conserve ironwood (ulin) stands? An option and approach in East Kalimantan
Wahyuni, T.
Citation
Wahyuni, T. (2011, November 10). Can traditional forest management protect and conserve ironwood (ulin) stands? An option and approach in East Kalimantan. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/18056
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study in Nunukan district, East Kalimantan
5.1. Introduction
For many forest species, the sequence of increasing prices, overexploitation, resource scarcity and increasing extraction costs has been sufficient to initiate cultivation and domestication. For ironwood, however, several decades of scientific research have made seemingly little significant progress toward domesticating ironwood trees. Research on the cultivation and germination of ironwood has become more important because of the low efficacy of cultivation of ironwood outside its natural habitat and the low seed availability. The results of data collection relating to the current status of plantation activities reveal that ironwood plantations are limited and trees remain within research or planting trials fields. So far, in fact, the species has never successfully been grown in plantations.
The ecology, silviculture, propagation and planting technologies of ironwood have been studied comprehensively at the Indonesian Forest Development Agency and Forest Research Institute, Samarinda (Anonymous 2004b, Effendi & Rahman 2006).
However, knowledge and skills relating to these subjects need to be transferred to the users by conducting specific training on ironwood plantation, including aspects stock propagation, planting and maintenance techniques. As mentioned above, scientific research on the domestication, cultivation and germination of ironwood requires socialisation efforts by local people. These efforts are not easy. The question is whether the results of research will be the most culturally appropriate, cost efficient and effective method for developing ironwood through the involvement of local people. Recently, a number indigenous groups in Kalimantan have cultivated and planted ironwood in their forest areas (Anonymous 2004b). This chapter describes information related to the traditional techniques of ironwood cultivation, as well as the ecological knowledge and, conservation efforts of indigenous people. It also examines the landscape and land use patterns relating to ironwood conservation.
5.2. Methods, research area and objectives 5.2.1. Methods
This chapter draws on a series of 30 household interviews with Dayak Agabag indigenous people, field observations and plots measurements undertaken in two villages - Pagaluyon and Saduman - in the period of 2005 to 2006. The methods of collecting data and information about the traditional knowledge of cultivation and conservation efforts for ironwood have been discussed in Chapter 2.
5.2.2. Research area
Pagaluyon and Saduman are villages of in the Sembakung sub-district of the District of Nunukan. The two research villages are located in a place known as Tanjung Harapan (Cape of Hope). Tanjung Harapan is a cape in the Sembakung River and was originally the site of six villages. The cape is located at 4°08’22,3” north latitude and 117°38’46,1”
east longitude.
Both Pagaluyon and Saduman can be reached by boat in about three hours from the capital of Sembakung sub-district, Atap village. The journey can be done by car in about two hours using the road built by P.T. Adindo Hutani Lestari, a timber estate plantation company operates around the two new resettlements villages.
5.2.3. Research objectives
The main objectives of this chapter are to provide information about the cultivation efforts and constraints faced by indigenous people in relation to ironwood at the research sites. The research also aims to understand the conditions of the physical area, to explore the traditional knowledge and to describe the practice of ironwood cultivation by the local people.
The chapter addresses the following questions: What traditional knowledge of ironwood planting and cultivation have local people developed? And what are the traditional conservation efforts by indigenous people in relation to ironwood?
5.3. Description of the research villages 5.3.1. History of the community
During the Dutch colonial period, the people of Tanjung Harapan in Sembakung sub- district (Nunukan District, in the north of East Kalimantan), were indigenous people of Dayak Agabag. Their ancestors lived in longhouses, upstream of the Lumbis River.
Dayak Agabag people were organised in a clan structure. Agabag or abay means people wearing loincloth. These people have an unique nomadic history.
According to information from the Sembakung adat leader, Pangeran Penghasilan (personal communication, 29 June 2006), a longhouse, a traditional Dayak Agabag house - initially formed around a community and only later would it develop into a village. In fact, every village located in Tanjung Harapan originated from longhouses in the area. The Dayak Agabag had no aristocratic class. They were governed by a longhouse head (Pambakal or Kepala Desa) or the village leader and a head of the region, whose area of authority was determined by the name of river (Kepala adat besar). Until 1945, most Dayak Agabag villagers occupied a longhouse. Each longhouse contained seven to ten apartments; each apartment was home to one or more nuclear families.
