END LOGGING ON YAMDENA ISLAND, INDONESIA April 97
The people of a remote Indonesian island have been fighting a six year battle to save their forests - and their livelihoods - from destruction by logging companies. They have suffered brutality and repression for defending their lands. If the logging goes on, it could literally mean the death of their island. The situation is reaching crisis point. The people of Yamdena Island need your help - now.
Indonesia is a vast archipelago of over 13,000 islands in southeast Asia. It is one of the biologically richest places on Earth. But it is a country run by a harsh and corrupt regime. The government is ruthlessly exploiting the country's natural resources, in the name of development. Though Indonesia contains the third largest area of tropical rainforest on the planet, it also has the second fastest rate of deforestation, after Brazil.
In eastern Indonesia lie the small, sparsely populated Tanimbar Islands. The largest island - Yamdena - is 435,000 hectares in area, two thirds of which is forested. Most of its 80,000 inhabitants live by harvesting the forest, gathering fruit and honey, and growing coconuts and beans. Yamdena's forests are very old, and contain rare and unique species. Even the Indonesian government recognised their environmental importance in 1971, when it designated Yamdena a conservation area.
Yet in 1991, that same government awarded a licence allowing a logging company to destroy most of Yamdena's forests. The islanders were not consulted about this decision. The first they knew was when loggers arrived on their island and began to cut down their trees.
According to Indonesia's traditional land law, all of the land on Yamdena belongs to the islanders. These traditional rights are written down in historical documents, but the government refuses to recognise them.
Logging Yamdena's forests could - quite literally - destroy the island. The Tanimbar islands are fragile environments, built on limestone outcrops. Many scientists believe that extensive logging could leave much of Yamdena barren, as has happened on nearby islands.
The islanders launched a brave campaign against the loggers in 1991. It was met with brutality and repression. Islanders were beaten, held without trial and tortured. But they did not give up. The campaign gained international attention, and the Indonesian government was forced to review the situation. In 1993, the loggers pulled out of Yamdena. The islanders believed the government had finally listened to their voices.
But they were wrong. In 1995, after the outcry had died down, the government issued a new logging licence. Loggers moved in again, and today the forests are shrinking faster than ever before. The new logging company is state-owned. This means that opposing the logging is seen as anti-government - a very serious charge in Indonesia. The islanders are currently engaged in a lengthy court battle with the government to try to protect their forests. But Indonesia's courts are corrupt, and the prospects for victory do not look good.
Yamdena's people are demoralised and frustrated. They have been betrayed by their government, their rights have been ignored, and their ancestral forests are once again being destroyed. They are appealing for international help. It could be their last hope. PLEASE ACT NOW
In 1993, international pressure played a crucial role in making the government withdraw the original logging concession. Wherever you are in the world, your action could help to stop the current logging.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Please write immediately to the Indonesian Minister of Forestry. Urge him to:
* Cancel the logging concession on Yamdena island immediately.
* Recognise the traditional land rights of Yamdena's people.
* Ensure that local people are fully involved in any future decisions, so that the fair sharing of benefits from natural resource management and exploitation in the Tanimbar islands is ensured.
Please send a copy of this letter, or send a separate letter, to the head of the State-owned logging company operating on Yamdena. The addresses are:
Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo
Minister of the Department of Forestry
Gedung Manggala Wanabhakti
Blok 1, Lt. 4, Jl. Gatot Subroto
Senayan, Jakarta Pusat
INDONESIA
Fax: (+62) 21 570 0226 / 580 3178
Abdul Fatah DF
Managing Director
PT Inhutani 1
Gedung Manggala Wanabhakti
Blok 7, Lt. 12, Jl. Gatot Subroto
Senayan, Jakarta Pusat
INDONESIA
Fax: (+62) 21 573 4335
BACKGROUOND
INDONESIA
Spread across 4,800 kilometres (3,000 miles) of the Pacific and Indian oceans, Indonesia is the largest archipelago nation in the world. Its population of over 200 million people live scattered across 13,667 islands, varying greatly in size, culture, religion, ethnic makeup and environment. The islands were known as the Dutch East Indies until 1949, when the state of Indonesia achieved independence from colonial rule.
Indonesia is ruled by an authoritarian government, supported by the army. The country's president, Suharto, seized power in a coup in 1966. Suharto has presided over a long period of economic development and growing monetary wealth in Indonesia. But this wealth is unevenly distributed, and Indonesia's rapid economic growth has occurred in the context of political corruption, environmental destruction and the suppression of human rights, ethnic traditions and individual freedoms.
INDONESIA'S FORESTS
Though Indonesia accounts for only 1.3% of the world's land surface, it contains over 10% of the world's tropical rainforests, and 40% of all Asia's rainforests. As with most tropical forests, those of Indonesia are remarkably biologically diverse. Indonesia is home to more than 500 species of mammal (200 of which are unique to Indonesia), 1,500 birds, 7,000 fish, 1,000 reptiles and amphibians, and over 20,000 plant species, including 10,000 different trees. Most of these species are found within the rainforests, and there are undoubtedly more waiting to be discovered.
