6. Rapid human population growth and its impacts on danau sentarum.

Indriatmoko, Yayan

In the past decade, Indonesia's protected areas have been threatened not only by illegal logging and mining, poaching, and other illegal activities, but also by the increasing population of the local communities. Many of these local communities depend on the natural resources of the protected areas. This paper presents the case of Danau Sentarum National Park (DSNP), where the human population inside the park has grown rapidly, and discusses the implications for the conservation area.

Protected Areas and Human Population Growth

Human population growth and associated resource demands correlate significantly with threats to biodiversity in protected areas (Soule and Sanjayan 1998; Dompka 1996; Tan et al. 2000). The World Conservation Union (IUCN) found that habitat loss affected 76 percent of all mammal species, and expansion of settlements, 56 percent. Logging and plantations affected 26 percent. IUCN considers human population growth to be the main cause of biodiversity loss (Hinrichson 1994).

Indonesia, well-known for its extraordinarily rich biodiversity, exemplifies the problem. This developing country has a high rate of poverty in rural areas, and most of its protected areas, including 50 national parks, are subject to pressure from human activity and exploitation of natural resources. Economic interests often dominate people's activities rather than sustainable use of natural resources or conservation interests. Research on population growth and rural dependence on protected areas' natural resources can inform management approaches to managing population growth while seeking a balance between conservation and local people's interests.

In the case of Danau Sentarum National Park, West Kalimantan, the protected area is facing rapid human population growth; the population increased 55 percent during the past decade, and this growth became one of the major threats to the park. Although the problem is recognized by park managers as well as local communities, the management authority has developed no policies to address the issue. Future management of the protected area will require a specific strategy for dealing with the rapid growth of its human population and the interaction pattern between human and natural resources.

Danau Sentarum Background and Demographics

Danau Sentarum National Park is located in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is an area of open lakes, seasonally flooded peat and freshwater swamp forest, and lowland hill forest (Giesen 1996; Colfer and Wadley 1999; Dennis et al. 2000). Ninety-five percent of the area is inundated during the flood season, creating a network of rivers and lakes. During the dry season there is an average 12 m drop in water level (Adger and Luttrell 2000). Hills in the northern part of the park serve as a water catchment area, whose waters flow into rivers that feed the wetlands. Based on the management scheme proposed by Wetlands International, the catchment area is included as a buffer zone. However, agreement on the boundary of the buffer zone has never been completely reached (Wadley et al. 2000), and the area has suffered from illegal logging and conversion to oil palm plantations since 2000 and rubber plantations during 2006-2007 (Yuliani et al. 2008; see also Heri et al., this volume). The peat swamp forest and lakes have been home to 212 species of fish, including 2 globally threatened species (IUCN status), Balantiocheilos melanopterus (ketutung) and Scleropages formosus (Asian arowana), the latter listed in CITES Appendix 1 (Kottelat and Widjanarti 2005; Jeanes and Meijaard 2000); 26 reptiles, including 11 species globally threatened, 6 species listed in CITES Appendix II, 7 species nationally protected, and 1 species endemic to Borneo (Jeanes and Meijaard 2000); 282 birds, including 31 confirmed globally threatened, 36 CITES-listed species, 72 nationally protected bird species, and 5 confirmed Borneo endemics (Jeanes and Meijaard (2000).

Because of its hydrology and biodiversity, DSNP is one of the most important conservation areas in Indonesia. The 132,000-ha area was declared a national park in 1999 by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and Estate Crops (Decree No. 34/Kpts-II/1999). However, the park's technical management unit (Unit Pelaksana Teknis) was not formed until 1 February 2007, with Ministry of Forestry regulation No P.03/Menhut-11/2007. The technical unit management office is located in the town of Sintang, some four hours by speedboat downriver from the park.

Although remote, the area of Danau Sentarum has a long history of human settlement and exploitation (Wadley 2000; Colfer et al. 2000). As far back as 200 years, the wetlands area was already inhabited by various ethnic groups (Giesen and Aglionby 2000). Two major ethnic groups, the Iban and the Malay, live in and around the park and depend on its resources for their livelihoods (Aglionby 1996; Harwell 1997; see also their contributions to this volume). The Iban, who mostly live in traditional longhouses, occupy the uppermost area of the river basin and live on high land as shifting cultivators, planting rice and other crops (Wadley 1997). Although they also fish along the river and around the lakes, fishing is not their major livelihood. The Malays, on the other hand, are mainly fishers who reside downstream around the lakes and along the rivers (Wickham et al. 1997) and depend almost exclusively on fishing for their livelihoods. They are among the major fish producers in West Kalimantan, supplying 60 percent of the freshwater fish in the province. Current surveys indicate that, in total, 10,104 people inhabit the conservation area, in 43 settlements and villages (Indriatmoko and Abas 2007).