Formerly, Tanjung Harapan was known as ‘Buawan’, a Dayak Agabag term for a place for hunting deer, with garden areas and cabins. The site was officially proclaimed as Tanjung Harapan in 1970 by a missionary, namely Lasanias from Krayan, and designated as another sub-district in Nunukan. The movements of six longhouses occurred during two years, from 1968 to 1969. The former Tanjung Harapan villages were Desa Pagaluyon, Saduman, Katul, Mambulu, Sabuluan and Tulang.
At the time that this research took place, the cape had been abandoned by all villagers because of deteriorating natural conditions, including landslides and floods. A deluge suffused the cape during one week in January 2007. Previously, the villagers of Desa Sabuluan and Tulang had moved to Tanjung Ulin because of landslides in their villages.
The rivers Sebuku and Sembakung originate in Sabah, and only the lower foothills and flood plains are located in Kalimantan. The river banks are densely settled. In colonial times the area was known as Tidoengsche Bovenlanden.
Figure 5.1. Location of field research sites, Sembakung sub-district, Nunukan District, in northern East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.
Source: Statistics for Nunukan District 2010.
Pagaluyon
The village name of Pagaluyon means people who have left or moved out of long house (baloi). Such incidents occur there is a dispute, which causes people to move out and abandon their longhouse. During recent decades, the people of Pagaluyon have migrated four times. Initially, Pagaluyon people came from Kalamuku (also known as Kalambuku), located upstream of the Lumbis River. They moved first to the left side of the Sembakung River, about 500 metres downstream from Tanjung Harapan.
Subsequently, they moved to Kuala Mambulu on the right side of the Sembakung River.
They called this place Balayan Nantumukan. As this new site, they lived together with other villagers: people from Katul and Manduluk (Mambulu). However, in 1945, a dispute arose between the different factions during a session of drinking pengasih (a traditional drink made from water fermented from cassava). This resulted in yet another move of the Pagaluyon people to the current location, then known as Buawan, now called Tanjung Harapan.
Saduman
The early Saduman people came from Langsat, located along the Sinalat River in the Simalumung region, upstream from Kalamuku (also known as Kalambuku). Natural deterioration of the land led these people to move to kampung Saduman, close to the estuary of the Saduman River. Subsequently, then they moved to Tanjung Harapan.
With a total area of about 12,024 ha, both villages – Saduman and Pagaluyon - form part of 18 desa or villages in the Sembakung sub-district.
The leadership in the majority of villages in the Sembakung district, differs from villages elsewhere in East Kalimantan, where it is common to find a leadership system composed of both formal and informal leaders. However, in Sembakung villages there is frequently a village headman (kepala desa) who also acts as the traditional adat leader (kepala adat). This headman receives an official salary from the district office.
Logging concessions entered the area in 1970. Since negotiations were never held between the Indonesian government, the concessionaires and the local communities, conflicts over resource rights quickly emerged and continue to be a major problem. This case study attempts to examine how traditional forest use systems differ from commercial timber operations and, given the often competing needs and rights of local communities and concessionaires, how forest resources might be better managed in the future.
Many NGOs (local and international) have seen Saduman as target for community development and the exploration of the link between indigenous people and natural resource use. For example, the FORMACS (Forest Resources Management for Carbon Sequestration) project of CARE Indonesia in Kabupaten Nunukan was established to test community based forest management as an approach to enhance local livelihoods and reduce the current negative trends of forest cover change (Bunna et al. 2005).
5.3.2. Population and infrastructure
A comparison of the total population and the gender distribution of the villages of Pagaluyon and Saduman in 2004 and 2006 are presented in the table below.
Table 5.1. Population in the research villages: Pagaluyon and Saduman Villages Households Males Females Total Population
Year 2004 2006 2004 2006 2004 2006 2004 2006
Pagaluyon 54 58 120 120 106 119 226 239
Saduman 53 64 105 109 100 103 205 212
T o t a l 431 451
Source: Sembakung Sub-District Office 2007.
