1. Introduction.

Colfer, Carol J. Pierce ; Yuliani, Elizabeth Linda

This special section of Volume 41 of the Borneo Research Bulletin has been compiled in honor of Dr. Reed Lee Wadley, an anthropologist who conducted research for two decades in the Danau Sentarum area before dying prematurely in June 2008. We have assembled more recent research in the area, at the invitation of Dr. Cliff Sather and with the encouragement of Dr. George Appeli. The compilation is multidisciplinary, bringing together researchers from the fields of anthropology, economics, botany, earth sciences, ecology, geology, geography, law and soil science. The authors also work in a range of research settings and include university professors, consultants, NGO personnel and people working in research organizations. We believe that Reed Wadley would have been particularly supportive of this diversity, given his own extraordinarily diverse interests and areas of expertise.

Wadley's Work: A Partial Snapshot

Reed Wadley's work on the Iban of Wong Garai in West Kalimantan has been widely appreciated for its systematic and comprehensive nature. Although space does not allow a thorough review of his work, we acknowledge its unusual breadth and scope. He was a prolific writer. In his short life, he managed to produce three books, 38 journal articles, and 12 book chapters and articles in proceedings; and he edited four special issues of journals. He also produced 60 other publications, such as book reviews, manuals and encyclopedia entries, on a wide range of topics, from environmental history, kinship and social organization to labor migration, warfare and colonization. The following few paragraphs are designed simply to give a sense of his breadth.

He began his career with a doctoral dissertation on migration (Wadley 1997) and maintained his interest in demography, more recently co-editing a book on peoples living in borderlands (Horstmann and Wadley 2006). He was instrumental in the conception and early phases of organizing a very successful March 2008 international meeting in Hanoi, titled "The Demise of Swidden Agriculture," the results of which morphed into a special issue of Human Ecology, Volume 37, 2009. His commitment to conservation concerns was repeatedly demonstrated; for instance, he analyzed illegal logging (e.g., Wadley and Eilenberg 2005), people's time use (Colfer et al. 1999) and wildlife use and management (Wadley et al. 1997), among other related topics.

His interest in conservation did not reduce his concerns for people's livelihoods (e.g., Wadley and Mertz 2005; Wadley 2007). Nor was he devoid of some of our stereotypical anthropological concerns; he studied sacred forests (Wadley and Colfer 2004), shamanism (Wadley et al. 2006) and ancestor worship and mourning taboos (Wadley 1999).

He was ahead of his time in his interest in the ethnography of climate change. In 2006, he made a presentation at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) titled "Ethnometeorology, or what people say they know about the weather and why CIFOR should care." In 2008, CIFOR made climate change its central and highest profile focus--though his talk was admittedly just one of a growing number of pressures in that direction. He continued to facilitate and engage in interdisciplinary exchange until the end of his life. Indeed, the article he conceived for this journal (Chapter 11) was intended for conservation biologists--a wish we are still trying to fulfill more directly through re-publication in a journal biologists are more likely to read.

He worked in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri, in Columbia, from 2001 until his illness incapacitated him a few months before his death on 28 June 2008, at the age of 45. Prior to his work in Missouri, he spent three years in the Netherlands conducting archival research on West Kalimantan, and he served from time to time as a consultant for the Center for International Forestry Research, in Bogor, and for Wetlands International-Indonesia. It was in this latter capacity, as a consultant, that Wadley's work linked most closely with that of most of the authors in this special section.

Wadley had a personal commitment to the people whose lives he studied so faithfully. He was an active contributor to the work of an environmental NGO, Riak Bumi (led by Valentinus Heri, Chapter 5). He would have been most pleased to hear of these essays, which bring together the work of so many of his friends and colleagues. He would also have been pleased at the Indonesian representation in this collection, since so much of the internationally available, published work on Borneo has been dominated by foreigners.

Danau Sentarum National Park: Another Snapshot

Wong Garai, Wadley's primary field site, is located in the buffer zone of Danau Sentarum National Park, so the destiny of the peoples he worked with is bound up in the park's management and future. In this section you will read much more about the area and its people; we provide only a bare-bones introduction here.

Located on the northern side of the Kapuas River, 700 km upriver from Pontianak in West Kalimantan, the park is bordered on the north by the Malaysian state of Sarawak. The peoples are primarily Malay (Melayu) within the park proper, with Kantu', Iban, and Embaloh surrounding the park's western, northern and eastern borders, respectively (roughly). The Iban, whom Wadley studied, are the dominant Dayak group in the area.

