foundation ), the park management, Tourism Department, Conservation and Reserve Unit / KSDA
The discussion / public hearing was about
The conservation partnership
Basically the parliament and local government Kota Waringin support and welcome to all of the park partner who work with Tanjung Puting Park management and hope all of them work well together without any friction They promised to solve the problem with the orangutan rehabilitation post occupation but they won't give money compensation that will give a bad impact in the future. They have prepared 1,1 Billion rupiah for special programs for Tanjung Harapan village. The head of the parliament asked everybody's support to socialise this idea to the villagers.
Community Development
The community development especially for the buffer zone village nearby the park that did not get enough attention and do not get a positive impact from the park existence. In this meeting we also fund out that some villager at Teluk Pulai dan Sungai Cabang villages even do not know anything about the park
There was some advice come out from this meeting such as
Law Enforcement
The local government will do the law enforcement to the illegal logger
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Volunteer report / Comment by Els Coolen
My name is Els Coolen, I am a research fellow at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. I work at the department of agricultural and environmental economy. In co-operation with FNPF, we plan to start a project in Tanjung Harapan village. The main purpose is to find alternative income-generating possibilities for the villagers in order to reduce illegal logging and goldmining in the region of Tanjung Puting. I will stay in Tanjung Harapan for five months, together with some Belgian students to study the agricultural and economical problems of the village and to draw up a project proposal. We hope to be able to find funding for our programme from the Belgian government or the European Union.
The first of August Bart Van Asten and I entered Tanjung Harapan village together with Andreas, pak Ledan, Suri and Supri. We cleaned the house and prepared for our stay there.
The next day, Andreas showed us around the village, showing the rice-fields, the fruit trees and the future transmigration site.
On the 3rd of August, we had a meeting with FNPF staff where we explained the purpose of our visit, our plans and our working method. Later that day, we met pak Taufiq and Erwin explained our intentions to him. We try not make any promises to the villagers, because they have been let down too many times before.
By adapting to the village life, we tried to gain their confidence, which seems to be a `small` success (more about the `small` later). We have met some of the farmers to learn about the farming systems in the village. Some of the villagers grow rice in the fields within the village. They use Javanese varieties, which need a shorter growing period than the local varieties. Because of the flooding, they need to harvest after four or five months. The soil seems to be fit for these varieties, but we need to take soil samples later to specify the soil type and its land use.
Some of the villagers grow rice and vegetables in Padang Sembilan, located in the buffer zone of Tanjung Puting National Park. They use slash and burn to prepare their field. According to the villagers, the soil is fertile for two years, but as far as we have seen, all land that has previously been burned for agricultural purposes is now merely white sand. A large area outside Tanjung Puting is used by people from Kumai to grow rice. This way, large areas of forest are irreversibly destroyed. The people do not work as farmers the whole time. They work on the land in between the time they spend in the forest.
It is a utopia to think we can convince them not to use slash and burn, but hopefully we can provide income-generating activities that can reduce their need to grow their own rice.
On the 21st of August, we invited the villagers of Tanjung Harapan into our house for our first village meeting. I explained them the purpose of our visit, that we would like to help them by finding solutions for their agricultural and economical problems. We want to have regular meetings to find out the different problems they face in daily life, so we can try to find solutions for most of them.
The main problems that came forward this first meeting were:
At the same meeting, FNPF explained to the villagers why they want to stay in the village, about the reforestation project, the fishponds and teaching in the elementary school.
Because of the news from Birute Galdikas that the villagers supposedly did not like us and FNPF to stay in the village, we had another meeting in pak Taufiq`s house on the 22nd of August to discuss this. Pak Taufiq asked the villagers to sign a letter of recommendation to allow FNPF to stay in Tanjung Harapan. Because only a small delegation of the villagers was present, we could not get the letter yet, but a new meeting was scheduled on the 24th of August.
I could not attend this meeting myself, but more than 60% of the villagers present at this last meeting signed the letter of recommendation.
Unfortunately, on the 27th of August, some of the villagers that do not agree with FNPF`s presence in Tanjung Harapan, held another meeting (while most of the villagers where burning their fields outside the village) where they asked pak Bayu to come to Tanjung Harapan to explain FNPF`s position. If pak Bayu will not come to this meeting, FNPF has to leave the village. As we are working together with FNPF staff, we will leave Tanjung Harapan as well.
On the 30th of August, I attended the meeting at Kantor Bupati (local government) where Conservation International Indonesia (CII) explained their plan to work in the area around Tanjung Puting. Although their working method is quite different, CII is planning to do almost the same survey as we want to do.
Later that day, CII, OFI and Birute Galdikas visited FNPF office in Kumai to talk about FNPF`s and CII`s programme in Tanjung Harapan. Miss Galdikas explained us that she is married to a Dayak and that she has been working in Pasir Panjang and Tanjung Harapan for 30 years now. Moreover, she explained us that if OFI does anything, they work till the end (maybe she thinks that because we are all younger, that we cannot work till the end).
The 31st of August, we had another meeting at DPRD (local parliament). All foundations were invited to explain their programme. Birute Galdikas explained that she is married to a Dayak and that her children are Dayak too. Pak Susi told them all he was married to a Dayak too. I really don`t know why this is all relevant, but it seems to be as she tells it at every meeting she attends. Nothing much was said at this meeting, except that, according to DPRD, we should all work together. Of course we should all work together, but I`d rather have it in a more professional way. That`s it for my August report, hopefully my next report can be one of less meetings, more results and still from Tanjung Harapan.
Lots of love from The Jungle
Els Coolen