Indonesia: East Kalimantan’s Nature Reserves Under Threat From Villagers

Tunggadewa Mattangkilang Jakarta Globe 30 Apr 13;

Balikpapan. Forest rangers have revealed that up to two-fifths of the combined area of two nature reserves in East Kalimantan’s Paser district are degraded as a result of the increased human presence there.

Darmanto, the chief ranger with the Balikpapan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), said on Monday that the 53,800-hectare Teluk Adang and the 46,900-hectare Teluk Apar reserves, both home to ecologically important mangrove swamps, were slowly being taken over by people building villages and fish and shrimp farms there.

“They’ve even built schools and clinics inside the reserves, which is prohibited, and this has left up to 40 percent of the area badly degraded,” he said.

Darmanto added that there were now 14 villages inside the reserves, with a total population of 24,000 and growing. He warned that if the trend continued, human activities would destroy all vestiges of the reserves within just five years.

He said there were several factors for the proliferation of human activities inside the ostensibly off-limits area, among them the fact that a handful of villages already existed there before the two nature reserves were established in 1982.

“What the BKSDA and the Paser district administration have tried to do is propose that human activities be limited to a small enclave within the reserve area. The problem is that the Forestry Ministry has never approved this proposal,” Darmanto said.

He added his office had only five rangers to patrol a combined area of more than 100,000 hectares.