DtE 29/30, August 1996
MEGA-PROJECT SPELLS DOOM FOR KALIMANTAN PEAT FORESTS
Hundreds of thousands of hectares of pristine tropical peat forests in
Central Kalimantan are about to be destroyed for a huge rice development
project which experts say cannot work.
The million hectare scheme, fully sanctioned by President Suharto, aims to
convert virgin and logged forests, as well as absorbing existing
agricultural sites, into a vast area of irrigated rice-fields, horticulture
and plantations. Over the next three years, it will destroy a huge swathe of
forest rich in biodiversity and deprive indigenous Dayak communities of
their livelihoods. Billed as a means to save Indonesia's rice
self-sufficiency, the project is a political ploy to boost the President's
popularity. As such, it has not been properly planned and the grave
consequences for the environment and the local populations not duly
considered. Despite this serious lack of preparation, work on the project
has already started. In January this year diggers started work on the main
canals which will drain the peat swamps.
The project is also a huge exercise in social engineering. Between
200,000 and 250,000 transmigrant families will be brought in to work on the
rice-fields and plantations. This means anything from 800,000 to one and a
quarter million people (depending on what is taken to be the average family
size). The transmigrants will at least equal and very probably outnumber the
local population, making them a minority in their own land.
A sure-fire failure
The project cannot be successful, according to scientists with intimate
knowledge of the area. This is because a large part of the project land
consists of highly acidic deep peat, which is impossible to cultivate. Areas
of shallow peat (less than 3 metres deep), which are mainly along rivers and
coastal areas, have been converted to agriculture with some success, but
only with large amounts of fertiliser. This is no basis for assuming that
deep peat areas can be similarly cultivated, however. Indeed when tried
before in other countries, only two or three crops have been possible before
acidification (acid sulphate), toxification and micronutrient deficiency
make further cultivation impossible.(1) The soil then becomes a black acidic
wasteland.
There is a fundamental lack of knowledge about the ecology of peat swamp
forests in government circles, with few people quite realising the
impossibility of developing deep peat areas for agriculture. Worse, those
who do realise that the project cannot succeed and are in a good position to
communicate the problems, are unwilling or unable to face the task of
telling the President he is wrong -- and suffer the consequences.
Peat facts
Indonesia possesses the largest area of peat in the tropics. Estimates
vary from 17 million to 27 million hectares, the higher placing Indonesia
fourth in the world league table of peatland by area, behind the Former
Soviet Union, Canada and the USA.
According to one 1988 study, the largest area of peat is in Kalimantan,
followed by Irian Jaya (West Papua), then Sumatra. Another two surveys
(RePPProt 1988 and 1990) found that Sumatra had the largest area, followed
by Kalimantan, Irian Jaya, Sulawesi, then Halmahera and Seram in the Moluccas.
Just over half a million hectares of peatlands have been used for
transmigration sites and by local inhabitants.
About 1.9 million hectares of peat swamp forest has been gazetted as
conservation areas including Berbak National Park (Sumatra), Danau Sentarum
Wildlife Reserve (Kalimantan) and the Lorenz National Park (Irian Jaya).
Much larger protected areas are needed to maintain a viable peat forest
since much of the best, undisturbed peat swamp forest is not included in
these reserves. (See E. Maltby, C.P. Immirzi and R.J. Safford, Tropical
Lowland Peatlands of Southeast Asia, IUCN Wetlands Programme 1996.)
No international funding, no EIA
An indication of this project's feasibility is given by the fact that no
international funding organisation will touch it.(2) One reason is that no
environmental impact assessment is being done before the project starts.
Although large projects are required to conduct an EIA before going ahead,
this project has been given such priority, and the planned time-scale of
three years is so short, that the law is being flouted. Instead, the
environmental impact assessment will be done as the project proceeds,
defeating the whole purpose of conducting an EIA.
And this is a project that needs an EIA more than most. Environment
Minister Sarwono has admitted that "our knowledge of the environmental
risks...is still minimal..." (Media Indonesia 1/4/96)
One major concern is that the peat types in the target area have never
been properly mapped, meaning that the project is being developed on unknown
terrain. Project decisions have been made using maps based on aerial photos
under the British ODA-financed RePPProT mapping scheme. These maps do not
correctly indicate the land types in the peat swamp forests, however, and
their use has major implications for the feasibility of the project.
Scientists taking part in an international symposium on tropical
peatlands held in Kalimantan last year warned about the consequences of
inappropriate peat development:
It is recognized that to secure food production, more tropical peatland
may be developed for agriculture. It is, however, imperative that only the
most appropriate peatland be selected for development in order to ensure
long term success. Inappropriate conversion of peatlands can lead to both
economic failure and environmental degradation.
They stress the need for sustainable development of peatlands adopting an
ecosystem approach and point to guidelines for the integrated management of
tropical peatlands being formulated by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).
