State of the Rainforest 2014

Indonesia: A view from the forest Marisa village in Morowali Nature Reserve, Sulawesi The sun is just rising, but the shrill non-stop crowing of the energetic cock and the cackling of his enthusiastic hens make it impossible to sleep. Outside, village head Apa Rauf’s house, the village is already wide awake. In front of his house, Budi’s cousin is making a new thatched roof from slim rattan leaves. Meters above us, Mirna’s brother is balancing carefully, as he grapples with the long tree stems to make the roof structure for a new house built with materials from the surrounding forests. It will be constructed in the traditional way, with the floor more than a meter above the ground.

done. They have gardens in different parts of the forest, practicing long rotation circles. Many of the villagers have left to attend to their crops and vegetables several hours’ walking distance from the village. Medicines on the doorstep Next to the ‘rice fields’ we meet Apa Sudin, one of the community’s experts on medicinal plants. Some species grow on their doorstep. Apa Sudin shows us remedies for fever, healing wounds, for stomach pains and headaches. Walking around the village, we are impressed at every turn wide range of plants and animals made use of, and the skills the Tau Ta’a Wana show in how to utilize the various plants and animals. These aren’t skills they learnt from the town school – or picked up from the TV in the corner of Apa Rauf’s hut, connecting the village to mainstream Asia’s world of soap opera through a satellite dish. This is knowledge passed on from generation to generation, accumulated through the Tau Ta’a Wanas’ long history as a forest people. Dressed in a clean white shirt, looking ready for office work in Jakarta, Budi enthusiastically demonstrates the traditional art of using the blowpipe as a hunting weapon. He then leads us into the forest. Only a few hundred meters away from the clearing he points out some rattan and starts to explain the usefulness of this multi-purpose plant. Among other things, it can be woven into baskets or mats, furniture, used in house construction, or sold in the local market.

Mirna is waiting for us in the kitchen. She is about to cook breakfast in her open fireplace and wants to show us how she prepares snails. Her son watches quietly with a serious look on his face while his mother tells us about her life in the forest. Yes, she has tried life outside the forest. She attended school - and that was fine. But she didn’t like life there, she explains. It was in one of the small towns down by the coast. It was noisy and polluted. ‘Here inside the Morowali forest I’ve got what I need and life is better’, Mirna says. But she wants her son to go to school and learn more than what she and her husband can teach him. Although it is too late in the day, and too dry anyway, Mirna shows us how she plants rice in the burnt soil between branches and roots. The Tau Ta’a Wana practice shifting cultivation, as they always have

Indonesian forests exploitation and degradation

P H I L I P P I N E S

South China Sea

Celebes Sea

M A L A Y S I A

Molucca Sea

S ULAWESI

N EW G UINEA

M OLUCCAS

S UMATRA

B ORNEO

Java Sea

I N D O N E S I A

Degraded forest Logging concession Oil palm concessions Primary forest

L ESSER S UNDA I SLANDS

J AVA

Source: Margono B.A., et al., Primary forest cover loss in Indonesia over 2000-2012. Nature Climate Change 2014, WRI, Global Forest Watch, accessed August 2014

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014

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