New resettlements sites have been developed by the local government since 2003 for villagers of four villages in the same area Pagaluyon, Saduman, Sabuluan and Mambulu.
Public facilities found in the two new villages of Pagaluyon and Saduman include water storage for every household (donated by a World Bank project), an elementary school,
a village hall, a church, a mosque, a football pitch and a volleyball court. Almost every household owns a canoe and a motor boat, which they use to travel and to transport products. Most households have no access to electricity. Due to the difficult transportation of kerosene, a few household possess a small generator. Communication infrastructures have been developed by Telkomsel (Indonesian Communication Company) and mobile phones can be used, but the signal is limited to certain places.
5.3.3. Households
The people of both research villages constitute a monogamous society. As in Indonesian society in general, a typical household in Pagaluyon and Saduman comprises of people who are related by kinship ties, like parents (husband and wife) and their children sleeping in the same housing unit. The husband is the head of the household and, with the help of his wife, he makes the major decisions affecting the family. Each decision made is supposed to be respected by the members of the household. If the husband dies, the wife takes over the management and the responsibility for the financial needs of the household.
5.4. Forest resource and land use 5.4.1. Forest land
Dayak Agabag people live harmoniously with their forest environments. This harmony has generated imagination and wisdom in terms of managing natural forest resources.
The forest is used for various subsistence needs, including rotational cultivation of rice in both primary and secondary forest, hunting and fishing, harvesting of fruits and plants, and gathering of building materials.
The management of forest resources by the local community is closely linked to the management of the village territory and the use of the forest within, on the basis of each area’s potential and local people’s use preferences. A village territory is commonly divided into several designated areas, including a settlement area, several agricultural areas, swidden areas, a reserved area, the village’s open communal forest and a restricted forest area. The village’s open communal forest is used for various purposes like hunting, fishing, harvesting of fruits and plants, gathering building materials, and collecting commercial forest products. The people of both villages got ironwood or ulin timber from this communal forest. Some indigenous forest species in lowland (i.e. dipterocarp) such as red and white meranti (Shorea spp.), perupuk or blabag (Lopopethalum javanicum) can still be found in the forest area of the village.
5.4.2. Agricultural patterns and farming systems
During field visits I learned that there are four main farming systems in the survey area:
swidden (ladang or jakaw), rain-fed paddy, smallholder plantation, and agroforestry systems. Swidden agriculture, or traditional subsistence shifting cultivation, is the mainstay of the villagers’ livelihood. Dayak Agabag people in the Sembakung region still practice the agricultural cultivation system for subsistent purposes along with the return and rotation system (gilir balik) and ‘slash and burn’ (swidden or tebas bakar) techniques.
This agriculture pattern, referred to as jakaw (ex- farm) by Dayak Agabag, involve the clearing old secondary forest to make way for new farms for rice cultivation.
Jakaw are secondary forests developed during the rotational period of the ladang.
In the ladang system, farmers maintain land fertility in a natural way by fallowing the land for between three and five years. During the period of rotation, soil fertility has the chance to recover. There are several indicators by which farmers may gauge whether the land is ready and suitable for making a new ladang. Such indicators include the decline of shrubs and undergrowth as the tree canopy closes (especially with Macaranga sp.) and a change in the colour of the soil to a dark brown or black colour. The appearance of certain species of plants is indicative of soil fertility. As for the ladang, jakaw are privately owned by individual farmers and families. In some communities in East Kalimantan, there is a trend for individual farmers and families to open as many ladang as possible in the primary forest in order to increase their property stock. This trend has led to intense competition among villagers to open vast ladang, thereby decreasing the size of the surrounding primary forest. Fortunately, this trend is not observed in Tanjung Harapan because the location of new ladang is allowed only in designated areas or on the sites of old ladang (jakaw).
Rain-fed paddy is the only crop-based system found in the area, the rest of the system is tree-based. Table 5.2 provides at general description of this tree-based system.
