First of all I apologise for being late in providing an update for October 2002. Our thanks to those who keep supporting us in this difficult time.

On 31st October 2002 I went to Pangkalan Bun to attend a workshop to form a consortium with other parties who feel they can contribute to the viability and continued existence of theTanjung Puting area as a National Park. The workshop which took place on November 2nd - 4th was attended by several NGOs, villagers, government institutions etc. On this occasion we also would like to thank Conservation International Indonesia who facilitated the workshop and invited FNPF to participate in the workshop. We hope the outcome of this workshop will create better co-operation amongst all parties having the same aim to preserve and conserve the park as one of the most important heritage areas to be protected.

On my first day in Pangkalan Bun, I went directly to Tanjung Harapan Village. I found that almost all of the villagers welcome us very well as usual and there is no sign that they do not want us to come to their village. This situation strengthened my belief that the people who are saying that the villagers at Tanjung Harapan do not like us, are just a group of people who want to get easy money by claiming land compensation. Right now there are not many villagers who join them in this movement as most of the villagers could see that they have been fooled by these people and the ones who are benefitting are only the ones who organize the action, not the villagers in general.

I overnighted at the home of one of the villagers who had initially joined the movement then quit because he felt sorry about me / us being threatened unfairly. The next day I went to Pondok Tanggui to visit the camp and try to approach the people who have taken over the camp. At the same time I wanted to look over our reforestation project, the ex captive orangutan that we work with and to do my routine ritual whenever I visit this camp. As soon as we arrived thereI asked one of the FNPF staff to ask permission from the occupiers to come and visit even though legally we need not do this as the area is still under the park authority. One of the occupiers named Sabri met me with an axe in his hand and a very mad expression. I tried to stay calm and introduced myself in a friendly manner. I opened the conversation by asking him, "How can I help you" to show our goodwill instead of behaving like their enemy even though they felt that we are one of the obstacles that has prevented them getting their money until now. We had a short conversation and I tried to suggest that they undertake a court process to pursue their land claim. I suggested that they prepare any necessary paperwork that would help them prove that the land belonged to them and said that we are willing to support them in any way that we can, including helping to find a lawyer to help complete the paperwork. Suddenly two of them, Satri and Sabri, hit me on my face several times! Lucky me and thank God for the protection that saved me from serious damage to my face.

After that bad moment, they said I should be responsible for paying their claim because I am the director of FNPF and whoever works at the park should pay their claim. The government should know, I should know that the land that they are taking over now is their land. Madame professor had known about it and I should know it. If I want to help them, I should pay their claim. They forced me out of the park and warned me not to come to camp or even set foot in the village any more if I do not want to get worse problems with them. I could still control my emotions and thanked them both for their time and what they had done for me; I offered to shake their hand but only Sabri accept my friendly handshake.

From Pondok Tanggui we went back to Tanjung Harapan village and told the villagers about the incident. I asked our Belgium volunteers to think over continuing to stay there as our people had previously been kicked out from the village. Some villagers guaranteed to make sure it will be safe for the students to stay at the village.

After our short meeting at the village, we went to Kumai and then continued to the police station at Pangkalan Bun to report what happened. The police took in the two people concerned to be investigated and let them out the next morning.

On the last day of my stay 4th of November I asked the investigator about my case. From our conversation I found out that the police consider my case as a minor one equivalent to a case of forgetting to bring my ID card while travelling outside my home town . I asked them to investigate further into why the 2 men hit me and why they intimidated my staff before that. I also mentioned that all of the people occupying the camp are getting money from somebody, but I did not mentioned who I believe is paying them because that is for the police department to find out and I do not wish to make a false report. The investigator responded that it is outside the case in question.

I then asked what is required to make the police investigate further and how they could guarantee that no harm will happen to my staff. I do not understand if the regulation at Pangkalan Bun is different from the rest of Indonesia, in Bali I could sue somebody just because he / she said they want to hurt me and I can ask protection from the police department to make sure I am safe. The investigator said I should talk to his boss. As I was in hurry to go to the airport for my flight, I ask Mr. Susiantoro and FNPF staff to follow up the case. For the court process the investigator said I should come by myself instead of being represented by a lawyer.

We received information from the village secretary and other villagers that there is somebody / an organisation which will benefit if FNPF is not working in the park or if FNPF does not exist at the park anymore. This person / organization is the one who keeps sponsoring the occupiers to stay at Tanjung Harapan and Pondok Tanggui rehabilitation centre. According to the park director Mr. Lusman Pasaribu he had made an official report to the police department about the rehab centre occupation but so far there is no significant respond from the police department. I hope the police department will be wise enough and really look into the case not just as the case of somebody hit somebody else but more about why somebody hit somebody else, what is the motive behind this, who may take advantage of this etc. We / I really realise that we cannot push anybody to take any action right now. This is based on information we receive from various sources about why the occupation is still ongoing. I really ask you to keep praying to God that hopefully the good side of people's hearts may be opened to do something more productive and constructive for conservation.