(Source: Statement prepared by delegates to the International Symposium on
the Biodoversity, Environmental Importance and Sustainability of Tropical
Peat and Peatlands, 4-8th September, Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan)
Who is involved?
It seems that Indonesian companies are also reluctant to get involved in
the project. The land drainage is being carried out by the Salim Group,
allegedly under pressure from the President. The Group, Indonesia biggest
conglomerate run by Liem Sioe Liong, has been given to understand it will
not get other lucrative government contracts if it refuses this one. There
was no tendering process for this contract.
Meanwhile, the consultants will be the Dutch Government Agency for Land
Drainage and Conservation, Wageningen. The agency, which should know better,
has gone into the project with the familiar limp excuse: "if we don't do it,
someone else less qualified will."
"Deforestation" fund
The costs of such a huge development will be enormous. Draining the
peatland will call for an estimated 27,000 kilometres of drainage and
irrigation canals. Along with other infrastructure to be provided by the
government, the plan could cost between US$2 billion and $3 billion.
Since international donors seem to have shied away from this project, the
funds will be drawn from various national sources, including the
Presidential Fund (BanPres) and from the state budget.
One of the major sources of funding is none other than the Reforestation
Fund. According to Forestry Minister Djamaludin, the Fund's contribution
will amount to Rp 500 billion (around US$218 million). In the past this has
been used to fund projects totally unrelated to reforestation, such as the
state-owned aircraft industry. This year, as last, it is being used to help
balance the state budget. But never before has the fund been used so
blatantly to do the very opposite of what it is meant for. Instead of
rehabilitating forests, it will destroy them.
Impacts
The potential environmental and social impacts of this mega-project are
proportionately large in scale. The peat swamps have a very special and
relatively little-studied ecosystem. Potentially, many new species have yet
to be discovered. In the deepest peat areas of the interior, furthest away
from the rivers, the richness of fauna and flora is greatest. These forests
are home to at least five species of primates, including orang utans - the
highest concentration are now living in peat forests (probably because their
other tropical forest habitats have been destroyed). More than 140 bird
species have been recorded; six are in the Red Data Book of endangered and
rare species.
The so-called "blackwater" rivers found in the peat swamps have very
unusual ecology with several endemic species.
In the rainy season a large part of the forest floor is under water --
literally a swamp. When the forest floor is flooded, the swamps become river
fish breeding grounds in the same way as mangroves are breeding grounds for
ocean fish.
In the past, Indonesia has recognised the value of conserving this unique
forest environment with a Presidential decree to protect deep peat areas
(over 3 metres deep) from exploitation. This clearly conflicts with the
decree which sanctions the rice-lands project and is being ignored in the
rush to develop the project.
Indigenous communities
The indigenous Dayak communities who live in the area are dependent on
fish for food. They live mainly along the rivers, as the forests are
uninhabitable for much of the year. But they do make use of the forests in
the dry season when they go further into the interior to collect forest
products and hunt animals for food.
These communities will be severely affected by the loss of traditional
fishing and foraging resources as well as by the influx of transmigrants of
different culture to their own. In one newspaper article, the former Central
Kalimantan Deputy Governor, HJ Andries, asked project contractors to go
carefully when dealing with local communities, their customs and sacred
sites. (Kompas 8/12/95) But without the recognition of their customary
ownership rights, such words have little meaning.
Fertilisers
The tropical peatlands are highly acidic and in the shallow peat areas
alone, will require huge amounts of nutrients to make the soil fit for
growing crops. The use of such large quantities of fertilisers is bound to
take its toll on the environment, on the river systems which provide fish
and drinking water for communities living in the project area, for
downstream populations as well as the coastal areas near the river deltas.
These include areas of mangrove swamps and may affect several existing and
proposed conservation areas on the coast. The population of the South
Kalimantan provincial capital of Banjarmasin, where one of the region's main
rivers, the Barito, reaches the sea, is likely to suffer the effects of
increased water pollution.
Flooding
The peat swamp forests also act as a natural buffer against flooding in
downstream areas. They do this by slowing down the drainage of rainfall
(which is extremely heavy) into the rivers, like a natural water regulator.
Without their regulatory effect, the rivers will be much more prone to flash
flooding, putting downstream towns, villages, and agricultural land at a
much greater risk of inundation.
The climate
Huge amounts of carbon -- one of the main greenhouse gases responsible for
global warming -- will be released by the project. Both forests and
peatlands have the ability to remove or "sequester" carbon from atmospheric
carbon dioxide. Their value as so-called carbon sinks has been recognised
for some years by climatologists. According to Friends of the Earth, on a
global scale, peatlands may well form a greater carbon sink than
rainforests, although they cover little more than half the area of rainforests:
Because peatbogs continue to sequester carbon over long periods of time
they have become remarkable terrestrial carbon pools. Peatlands may well
contain between 329 and 528 billion tonnes of carbon. This is three and half
times the size of the carbon pool of tropical rainforests...