After harvesting paddy, the farm is planted with palawija or non-perennial crops such as cassava and some fruits trees (banana, lemon, coffee, durian, Nephelium sp.
or rambutan,etc.). The land is left to become a young forest of fruit trees and, in the following season they will move again to a new piece of farm land. Using this pattern, each Dayak Agabag family usually has jakaw land in about four to seven places.
Table 5.2. Characteristics of tree-based systems Farming systems Description
Smallholder plantation Oil palm plantation, pepper (Piper ningrum), coffee monoculture Jakaw A fallow rotation system where farmers slash and burn logged-over
forest then plant upland rice for several seasons. When the yields are no longer acceptable, farmers will leave the plot to fallow.
Agroforestry systems A fruit-based system, where farmers plant fruit trees in logged-over forest between remnant trees of low-commercial value. During its early stage, farmers plant cassava or vegetables, such as long bean (Vi- gna unguinculata), chili (Capsicum frustescens and Capsicum annum), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), melon (Cucumis melo), watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), Brassica rapa (commonly known as field or turnip mustard) and aubergine (Solanum melongena).
Source: Interviews in 2006; Wijaya et.al. 2005
With regard to traditional swidden agriculture, it has been shown that, in general, farmers prefer secondary forest because it is easier to clear. Thus, primary forest is only cleared in the initial stages of the farming cycle. As communities grew, the area cleared around the village expanded to the point where travel time and distance to the working area became too burdensome. When this happened, part of the community split off and moved to a new area.
The people of both villages have practiced traditional, mostly coffee and cocoa- based agroforestry. The villagers subsist by combining dry field agriculture with the management of planted forests, swidden fallows, and the exploitation of the mature dipterocarp forests. These agroforestry systems provide them with timber, fuelwood, resins, rubber, fruits, and medicinal plants for local consumption or trade.
Fieldwork revealed two types of smallholder plantations: monocultures with coffee, cocoa, lemon and oil palm. Previously, the villagers’ cocoa trees produced, but they encountered problems with various diseases. Indeed, many people have cut down their cocoa trees. Oil palm has only recently been introduced to the area and the trees are still in their early stage and have yet produced palm oil. The oil palm is mixed with upland rice. Around 35 per cent of the plots originated from forest, mostly opened into tree- fruit based agroforestry systems. This is also the main system currently found in the area, accounting for 83 per cent of total plots, managed by 98 per cent of the households.
The agroforestry systems combine coffee, cocoa trees or fruit trees such as rambutan (Nephelium sp.), melon (Cucumis melo) and langsat (Lansium domesticum). Currently, farmers in Pagaluyon and Saduman grow various types of livestock, which they consider to be important in their farming either as a source of draft power or cash income.
5.5. Management and traditional knowledge of ironwood cultivation Dayak Agabag people give ironwood the local name tagas. In addition, they recognise three varieties of ulin; namely, tagas litis, tagas magangai and tagas agintanga. The meaning of these vernacular names is directly related to the characteristics of the wood or the bark structure of each variant. Tagas magangai is the strongest wood of the three ulin varieties. The wood of this variety is the most suitable for building construction and they call it ulin besi or iron ulin. Tagas litis is suitable for shingles (sirap). But this variety is scarce in the forests around some of the villages in Tanjung Harapan. For that reason, people do not make shingles for the roofs of their house.
5.5.1. Utilisation and trade pattern of ironwood
In many regions of lowland Borneo, much of the wood used in traditional longhouses was ironwood, especially the thick posts forming the longhouse frame, its floorboards, its roof shingles and the log staircases leading to the longhouse. People in Tanjung Harapan have used ironwood since their ancestors lived there. This is something that can be seen from their house styles; almost all of their houses use posts of ironwood for the main construction. Today, where single family houses have become the norm in Dayak villages including the ones discussed here ironwood is still employed in much of the construction, but dwindling supplies have meant the need for substitution with less desirable species. Where ironwood has been depleted or has become too expensive, ironwood shingles are being replaced with corrugated metal or thatch. Thatch roofs are much cooler than the metal ones, but must be replaced every two or three years.
By contrast, ironwood shingles, like the boards and posts, last from three to five generations. When households migrate or build new houses, the ironwood components of the structure are reused.