The park covers 132,000 ha and consists of a core area, which is a series of interconnected seasonal lakes (of some 82,000 ha), with surrounding hillier dryland areas. Management of the park has been problematic, with frequent incursions by loggers (Wadley 2006) and, more recently, oil palm companies (see Chapters 5 and 7). There have been recurrent threats of dams and transmigration programs, though none have yet materialized. Fortunately, the government has grown quiet about damming Danau Sentarum, at least for the time being, since Yuliani et al. (2007) summarized the potential detrimental effects to the ecosystem and to the livelihoods of local people in particular, whose income (from fisheries), health and transport within the park would be affected. Governmental policy also has changed erratically, with national security concerns related to the border areas mixed with the national need to provide foreign exchange and funding for military budgets, further complicated by corruption at various levels. And the population has grown precipitously (Chapter 5).

Decentralized corruption, collusion and nepotism are major factors in the establishment of new, large-scale oil palm plantations around DSNP (Chapter 7) including a possible take-over of some parts of the territory of Wong Garai (the village where Wadley centered his research) for a plantation. The oil palm plantation is likely to harm local people's livelihoods and biodiversity conservation. Many organizations are now collaborating to ensure the viability of Danau Sentarum ecosystems. Riak Bumi Foundation, for example, is working with local communities from all over the Danau Sentarum area and with CIFOR to conduct participatory action research, build collaboration and ensure good governance in managing park resources sustainably. Several NGOs, such as Sawit Watch, the Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI), Titian Foundation and West Kalimantan Alliance for the Indigenous People (AMAN Kalbar) form the Coalition for Danau Sentarum's Redemption. A central goal is to save Danau Sentarum from oil palm expansion. Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) is conducting an orangutan awareness program in Wong Garai, and a tree-planting movement is underway in the Labian-Leboyan watershed and the corridor between DSNP and Betung Kerihun National Park to the northeast.

This Special Section and Its Organization

The articles in this special section are organized into three main parts. First, there is a series of three introductory chapters, including this one. Chapter 2, by Julia Aglionby, provides the historical context, taking up where the earlier Borneo Research Bulletin special issue on Danau Sentarum (Giesen 2000) left off. Chapter 3 is the most anthropological of the contributions to this special section, focusing on how diverse local identities link to livelihoods and to the diverse perceptions of resources and territories. Emily Harwell examines the interplay of notions of identity, livelihood and entitlement and how these relate to historical realities and change. The chapter takes into account the power dynamics in the region, which bring together local people, neighbors and the state in attempts to resolve boundary questions.

The second set of chapters (Chapter 4-8) is more topical. Each describes a slice of Danau Sentarum's reality. Chapter 4, by Gusti Anshari, is a geologist's look at the peat soils in the area; their potential contribution to mitigating climate change, and thus their value in the coming decades give this article its relevance.

Chapter 5, by Valentinus Heri et al., is a full accounting of the dangers threatening the park and the people living in it. The author comes from the village that Wadley studied, and his long history in the region and continuing commitment to its sustainable management provide a unique perspective on the threats.

The next chapter (6) is by Yayan Indriatmoko, a CIFOR anthropologist, who takes a quick look at population growth in recent years. Although earlier resource use by local communities was fairly sustainable (see, e.g., Dennis et al. 2001), the region is unlikely to be able to sustain continued human growth at the present rate without adverse environmental consequences.

One of the most worrying threats is the expansion of oil palm, which has resulted in controversies in many parts of Indonesia. Anthropologists tend to conclude that oil palm has primarily negative effects on local people's livelihoods and rights and on biodiversity conservation; economists focus on tax revenue from the companies and the employment and additional income opportunities for local people through the nucleus estate system. Linda Yuliani and her coauthors, in Chapter 7, emphasize the current dangers of oil palm, in the park context.

The last chapter in this part looks at conflict in the area. Yurdi Yasmi and his coauthor examine a series of specific conflicts both within Iban and Malay populations and between them. There has been a long and bloody history of violent conflict in this region, and only a decade ago, similar conflicts verged on war in a nearby region of West Kalimantan (Peluso and Harwell 2002). The goal of Yasmi's analysis is to examine how to reduce the likelihood of continuing or accelerating conflict in this region.