Like all the world's rainforests, however, those of Indonesia are steadily disappearing: Indonesia's rate of deforestation is second only to that of Brazil. Recent estimates suggest that between 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 square miles) and 12,000 square kilometres (4,600 square miles) of forest - an area larger than Lebanon - disappear each year. Logging is a major cause of this destruction: Indonesia is one of the world's biggest exporters of wood products, and the government is unscrupulous in its desire to see this trade maintained, granting logging concessions practically anywhere. Another threat is the government's transmigration programme, which shifts vast numbers of people from Indonesia's overcrowded main island, Java, to the less populated outer islands. In the process, transmigration is often responsible for forest destruction and ethnic conflict.
The Indonesian government has stated its commitment to biodiversity and forest protection, and is keen to be seen as environmentally aware in the eyes of the world. Unfortunately, its actions usually belie its words.
YAMDENA ISLAND
Yamdena is the largest of the Tanimbar islands, a small group of islands which form part of the Maluku chain, which stretches across eastern Indonesia. It is a small, limestone island of just 435,000 hectares, two thirds of which is covered by virgin forest.
Yamdena's People
Approximately 80,000 people live on Yamdena, mainly along the east coast. Yamdena's people make a living as their ancestors have done for generations, by gathering fruits, honey and other forest products, and clearing small areas of the forest on a rotational basis to grow coconuts, beans and other crops. They also make a living from fishing. The land on Yamdena is controlled by traditional land law, by which plots of land are passed down through families every generation. This means that all the forests on Yamdena are owned by the island's families, even though boundaries are not marked.
The Forests
The forests on the island cover approximately 320,000 hectares, and stretch down to the coasts, where mangrove forests grow. The vast size of some of the trees on Yamdena means that the forests are probably many centuries old. They contain rare species of orchids, cockatoos, egrets and wild buffalo. In 1971, recognising the importance of Yamdena's forests, the Indonesian government declared the whole island a conservation area, and designated 72,000 hectares of the oldest forest a nature reserve.
The Threat To The Forests
In 1991, despite having declared Yamdena a conservation area 20 years before, the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry gave a logging concession totalling 164,000 hectares - more than half of the island's forests - to a forestry company. There was no consultation with Yamdena's islanders, who have owned the forest for generations. They knew nothing of it until the loggers arrived in January 1992, and began cutting down their trees. Logging on Yamdena threatens the nature reserve and its many rare species, the coral reefs surrounding the island, the islanders' livelihood, and the ecosystem of the island itself. Yamdena, like all the Tanimbar islands, is built on limestone. The soil is prone to erosion without its tree cover, as deforestation on other islands has shown - some islands in the Tanimbar group are today barren as a result of previous logging. It is feared that if Yamdena is heavily deforested, its environment may collapse.
A protest was immediately launched by the local communities on Yamdena, supported by community groups and campaigners elsewhere in Indonesia. The islanders insisted that the logging was of no benefit to them, and that the government had no right to grant a concession on their land without consulting them. But the government ignored their protests. Over the next year, the islanders and their allies met with government officials, alerted the Indonesian press, and worked with other groups to raise the profile of their campaign. Protests and demonstrations were held in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Meanwhile, on Yamdena, demonstrations by villagers against the logging were met with violence by loggers and police: several islanders were arrested and beaten, and some were tortured. At the same time, Indonesian campaigners spread word of the Yamdena logging all over the world, and pressure on the Indonesian government grew.
As a result of this pressure, the Ministry of Forestry issued a ban on logging in Yamdena in 1993, while a study of the forests was carried out. The study, when it reported back to the Ministry after five months, said that logging on Yamdena was neither environmentally nor economically sustainable. Soon after, the loggers withdrew. The islanders were overjoyed, believing that their campaign had been successful, and their forests were safe.
However, in July 1995, Indonesia's new Minister of Forestry issued another logging concession, this time to a logging company owned by the government, which has teamed up with a private company to exploit the concession. Having already tried almost every tactic to stop the logging before, a group of islanders took the government to the provincial courts, arguing that the logging should be stopped on environmental and legal grounds. They lost their case, and their legal appeal was rejected. Indonesia's courts are corrupt, and their decisions are often influenced by the government
The Situation Today
The logging on Yamdena goes on as you read this. The islanders have now taken their court case to national level, and are awaiting a decision. If they lose, they plan to take their case to the International Court of Justice. They are working hard to get their case into the international arena, with some success - campaigners in other parts of the world are now working with them to help protect Yamdena, and in March this year, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the Indonesian government to stop the logging. This international pressure is now the best hope for the islanders of Yamdena and their beleaguered forests. They need you to let the Indonesian government know that the eyes of the world are upon it.
EXPERT SOURCES
* Dutch Centre for Indigenous peoples (NCIV)
Brechtje Bakker / Eddie Roos
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tel: +31-20-693 8625. Fax: +31-20-665 2818
email: nciv@antenna.nl
* Down to Earth
Liz Chidley
Norwich, U.K.
Tel: +44-1508-471413. Fax: +44-171-732 7984
email: dtecampaign@gn.apc.org