Environmental conservation in the Taman Hutan Raya Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin

In the Harapan area, environmental conservation concerns first came up under the Dutch colonial administration. In 1933, the Dutch attempted to establish a nature reserve on customary (adat) land of the Batin Sembilan in the area of today’s Taman Hutan Raya Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin forest reserve (see Map 6) aiming to preserve endemic ironwood trees. This decision was only announced verbally and never passed as law (Kunz, 2016, p. 41). However, interviewees reported that the Dutch already demarcated the boundaries of the planned protection area²²⁸. With the establishment of transmigration schemes in the Harapan area and the allocation of land for plantation concessions in the 1970s and 1980s, land availability had decreased drastically for the non-transmigrant population and especially the Batin Sembilan had been deprived of their customary (adat) land (see Chapter 6.2.1)²²⁹. Since the 1980s, the area of todays’ Taman Hutan Raya Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin forest reserve was increasingly exploited and used for the cultivation of food crops and rubber²³⁰. Jambi’s Social Department established a social housing project in order to settle the semi-nomadic Batin Sembilan communities of the area. Wooden huts were provided by the government and each household received 0.5 hectares of land for cultivation²³¹. This was of course not enough land to make a living and cultivation extended into the forest, too. In addition, migrants from other parts of Sumatra came to the Harapan area, looking for jobs as daily workers in plantation concessions, and seeking for access to land. They started to settle in the surroundings of the social housing project, either bought houses from those Batin Sembilan who did not want to participate in the social housing project anymore, or built new houses²³². In 1999, the area was put under a formal protection status by the Ministry of Forestry and named Taman Hutan Raya Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin forest reserve, covering an area of 15,830 hectares (see Map 6)²³³. Thereby, the social housing project became an “island with a special status within the protection forest” (Kunz, 2016, p. 50). At the local level the designation of the forest reserve was not communicated, and signs which inform about and demarcate the boundaries of the

227 Parts of this section have been published in Beckert et al., 2014 and Beckert & Keck, 2015.

228 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 23.09.2013, Interview No. 87

229 Interview with key informant, Mekar Jaya, 01.04.2013, Interview No. 69.

230 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 23.03.2013, Interview No. 62.

231 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 23.09.2013, Interview No. 88.

232 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 23.09.2013, Interview No. 88.

233 Interview with key informant, Mekar Jaya, 01.04.2013, Interview No. 69.

Counter-exclusions in the Harapan post-frontier conflict arena 125 forest reserve have only be installed by the Ministry of Forestry in 2007, eight years after the area had been put under a formal protection status²³⁴. Nowadays, the forest reserve is heavily contested and law enforcement is weak and undermined by illegal logging of smallholders, land sales and settlement activities²³⁵. The forest reserve is regarded as source of livelihood: “When people need extra money, they go to the forest reserve to log ironwood trees. They cooperate with police and army officials, otherwise illegal logging would not be possible”²³⁶. Village interviews revealed that almost the whole forest reserve is cultivated by either Batin Sembilan or villagers of the area: “Now hundreds until thousands of people live inside the Taman Hutan Raya”²³⁷. Since 2004, the cultivation patterns changed from rubber to oil palms²³⁸. Smallholders seemingly legalize their agricultural activities by acquiring a permission letter from a village head, called 'izin garapan', which gives them the 'allowance' to cultivate land within the forest reserve. “The village head just issues the 'izin garapan'. From thereon, any risk is under the responsibility of the villagers”²³⁹. This statement indicates that these 'permission letters' are not backed by state regulations, which prohibit the cultivation of land in forest reserves.

The process of mimicking de jure national laws in village regulations is summarized by Kunz et al. (2016) under the term “mimicry of the legal” (p. 129)²⁴⁰. There have been attempts by the Ministry of Forestry to afforest the forest reserve in 2010, but villagers of the area were afraid that they will be excluded from access to land, protested against the reforestation project in the district capital Muara Bulian²⁴¹. Ultimately, replanting did not take place²⁴². “The Ministry of Forestry Department made a policy to solve the problem: the villagers can continue to use their cultivated land areas within the forest reserve, but they are not allowed to expand their cultivation area, or clear the forest”²⁴³. “What is left today is only the name Taman Hutan Raya (forest reserve), but there is no forest anymore”²⁴⁴.

The second attempt to conserve the environment in the Harapan area has been made with the designation of the Harapan Rainforest conservation concession of PT REKI, which is located in the southern part of Bungku village (see Map 6). It covers 100,000 hectares and stretches from Jambi province to the neighboring province of South Sumatra. Until 2007, the area was under the logging concessions of PT Inhutani and PT Asialog²⁴⁵. Selective logging took place, only big trees were cut down,

234 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 23.03.2013, Interview No. 62.

235 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 23.09.2013, Interview No. 88.

236 Interview with key informant, Mekar Jaya, 01.04.2013, Interview No. 69.

237 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 23.09.2013, Interview No. 88.

238 Interview with key informant, Mekar Jaya, 31-03.2013, Interview No. 68.

239 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 23.03.2013, Interview No. 62.

240 For a detailed analysis of these mimicry of the legal-processes in the Taman Hutan Raya Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin forest reserve refer to Kunz et al., 2016.