The final part of this special section focuses on action research designed to promote benefits for local people from conservation actions. Chapter 9, by Leon Prasetyo, reports on his efforts to encourage the cultivation and maintenance of wild orchids. Danau Sentarum has many species of orchids, some very beautiful. Prasetyo has taught local people methods of cultivating and conserving orchids; he describes the learning processes that lead to self-organization and bottom-up decisions, including successes and challenges he has encountered in this process.

In Chapter 10, Mathew Minarchek and Yayan Indriatmoko describe an experiment in the construction and use of a simple microhydro generation facility in one of the Iban villages in the northeastern quadrant of the Danau Sentarum National Park. Prior to this experiment, which drew partially on expertise from Sundanese farmers who had constructed a similar facility in their village, the only possible source of electricity had been a small generator. The fuel for the generator had become exorbitantly expensive in this remote location. The authors analyze the pros and cons of this effort.

The final essay in this special section is reserved for Reed Wadley's work. He and his coauthors, all individuals with long experience in Danau Sentarum, explore the human interactions of three earlier teams of researchers with villagers, other stakeholders, and among themselves. The authors argue that the specificities of individual people and their interpersonal skills have a previously ignored impact on conservation success or failure in any given area. They provide examples of their own and others' mistakes and successes with some indications of the results for conservation.

The Park Now and in the Future

Although this special section of the Borneo Research Bulletin, like most research, provides information on the past, some quite recent, the park represents a very dynamic context. In this section, we introduce the most recent activities of which we are aware, some of which hold both potential benefits and dangers for local people and for the environment.

Since February 2007, the park has been managed by the National Park Authority, which consists of 38 staff--30 pegawai negeri tetap (permanent staff) and eight pegawai honorer (temporary employees). The main office is in Sintang, several hours downriver from Danau Sentarum, and field offices are in the nearby towns of Lanjak, Semitau, and Selimbau. The authority is using a management plan developed in 2006, aimed to promote collaborative management of the park.

Officially abandoned between 1999 and 2004, the park now attracts growing interest from researchers, NGOs, donors and carbon-related projects. (1) As of January 2010, there are more than 20 projects being conducted in the park: research by local, national and international research institutions, community empowerment by NGOs, locations for TV programs, and others. We briefly describe two new CIFOR projects that began in mid-2009: an orangutan project and a scoping study for reductions in emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). The orangutan project, funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is documenting the orangutan population and habitat conditions, local people's perceptions of conservation and traditional norms and beliefs related to orangutans. The project will also develop an awareness program and capacity building for local stakeholders on orangutan conservation issues.

The REDD scoping study in Danau Sentarum is part of a global comparative assessment. The entire world is gearing up to mitigate climate change, and concerned researchers have begun to evaluate Danau Sentarum as a potential site for REDD. A decision to implement REDD in this area could have significant implications (positive or negative) for local people and the environment.

A new project funded by the European Commission includes Danau Sentarum as one of its sites. Beginning in 2010, the project will build stakeholders' capacity in collaborative land-use planning for sustainable natural resources management and better protection of ecosystems that have important functions.

The National Park Authority has the critical role of ensuring coordination and communication across projects and avoiding overlapping activities and schedules. However, it has not yet played this role effectively, which has led to considerable delays for some projects, inefficiency and frequent disappointment. Despite efforts to devolve responsibilities to field offices, internal political wrangling continues to plague the authority's efforts.

Effective management of the park is also challenged by the national recruitment and staff placement system. Of the authority's 38 staff members, only two come from the area. The rest, newly appointed, come from other islands, and several readily admit that they hope to be relocated as soon as possible to their homelands. Many of the new staff demonstrate inadequate knowledge of crucial general issues like conservation and management of protected areas, and even less on location-specific issues, and long-term personal vision and commitment to better management of the park appear to be lacking.

Such attitudes undermine conservation efforts and the effectiveness of park management. Efforts are now underway to combine several tools, strategies and approaches (see, e.g., Yuliani et al. 2008, 2009) to build the authority staff's motivation and passion to achieve better management of Danau Sentarum.

In Sum

We have found the process of pulling together the essays in this special section both challenging and rewarding. It was challenging because of the diversity inherent in any international effort (geographical, linguistic, cultural) and all interdisciplinary work (different norms about style, format, content and process). But the rewards have been far greater. The authors who have contributed to this collection have strong personal attachments to the region, and many have fond and cherished memories of Reed Wadley. All have done their best - often with serious time, linguistic, and institutional constraints--both to honor Reed's memory and to make continued contributions to both the Danau Sentarum ecosystem and to the human beings who reside there.

