Sustainable Use of Forestry Tested in Dayak Villages
12/17/97
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Headline: Sustainable Use of Forestry Tested in Dayak Villages
Source: Environmental News Network
Date: 12/17/97
Copyright 1997: Environmental News Network, Inc.
Environmentalists often tout the benefits of "sustainable"
exploitation of natural resources as a means to both conserve
ecologically sensitive areas and sustain the lifestyles of native
peoples who inhabit them.
In what may be the first study to see if these claims are more
than activist babble, researchers with the New York Botanical
Garden, with the support of the Indonesian Department of Forestry
and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation, have launched a
community project in Indonesia to develop sustainable ways to
exploit forest resources.
The Indonesian Department of Forestry has given the logging
concession for half a million acres in West Kalimantan, Indonesia,
to the inhabitants of the 59 Dayak villages on the land. The one
stipulation of this contract is that the villagers follow the
management plan put forth by the German GTZ.
Guided by two fundamental assumptions that non-timber resources
can be harvested sustainably from a tropical forest given
sufficient information on the current stock and productivity of
the species involved, and data collection and monitoring
activities are most effective when conducted by local people, Dr.
Charles M. Peters and Kate E. Tode of the New York Botanical Zoo
have collaborated with Dayak villagers to determine the limits of
sustainable exploitation of three forest resources: damar -- an
oleo-resin used as varnish and ink -- and rattan and bamboo.
The damar is sold to markets in Singapore for a modest profit and
weavings made out of the rattan and bamboo are being bought by an
Phillapina designer who uses them to make popular hand bags, said
Peters.
Peters has spent much of his time in the past few years teaching
the Dayak how to count and collect data for these resources, thus
allowing them to police themselves.
If the villagers respect the determined yield levels in harvesting
practices, the resources can be exploited year after year while
preserving the tropical forest ecosystem.
At this point just five villages have collected enough data to
begin the exploitation process, but Peters hopes that within a few
years there will be enough information gathered to answer some key
questions in the environmental community.
For example, researchers have often wondered what is the best way
to conserve a tropical rainforest. Kick out the natives and turn
the forest into a nature preserve, or help the natives manage the
resource wisely?
"Maybe the local people actually know what is going on," said
Peters, "but we have never been able to prove this."
Peters said that the data collection techniques he taught the
Dayak compliment what they already know about their environment
and that they were quite receptive to the western research
methods. Armed with a factual inventory of their resources, Peters
said the Dayak feel a stronger sense of pride and protection for
their environment.
In time, the involvement of the Indonesian Department of Forestry,
the German GTZ and the New York Botanical Garden will be come less
and less as the management of the land is transferred to the Dayak
villagers. In theory, the Dayak should maintain their lifestyle in
the tropical forest without ever over exploiting the resources or
degrading the land.
Since the project is in part sponsored by the Department of
Forestry, which controls all forestry projects in Indonesia,
Peters believes that the land and people are not threatened by a
large timber concession going in and harvesting the timber
resources. However, there is a remote possibility that the Dayak
people themselves could try to sell the timber and other resources
commercially.
Peters said, however, that this is a success story coming from a
part of the world full of the typical doom and gloom making
headlines throughout the environmental community.
For more information, contact Annick Sullivan, New York Botanical
Garden, (718)817-8815.