The human population inside DSNP is growing at a faster rate than that of most other protected areas in Indonesia. Data for the period 1990-1997 was recorded by the UK-Indonesia tropical forest management project. Aglionby (1997) counted 39 villages in or immediately adjacent to the park, having a total of about 6,500 inhabitants, of which about 85 percent were Malay, and the density of the park area was about five persons per square kilometer. The population of the park area appeared to have grown by almost 40 percent during the 1985-1995 decade (Aglionby 1995).

As noted by Colfer et al. (2000), the Malay inhabit 34 of the 39 villages in or adjacent to the park, with a population numbering about 4,000 in 1990 and 5,500 in 1997. The Malay population increases by 20 percent during the fishing season (June-August), when families from the Kapuas River towns (Selimbau, Semitau, Nanga Suhaid, etc.) often join the local population.

From 1997 to 2007, no population data were collected, but the pressure of human activity increased, with minimal management from the authorities. In July-August 2007, CIFOR and Yayasan Riak Bumi (a local NGO) conducted a census in each village to update the demographic and socioeconomic data. The table below shows the total human population: 10,104, comprising 9,645 Malay and 639 Iban Dayak. Of the 44 villages, six were seasonal or temporary settlements (Radai, Japnila, Pengulun, Nanga Sentarum, Lubuk Liuk and Mukup Hilir).

The human population in DSNP increased 58 percent during the decade 19972007, compared with the current national population growth rate of 1.3 percent yearly. Figure 1 shows the trends of the increasing human population in DSNP over time.

Beside natural growth, the Malay population also increased by migration from small towns along the Kapuas River near Danau Sentarum, as mentioned above. For example, Tekenang village in 2007 was inhabited by 17 households, which during the fishing season were joined by five or six additional families (each consisting of four or five people) from Selimbau. Some stayed in this village after the fishing season ended. Nanga Telatap has 21 households, joined by nine additional families in the 2007 fishing season. Semangit, with 80 households, was augmented by eight families (Heri 2008). The additional families increase the population of almost all Malay villages by approximately 10 to 20 percent. These villages maintain strong ties with larger Malay towns located along the Kapuas River (Sellmbau, Nanga Suhaid, Semitau, etc.) and according to Wadley (n.d.) the subdistrict boundaries follow the old Malay fiefdom boundaries established by the colonial administration in 1880 (see Box 1 for the Nanga Leboyan case; this pattern applies to most Malay villages).

Consequences of Growth

Population growth has led to the establishment of new villages. Some seasonal settlements have become permanent, and new seasonal settlements have been established where none existed before. The trend is likely to continue into the future. Our survey in July 2007 found 37 permanent and six seasonal villages, up from 33 permanent and six seasonal ones in 1997. This trend has occurred only among the Malays; the Iban villages have remained the same. Figure 1 gives the comparisons.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The growing human population has put pressure on the natural resources. A study by the UK project in 1993-1997 indicated that natural resource exploitation levels appeared to be sustainable until about three to four decades ago. Since then the resource base has been eroding, with declining fish catches and forest area (Aglionby 1997). Futher increases in a human population that is dependent on natural resources will increasingly threaten local conditions as people harvest resources unsustainably to meet their daily subsistence needs (Wickham 1997). The following cases illustrate the problem.

In 2006, after generations of local people had made their livelihoods primarily from fishing and wild honey production, some Malay villages began to clear forestland for agriculture, especially rubber plantations. The Malays of three villages--Nanga Leboyan, Pegah, and Terunis--developed rubber plantations on Bukit Semujan, to the east of DSNP. Pegah and Terunis also prepared land for rubber plantations for at least 155 households (Heri 2008). Before 2006, only eight households of Semalah were engaged in swiddening, but by July 2007, more than 70 of the total 102 households had joined them, developing rubber plantations in the area of Semalah and Menyukung hill (Ernawati 2006). Pegah villagers also cleared land for rice on the hillsides of Semujan in 2005; they even received support from the district government in the form of seeds, fertilizer and agricultural tools, including pesticides. The decline in fish catches and associated income is the main reason the Malay villagers are searching for alternative livelihoods, and agriculture is one of the few choices. Diversifying into agriculture is one way the people of Danau Sentarum can compensate for decreasing incomes from fishing, but they have no strategy to solve the problem of rapid human population growth.