References

Colfer, C.J.P., R.L. Wadley and P. Venkateswarlu 1999 Understanding Local People's Use of Time: A Precondition for Good Co-Management. Environmental Conservation 26:41-52.

Dennis, R., C.J.P. Colfer and A. Puntodewo 2001 Forest Cover Change Analysis as a Proxy: Sustainability Assessment using Remote Sensing and GIS in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. In: C.J.P. Colfer and Y. Byron, eds., People Managing Forests: The Links Between Human Well-Being and Sustainability. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future and CIFOR.

Giesen, W. 2000 Special Issue on Danau Sentarum National Park. Borneo Research Bulletin 31.

Horstmann, A. and R.L. Wadley, eds. 2006 Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands. Asian Anthropologies Series 4. Oxford: Berghahn Press.

Peluso, N.L. and E. Harwell 2002 Territory, Custom, and the Cultural Politics of Ethnic War in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. In: N.L. Peluso and M. Watts, eds., Violent Environments. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Wadley, R.L. 1997 Circular Labor Migration and Subsistence Agriculture: A Case of the Iban in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology. Tempe: Arizona State University.

1999 Disrespecting the Dead and the Living: Iban Ancestor Worship and the Violation of Mourning Taboos. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (incorporating Man) 5 (4):595-610.

2006 Community Co-operatives, Illegal Logging and Regional Autonomy in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. In: F. Cooke, ed., State, Communities and Forests in Contemporary Borneo. Canberra: ANU e-Press.

2007 The Complex Agroforests of the Iban in West Kalimantan, and Their Possible Role in Fallow Management and Forest Regeneration. In: M. Cairns, ed., Voices from the Forest." Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Farming. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.

Wadley, R.L. and C.J.P. Colfer 2004 Sacred Forest, Hunting, and Conservation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Human Ecology 32 (3):313-338. Wadley, R.L. and M. Eilenberg 2005 Autonomy, Identity and "Illegal" Logging in the Borderland of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 6 (1): 19-34.

Wadley, R.L. and O. Mertz 2005 Pepper in a Time of Crisis: Smallholder Buffering Strategies in Sarawak, Malaysia and West Kalimantan, Indonesia. In: O. Mertz, R.L. Wadley and H. Christensen, eds., Local Land Use Strategies in a Globalizing World:

Subsistence Farming, Cash Crops and Income Diversification, Special Issue of Agricultural Systems.

Wadley, R.L., C.J.P. Colfer and I. Hood 1997 Hunting Primates and Managing Forests: The Case of Iban Forest Farmers in Indonesian Borneo. Human Ecology 25:243-271. Wadley, R.L., A. Pashia and C.T. Palmer

2006 Religious Scepticism and Its Social Context: An Analysis of Iban Shamanism. Anthropological Forum 16 (1):41-54.

Yuliani, E.L., Y. Indriatmoko and V. Heri 2007 What Will Happen If Danau Sentarum Is Dammed? (Apa yang akan terjadi jika Danau Sentarum dibendung?). CIFOR-Riak Bumi Newsletter No. 2, December. Bogor: CIFOR and Riak Bumi.

Yuliani, E.L., H. Adnan and Y. Indriatmoko 2008 The Use of Appreciative Inquiry as a Tool in Enhancing Adaptive Capacity in Natural Resources Management. Paper presented at International Association for the Study of Commons conference, Cheltenham, UK, 14-18 July.

Yuliani, E.L., D. Kuncarasakti, E. Rosdiana, Suhaeri and D. Wahab 2009 Birokrasi Departemen Kehutanan: Memicu Perubahan dari Dalam dengan Energi Positif [The Ministry of Forestry Bureaucracy: Make Changes from Within through Positive Energy]. FGLG Learning Paper 2. Inspirit and IIED.

Carol J. Pierce Colfer

Center for International Forestry Research

JL. CIFOR, Sindang Barang

Bogor, West Java, Indonesia

[email protected]

Elizabeth Linda Yuliani

Center for International Forestry Research

JL. CIFOR, Sindang Barang

Bogor, West Java, Indonesia

[email protected]

(1) We use the term "carbon related projects" to describe a wide range of activities related to carbon and climate change, either for carbon trading and REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and [forest] Degradation) pilot sites, or for research.