On this occasion we would like to inform you that we have a new veterinarian to work with us. His name is Drh. Sugiartha from Bali, I hope he will able to work for us for quite a long time. Herewith his report and that of other FNPF staff.

Sincerely yours,

Drh I Gede Nyoman Bayu Wirayudha
Director of FNPF.

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Activities report by FNPF staff

Drh. Made Sugiartha started his work by making an orientation visit to the village and the park, meeting people to get some positive social interaction with any party that we may work with.

In this month there are two conservation events that happened in conjunction with Tanjung Puting National Park conservation. The first event which was organised by the park management called " Pendidikan Kader Konservasi " or conservationist candidate education / training. Some of our staff participated in this event and one of them, Mr. Ledan, acted as a kind of lecturer for tree / plant field identification. Students, youth clubs and local NGOs participated in the training. The purpose of this training is to encourage people to undertake conservation activities by giving a basic knowledge of conservation and field study at Tanjung Puting National Park.

The second event was the workshop to form a consortium amongst any parties who have competence with Tanjung Puting National Park which was facilitated by Conservation International - Indonesia . Some of us Drh. I Made Sugiartha, Erwin, Danson and Kasri become a committee member and participant of this meeting. Even though there was quite a lot of argument about any subject that we discussed such as Illegal Logging and Mining, Community Development, Orangutan Conservation / Rehabilitation, Law Enforcement, Eco - Tourism etc, basically most of the participants agreed that we need to protect Tanjung Puting National Park while ensuring the local people can get direct and indirect benefits from conservation / preservation and other activities. Many participants complained about the poor law enforcement to any illegal action in the park and unfortunately there was nobody who represented the police department in the presentation and discussion section. Some of influential villagers such as the head of the village were really happy with this workshop because they felt that this is the first time they have been invited to discuss and give their point on view on something that they experience everyday.

We hope that there will be a positive co-operation as the result of the three days exhaustive discussion.

Orangutan rehabilitation program

Drh. Made made some faecal test especially for intestine parasite to our babies and found there is no significant finding on this faecal test.

We tried to find a space close to Kumai to train the three babies that we are taking care of right now. We finally chose the area just across Kumai Harbour, an area with such a condition that we are able to monitor and follow the babies in case they move further than what we expected.

All of the babies Lady (female 4 years, 8 months), Adung (male 3 years 2 months) and Butet (10 months) were so happy to be there. From our observation Butet has the best ability to build a nest. In one day he sometimes made four nests. Then later in the afternoon Butet made a higher nest and did not want to go down. It is actually a good sign that he still have quite a good ability in nest building but because he is not ready to stay overnight by himself, we climbed the tree to bring him back to the cage. Adung and Lady mostly watched Butet when he was making a nest but did not really work with it.

Butet was suspected of having a genital deformity ( his genitals are very small and almost hidden ) but he still could urinate as normal. Right now it is appears quite normal. We hope this is just a late development of his genital organ.

Reforestation

We still hold the seedling that we are keeping at Tanjung Harapan village. As soon as we have enough rain we will replant it at an area where we can do so without creating any problems with the group who is occupying the rehabilitation centre.

Community Development

As our work at the village was stopped by those people involved in the occupation who claim to represent the villagers, we could not do a lot this time. Our Belgium volunteers and our staff along with most of villagers are making a simple home-made water purification system that will be placed at any household interested to have it and who are willing to operate it by themselves. Basically we just provide the design and material to make it, then the villagers will make and operate it according to our guideline. The drinkable water is more and more difficult to get especially during dry season. The polution level I think is quite bad as illegal gold mining is still occuring and likely to increase. We think that this water project is an urgent thing to do at Tanjung Harapan before many people get medical problems because of the bad water quality. FNPF and the Belgium students are sharing the budget to make this project happen.

Our nursery for Morinda citrofolia currently has more than 1300 seedlings. We do not really spread the idea to the villagers yet because we need to make sure that this tree could grow well at the village even though we almost sure it could grow well at Tanjung Harapan before we introduce it to the rest of the villagers.

Our Belgium volunteers are still allowed to teach at school and we hope we could do it as what we use to do in the previous time.

Others

In this month we saw boats pulling logs out through Sekonyer at least nine times. In totally about 1750 logs were removed. From the workshop we have been informed that the illegal logging activity at Tanjung Puting National Park is getting lower and lower. I hope this is more because law enforcement has become more effective, not because it is more difficult to get wood due to the diminishing stocks along the river.

Sincerely yours

Drh. I Made Sugiartha and FNPF Staff.