Box 1. Nanga Leboyan

Nanga Leboyan is one of several large settlements in the estuary of
Leboyan River in Danau Sentarum National Park. During the rule of the
Selimbau Malay Kingdom, in the 18th century, the area of Nanga Leboyan
was already important for its fishing and wild honey collecting. At
that time, there were no permanent settlements; people would visit
only during the fishing season. Old informants in this village
recounted that during the Japanese occupation (1942-1945) there
were five or six households from Selimbau who began to stay
permanently, for security reasons. Their relatives from Selimbau
then joined them and built houses. As of 2009, there were 137
households with 644 people.

The communities noticed the population trend in the early 1990s (Dudley and Colfer 1993) and now recognize that rapid human population growth threatens this conservation area. One community leader attributed the decrease in the fish catch over the past decade to competition among villagers. Harianto, a community leader in Nanga Leboyan, said that the boats during the fishing season in his area numbered only 70 in 1987, compared with 130 in 2006. The decreasing fish catch has been followed by reductions in household incomes from the fishing sector in all villages (Indriatmoko and Abas 2008).

Local communities, both Malay and Iban, are the real managers of the natural resources in this protected area. They implement their local rules based on their customary laws. Each village has its own regulations (aturan nelayan) for its utilization area, most of which relate to fishing. Unclear boundaries and the mobile nature offish in the rivers and lakes have created conflicts, particularly when the rules regarding fishing areas and fish catches are broken. Traditionally, the villages have their own mechanisms to resolve these conflicts (Yasmi et al. 2007). However, many of the immigrants during the fishing season are the villagers' own relatives, and thus it is difficult for them to enforce any regulations to limit the number of people.

The management unit of DSNP was established in 2007 and began developing a collaborative management plan with local communities and other stakeholders. The unit is also developing a database and statistics on the park and providing extension services about the park via radio. However, it has no clear strategy or approach for dealing with rapid human population growth inside the park.

There is an ambiguous response from the Kapuas Hulu district government. The district contains two big national parks, Danau Sentarum and Betung Kerihun, and since more than half the district territory is officially protected area and therefore under central government management, in 2003, Kapuas Hulu declared itself a "conservation district" by official decree of the district head (SK Bupati Kapuas Hulu Nomor 144 Tahun 2003). However, there is no clear and significant field implementation of the decree. District officials often express the notion that the conservation area status is a major constraint for development. The district government recognizes its responsibility to enhance the well-being of the people inside the park, yet the national park territory is under central government authority. This background has implications for the minimal role of local government in controlling human population inside the national park. In some cases district policies contradict conservation goals, as when the district government promotes the development of oil palm plantations and provides local communities with seeds and pesticides.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Danau Sentarum has experienced rapid human population growth with a more than 50 percent increase during the last decade. Consequences include depletion of the fishery and conversion of natural forest for swiddening and rubber plantations -threats that are additional to those reported in Heri et al. (this volume). Thus far, neither the park authorities nor the park management unit have made much effort to deal with this issue.

The national park needs to be zoned, based on a comprehensive study and proper consultation with local communities. Zoning could minimize unsustainable human activity in certain areas and thus protect important habitats. In Danau Sentarum, the main challenge in establishing zones will be building agreement with local communities, in a collaborative effort that also involves the management unit (as the representative of the central and district governments) and committed NGOs. Collaborative management of protected areas has now been authorized by a Ministry of Forestry regulation (No. 19/ Menhut-11/2004).

The management unit of DSNP should be supported by sufficient funds. Financial support is always a problem for national park management in Indonesia. In the case of DNSP in 2008, funding from the central government covered only staff salaries, with nothing left over for programs to maintain a huge protected area facing serious threats--and among them the difficult problem of human population growth.

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Yayan Indriatmoko

Center for International Forestry Research

JL. CIFOR, Sindang Barang

Bogor, West Java, Indonesia

[email protected]

Table 1. Human population and village numbers in DSNP, 2007

Ethnic groups No. of Villages Households Total Population

Malay 44 6 seasional 2411 9645
Than Daak 5 187 639
Total number 43 2598 10284

Source: field survey CIFOR and Yayasan Riak Bumi, July 2007