According to some informants, they sold ironwood in 1981 for a price of 35 thousand rupiahs (1 euro = 12 thousand rupiahs) per m3 in Tanjung Harapan. This price increased to 65 thousand rupiahs when they transported the wood product as a block to Tarakan (a city on a small island in the northern part of East Kalimantan). At that time, no roads were available and villagers loaded and transported the ironwood beams on a big wooden boat with a capacity about 5 m3. Villagers also kept ironwood posts as a kind of savings plan, when they did not have cash and they could use them to barter manufactured goods from small shops in the village.
5.5.2. Cultivation of ironwood by villagers
The sequence of increasing prices, overexploitation, and scarcity of ironwood trees has been sufficient to initiate cultivation and domestication by local people. During my
field research, I observed many people who had planted ironwood in their swidden (ladang or jakaw). They have made attempts to transplant wild seedlings from the forest into abandoned swidden plots and home gardens. I surveyed and inventorised the number of ironwood plants in jakaws that had been planted by villagers. The results are summarised in table 5.3.
Table 5.3. List of villagers who cultivate ironwood in Pagaluyon and Saduman villages
No. Name Clan Village Age Year of
plantation
Total number of
plants
1. Upau Dayak
Agabag Pagaluyon 37 1997 &
2003 267
2. Poreng Dayak
Agabag Pagaluyon 50 2003 124
3. Baluyin Dayak
Agabag Pagaluyon 60 2002 140
4. Luding Dayak
Agabag Pagaluyon 50 2003 17
5. Kimhai Dayak
Agabag Pagaluyon 29 2004 32
6. Yulus Dayak
Agabag Saduman 35 2003 37
7. Muji Dayak
Agabag Saduman 36 1992 49
8. Yakub Dayak
Agabag Saduman 50 2001 20
9. Ameng Dayak
Agabag Saduman 34 2004 32
10. Unuk Dayak
Agabag Saduman 35 2003 60
11. Tumanggung Dayak
Agabag Saduman 38 2003 116
12. Balatiung Dayak
Agabag Saduman 29 2005 73
Source: Data obtained and processed from inventory carried out during August 2006
During my fieldwork, I observed that local people in Pagaluyon and Saduman villages planted ironwood seedlings as follows:
1. Land preparation
Upau is a farmer who first planted ironwood in his jakaw (ladang or swidden) nine years ago. Based on his experiences, the growth of ironwood seedlings show that this species will do well but in a soil without shade from other plants. Ironwood seedlings are planted in strips between fruit trees and together with other agricultural trees such as coffee, banana, rambutan (Nephelium sp.), etc. When asked about his main motivation for planting ironwood, Pak Upau said ‘I am worried that my generation will not have ironwood for building their houses’. (‘Kami menanam ini, karena kami khawatir suatu waktu anak-cucu kami tak punya kayu untuk membangun rumah’.)
2. Seedling preparation
Natural seedlings around mother trees come from the forest not far from the villagers’
jakaws. They take the seedlings in the early part of the rainy season; choosing a healthy mother tree in order to ensure they good quality seedlings. Villagers selected those ironwood wild seedlings which have been allowed to grow to around 60 cm tall.
Typically, these seedlings have grown for six to twelve months under overhead shade.
The technique for planting these seedlings is illustrated in the drawings below.
Figure 5.2. The planting technique for natural seedling by Dayak Agabag people
Figure 5.3. Upau and the ironwood trees in his jakaw
Figure 5.4. Ironwood tree planted with agricultural plants (banana, cocoa, coffee, rambutan or Nephelium sp) in forest garden of villagers in Pagaluyon village, Sembakung Sub-district, Nunukan.
There has also been a gradual realization among indigenous people that trees outside the forests and modified forests where people farm may be important for the well-being of forest ecosystems. Trees on farms are of critical importance, not only because they can supply tree products that might otherwise be unsustainably removed from forests, but also because tree cover at regional and landscape scales may affect the conservation value of remaining forest fragments.
5.6. Discussion and conclusions
This research documents the traditional knowledge of ironwood cultivation and conservation efforts, as well as the land use practices in two villages - Pagaluyon and Saduman - inhabited by the Dayak Agabag indigenous people of East Kalimantan.