241 Muara Bulian is the district capital of Batanghari district.

242 Interview with key informant Pompa Air, 08.03.2013, Interview No. 48.

243 Interview with key informant Pompa Air, 08.03.2013, Interview No. 48.

244 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 23.03.2013, Interview No. 62.

245 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 21.03.2013, Interview No. 58.

Counter-exclusions in the Harapan post-frontier conflict arena 126 leaving the rest of the forest more or less intact²⁴⁶. In 2008 and 2010, an 'ecosystem restoration concession' (Izin Usaha Pemanfaatan Hasil Hutan Kayu-Restorasi Ekosistem, IUPHHK-RE) was given to the company PT REKI. An 'ecosystem restoration concession' is a new type of concession area for the management of 'Production Forests', introduced by the Ministry of Forestry in 2004 (Buergin, 2016, p.

281). Hereby, a market-based instrument has been established to counter deforestation and forest degradation and to restore forest ecosystems in logged-out former concession areas (Buergin, 2016, p. 281). In 2008, PT REKI received the license for the southern concession part, located in South Sumatra province, and two years later for the northern concession part, located in Jambi province²⁴⁷. The 'ecosystem restoration concession' was allocated to PT REKI for a duration of 65 years and can be extended for another 35 years²⁴⁸. Being implemented as first 'ecosystem restoration concession' in Indonesia it was acquired through a joint initiative of national and international NGOs (such as Burung Indonesia, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and BirdLife International) and is funded by various donors, including the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the German Federal 'Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety' (BMU), Singapore Airlines, and others²⁴⁹. The project serves as pilot project for sustainable climate and forest conservation policy and aims to conserve and restore one of the few remaining tracts of lowland rainforest in Sumatra while at the same time promoting REDD+ (Hein, 2013, p. 15; Hein & Faust, 2014, p. 21; Hein, 2016, pp. 81-83). PT Inhutani and PT Asialog as well as the Harapan Rainforest conservation concession of PT REKI were allocated on collective customary (adat) land of the Batin Sembilan. The Batin Sembilan were however allowed to enter the logging concession areas for hunting and collecting non-timber forest products²⁵⁰. After the logging concessions had expired in 2007, and before the 'ecosystem restoration concession' had been allocated to PT REKI in the northern concession part in 2010, massive illegal logging occurred in the area²⁵¹²⁵². Due to new actors entering the area, the Batin Sembilan had been deprived of access to their collective customary (adat) land. As forest resources were increasingly depleted, the Batin Sembilan started to sell land to migrants in order to sustain their living. An informal land trade started between customary leaders and migrants, leading to overlapping land claims between the Batin Sembilan, PT REKI, and migrant communities. This resulted in massive land conflicts. Only financially very strong actors, often called land mafia²⁵³, can afford to 'buy' and clear-cut parcels of land within the 'ecosystem restoration concession', the Batin Sembilan usually

246 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 26.09.2013, Interview No. 92.

247 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 21.09.2013, Interview No. 83.

248 Interview with staff member of PT REKI, Harapan Rainforest, 25.09.2013, Interview No. 101.

249 For further information refer to the Homepage of the Harapan Rainforest:

http://harapanrainforest.org/harapan

250 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 25.09.2013, Interview No. 91.

251 Interview with key informant, Bungku, 25.09.2013, Interview No. 90.

252 Interview with staff member of KKI WARSI, Jambi City, 29.10.2013, Interview No. 103.

253 Interview with staff member of KKI WARSI, Jambi City, 29.10.2013, Interview No. 103

Counter-exclusions in the Harapan post-frontier conflict arena 127 cannot afford this²⁵⁴. “The Batin Sembilan don’t destroy the forest, outsiders from Kerinci, Medan or Java destroy the forest. They come in the evening and clear the forest using a chainsaw and enter the area via secret paths”²⁵⁵. In order to impede land selling activities and forest conversion, PT REKI negotiated conservation agreements with the Batin Sembilan population, allowing them to use parcels of land within the Harapan rainforest conservation concession and to collect non-timber forest products (Hein & Faust, 2014, p. 23, Hein, 2016, pp. 176-177). Despite massive deforestation activities within the conservation concession, PT REKI currently attempts to afforest the area with endemic tree species such as ironwood, meranti (Shorea) and blackboard trees (Alstonia) ²⁵⁶. For solving the land conflicts in the Harapan Rainforest conservation concession of PT REKI an interview partner of the NGO KKI WARSI suggested: “A solution for the PT REKI conflict would be that the land which is already cultivated by villagers should be excluded from PT REKI’s concession area. It is better to have 70,000 hectares of forest with strong law enforcement instead of 100,000 hectares with a chaotic law enforcement situation”²⁵⁷.

6.3 Research villages in perspective

Empirical research has been carried out in three villages in the Harapan area: Pompa Air and Bungku which are mostly inhabited by migrants from Java and other parts of Sumatra as well as ethnic Batin Sembilan, and Mekar Jaya, which was founded as rubber transmigration village. In the following, the research villages are introduced briefly, a focus is hereby set on village history, village structure and predominant land use.