State of the Rainforest 2014

Datuk Rio explains about rubber collection and processing

negotiate. As they control the bulldozers the villagers can only watch the forest disappear. All they can do is keep trying to get the company management to listen to them. As we climb further up the hill, the diverse forest around us is increases in density. The forest is strictly regulated by the village committee, and no one is allowed to take trees without permission. The striking difference between the village forest and the plantations on the hills around it, illustrates the choice faced by Indonesia’s government: To continue the rapid conversion of the remaining rainforest into monoculture plantations. Or to work with local communities to find ways in which to combine development needs with the protection of the rainforest.

Court decided that what is called ‘adat forest’, or traditional forest, in the forest classification system, should not be considered part of the vast state forest, ‘hutan negara’. To what extent this ruling will strengthen forest communities’ rights in practice remains to be seen. Urgent For people in Senamat Ulu it is urgent to secure their rights to the forest. The reason is clearly visible in the landscape, as we climb the hill constituting much of the village’s traditional forest. The view to the neighboring hills reveals vast oil palm plantations, stretching into the horizon. Further down on the hillside opposite us we can see large scars in the landscape where an industrial rubber plantation is being established. Parts of the forest land taken by the rubber company belong to Senamat Ulu village, but the company refuses to

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014