The Dayak Agabag people maintain several different types of land use practices and uphold traditional laws pertaining to land tenure. There are four main farming systems at the research sites: rain-fed paddy, smallholder plantation (oil palm and monoculture pepper), jakaw (fallow rotation systems with upland rice as crop) and agroforestry systems. This study shows that a number of both native and exotic tree species occur in the traditional agroforestry ladangs of the Dayak Agabag people: banana, cocoa, coffee, rambutan or (Nephelium sp.), meranti (Shorea sp) and perupuk or blabag (Lopopethalum javanicum). From a land use system perspective, the jakaw systems (old ladang) offer an interesting challenge to ironwood conservation. Agroforestry is often viewed as a land use management system that offers solutions to land and forest degradation and to the loss of biodiversity in the tropics. Agroforestry may be a particularly appropriate method for ironwood conservation in the highland areas of East Kalimantan, where population density and the pressure on natural forests are especially high. In areas of exploitation, this system of ‘conservation through cultivation’ is likely to be more effective than attempting to sustainably manage ironwood within natural forests.
My study shows that local Dayak communities have an intimate knowledge of ironwood. As many farmers are demonstrating, ironwood can be propagated by transplanting wild seedlings. Many farmers are interested in ironwood planting, but while they have indigenous knowledge, they often lack modern technical skills and tools. In two villages visited at the research sites, however, there was at least one person considered to be an expert on local trees, able to facilitate the planting of ironwood trees without the assistance of the Forestry Department. Increasing awareness of the importance of using high-quality planting materials and providing access to those materials and technical assistance is essential for capacity-building among rural communities. Such a programme would improve the success of genetic conservation efforts, in general, and species of higher value in particular.
Traditional ecological knowledge may help to make conservation and development more relevant and socially acceptable. The above analysis shows that it may have an
important role in identifying critical research needs, as well as in supporting conservation efforts based on traditional knowledge. Forestry research and extension workers need to be able to deal systematically with partial representations of local knowledge systems appropriate to particular purposes rather than attempt to understand entire cultures.
This involves creating explicit representations of local ecological knowledge that are dynamic and readily accessible in a cost-effective manner. Knowledge based methods and tools have been developed to facilitate this. Where they have been used, generalities in what resource users currently know and what they need to know to improve their management of tree resources have emerged and been found to be both comparable and complementary to modern scientific knowledge. I believe that this makes it possible to invest in the acquisition of local ecological knowledge at the level at which research and extension activities are planned and at which policies are formulated.
Ironwood scarcity is the outcome of both long term and recent processes and events.
Population growth is often regarded as the main driving force behind deforestation, but it is certainly not the only factor. From personal interviews and group discussions with the authorities and local inhabitants, and also from personal observation, it has been revealed that the major threat to forest destruction is expansion of agriculture by clearing forests, which is mainly associated with increases in population. Communities or even companies seldom plant ironwood. The long life cycle of ironwood plantations affects the uncertainty of the investment. This is also a result of government policy on forest and timber management. Planting of ironwood species is contra productive, because it is not permitted to exploit ironwood trees for large trade. Ironwood should be planted in conservation forest areas, not in production forest area. As a result, there is low motivation among stakeholders to invest capital in ironwood plantations in Kalimantan.
Without efficient means for village systems to control access to their resources, and without the government’s backing of village enforcement mechanisms, the diversity of forest management practices in Dayak communities have few promising perspectives.
Ironwood will soon be either locally extinct or an occasionally planted tree in people’s gardens, which can be harvested only infrequently. Replanting the ironwood would seem to be a sensible initiative for future planning. Perhaps the greatest difficulty in focusing interventions to promote tree growing by rural people lies in the need to understand differences in patterns of human behaviour. Are these patterns constraints or are they instead opportunities upon which productive interventions can be built? Often planners go ahead with what they think is best and then sit back in surprise when their ideas and efforts are rejected. ‘The usual cause of such rejection is that target groups’ are classified as “backward” or ‘bound by tradition’.