(Peatbogs and Climate Change, Friends of the Earth Briefing Sheet,
September 1992)
The Indonesian government's Kalimantan peatland conversion project will
add to carbon levels in the atmosphere in four ways. First, the forests will
be felled thereby destroying their function as a carbon sink. Then, when the
peat is drained, a whole lot more carbon will be released. At the same time,
the drainage will mean the loss of those parts of the peatlands which are
still actively absorbing carbon. Finally, the rice paddies will release
enormous quantities of methane, a powerful global warming gas.
Motivations: food and log security
So why is the government determined to take such huge risks and go ahead
with a project doomed to failure? Why not first set up a pilot project on
deep peatland that has
already been cleared (and there are some areas like this) for, say, a
small-scale ten-year trial? The reasons are both political and economic. The
loss of rice-lands on Java is causing public concern as a decade of national
rice-self-sufficiency draws to a close. Since this has happened largely as a
result of rapid industrialisation on Java -- much of which has directly
benefited companies belonging to members of the Suharto family -- the
President must be seen to be doing something about it. The creation of
rice-lands -- a million hectares in Kalimantan to replace the million
hectares lost on Java -- is therefore an attempt to quell fears about food
self-sufficiency. This tidy calculation does not stand up to the least
scrutiny however. In practice, even in the unlikely event that the full
million hectares were successfully converted to rice-fields, the yield per
hectare would be far lower than it is on Java. Rice production on Java is
equal to the highest anywhere in the world at 6 tonnes per hectare. The far
lower yield on peat (if possible at all) of 1-2 tonnes/ha would mean that to
replace a million hectares in Java, 3-6 million hectares of peatland would
be required.
The project will also serve to cover up the crisis in the Indonesian
forestry industry. A shortage of logs from Indonesia's production forests
has been hitting some of the downstream processing industries which sell
plywood and other timber products on the lucrative international markets.
Late in 1995 there was talk of importing logs to make up shortfall. (See
article on p.6). In January the President put an end to those ideas,
however, saying that the supply of logs would be boosted by the Kalimantan
project. The felling of the forests is expected to produce some 6 million m3
of timber over the next few years. (The timber-based industries have an
estimated capacity of 44.5 million cubic metres each year). By preventing
the need to import logs, the project therefore protects the nation (or
rather President) from the accusation that it needs to import because it has
destroyed its own forests. It is a tragedy that the log crisis should be
covered up by sacrificing yet more natural forests.
Current peat forest logging
Until now, logging in the peat forests has mainly been done by hand, along
the major rivers and has not penetrated very far into the interior. Some of
the forest near the rivers has been clear-felled but in the interior the
logging has left canopy gaps which could, in theory at least, regenerate.
One factor which has thus far prevented large-scale logging is the much
lower density of large-diameter, commercially valuable trees in the forest
which lie between the forest types nearest the river and the interior
forests which contain the greatest number of commercial tree species,
including the genera Agathis, Dipterocarpus, Palaquium and Shorea. At the
same time, the swampy terrain makes access to the interior more difficult.
The forests also provide other commercial products like latex, rattan,
medicinal plants, edible fungi, and gemur bark used in oil surfactants and
anti-malarial products.
According to one source, the peat swamp forests could have a high
potential for environmentally sustainable management under a suitable timber
extraction regime. But changing the land use to either agriculture or
intensive logging, both of which are non-sustainable in the medium to long
term, threatens the peat resource and its natural functioning. Once
converted to another land use, peat swamps have little if any buffering
capacity against further change since deforestation, drainage and
agriculture conversion bring about irreversible degradation.
The real motivation?
The fact that a huge area of pristine forest is being targeted for the
project (rather than degraded land already available) is perhaps the key to
the true motivation behind this project: the fortune to be made from logging
the forests. It remains to be seen which companies will be given the task of
clearing the forests and where the money they make ends up. One thing is
certain: it will not be used to help the transmigrants stranded on infertile
lands, nor the Dayaks whose forest resources will have been wiped out.
Notes
(1) Toxification through aluminium and manganese, micronutrient deficiency
in copper and zinc.
(2) Foreign investment has been mentioned in one press report, but no
further details have been given.
(Additional sources: personal communications and press: Kompas 8/12/95,
25/3/96 Media Indonesia 1/4/96, GATRA 13/1/96, Jakarta Post 29/11/95, Far
Eastern Economic Review 7/9/95)
DtE 31, November 1996
PROBLEMS AT KALIMANTAN PEAT PROJECT
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)
[text box] 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. [end box]
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.
-------------------------------------------------
Down to Earth
International Campaign for Ecological Justice in Indonesia
Carolyn Marr (dte@gn.apc.org)