IV - THE PROBLEM OF SOME DEVELOPMENT POLICIES : FOREST EXPLOITATION AND TRANSMIGRATION

Forest exploitation : there is inadequate control over forest exploitation and constant breach of the regulations ; products include coal and charcoal (exported to Arab, American and European countries) and luxuries. The areas of protected wildlife in the north of Sumatra are heavily exploited ; those same areas are also the most densely populated (except the more remote ones).

Large-scale exploitation projects (covering from 10 000 to 1 million ha) are run by foreign companies, mainly from the U.S.A., Japan, Philippines, Europe, Hong-Kong and Singapore. There are two types of exploitations : local (100 ha), multi- or bilateral (1000 to 1 million ha). Exploitations of this sort, with no external control whatsoever, have drastic effects on the ecosystem and the lives of local populations, as for example in Kalimantan, and the Mentawai islands, and in Irian Jaya. Moreover, many local people run small private ventures. In the Gunung Leuser Orang Utan Reserve, in north Sumatra, 10 major concessions exploit 40 to 50% of the total area, and this is without taking into account the numerous small local exploitations. For example, 5 sawmills have been set up in the northern part of the Alas Valley (next to the Gunung Leuser Reserve), between Kutacane and Ketambe, and they cover 16 000 ha. Officially 500 ha only had been granted (p151) (RIJKSEN, 1978 : 349-65).

The Jakarta Post, 24th june, 1992, denounced the transfer of a concession to a company (PT Alam Nusa Segar) for the exploitation of 164 000 ha of forests on Yamdena Island ; the island itself (Tanimbar archipelago, east of Timor) has 172 000 ha : the concession therefore covers 95% of the forests that were declared protected forests by the government in 1971.

According to forest regulations, only trees with a diameter of over 0,90 m and 8 trees per hectare may be felled. In fact 12 to 15 trees are felled, per hectare and, in the richer forests, up to 75 trees/ha, which is tantamount to bleeding the land. Bearing in mind that felling a big tree destroys other trees around it over an area of 50 x 30 m, felling 10% of the trees in one area destroys 55% of the other trees. This implies that after extracting 10%, only 35% of the vegetation remains.

Transmigration (MAC ANDREWS, 1986 : 14, 56-58) : Each family (Java) receives 2 ha of land (about 4 times more than they would have on Java). In 1983, 60 000 km² of forests on swamp and dry land were taken over. In 1973, out of all the cultivated land, 26% of the land in East Kalimantan, 23% in south-east Sulawesi, 21% in south Sumatra, 16% of Bengkulu were cultivated by immigrant farmers.

Two negative effects of the transmigration scheme :

1 - Ecological impact : most of Indonesia's ecosystems are notoriously fragile and the influx of transmigrants has upset the delicate balance of these ecosystems. There has been no controlling of the erosion, conservation of the soil has been neglected, and transmigration has destroyed the natural habitat of many forest animal species and the cultivation systems based on swiddening. It seems that the authorities only became aware of this in the 1970s with the help of the World Bank.

2 - The clash between modern Indonesian law and pre-existing traditional law : though the 1960 BAL cleared the legal relationship of the adat with modern legal practices of land distribution and land rights, the latter were still not applied everywhere by the end of the 1980s. Hence the conflicts between traditional rights and the rights given the transmigrants by the government.

Present conservation situation in North Sumatra (RIJKSEN, 1978)