| THE POLITICS OF EXTINCTION | |
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A Future Without Forests? - Kutai National Park
Kutai N.P. in Kalimantan represents another highly biodiverse reserve and was established in order to protect the Sumatran rhinoceros, which is now extinct in the Park. Kutai is home to 11 species of primate - including the Bornean gibbon (Hylobates muelleri), proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus), red langur (Presbytis rubicunda), grey langur (P. hosei) and white-fronted langur (P. frontata) - 6 species of ungulates, 12 species of carnivores, 5 of reptiles and 300 species of birds, representing 80% of the total Bornean avian species.63 More than 500 tree species have been found in Kutai, including many timber trees and wild relatives of important fruit trees. In addition, Kutai is rich in palms, rattans, orchids and pitcher plants.64 In the National Conservation Plan for Indonesia drafted in 1981, Kutai is described as an "irreplaceable example of lowland rain forest from mangrove shore to dry lowlands including small areas of swamps. The area is floristically rich... [and] has a wealth of wildlife particularly orangutan and banteng. Unfortunately the reserve has been seriously destroyed by logging and oil well development and less than half of the area remains under original forest."65 The tropical rainforests have the highest biodiversity index of all Indonesian forests, yet currently less than 3% are protected, with the lowlands of Kutai accounting for some 20% of the original area of lowland forest. Yet despite its biological richness and conservation value, Kutai has been encroached upon on many occasions and boundaries have been shifted to allow development. In just one example, a strip of 100 000 hectares along the coast was excised for oil and logging exploration and the logged-over section reinstated two years later. However a further 106 000 hectares were excluded in 1973.66 In 1982 the area was declared a park, though it is now thought that the actual area has shrunk by 25% to 150 000 hectares because of illegal logging and forest fires67, which have destroyed around 2000 hectares of forest over the past year alone.68 Because of the system of permits which can be granted for mineral exploration, the state-owned oil company Pertamina is allowed to operate within the Park and has announced its intention to expand its operations into the "sanctuary zone" of the Park. Other companies have sought licences to exploit the considerable deposits of coal located under the Park. "Intensive seismic explorations have been carried throughout the Park, also in zone 3, where such activities are not permitted".69 In 1992, a concession was granted to a local timber company to remove the harvestable trees in a 20 metre strip alongside the road. "In reality all trees within reach were cut and those stretches of forest along the road that had escaped previous devastation ... were seriously damaged."70 Kutai has no buffer-zone and is hemmed in by companies exploiting the area's natural resources, including companies which in 1995 established "The Friends of Kutai" to oversee some of the management of the Park. In the eastern section which was excised in 1971, there is a huge liquid natural gas processing plant and fertiliser plant. To the north lies the Kaltim Prima Coal concession, a joint venture involving British Petroleum and RTZ-CRA. Producing ten million tonnes per year, it is one of the largest coal exporters in the world.71 To the West and South-West lie timber and plantation concessions, including Bob Hasan's Kiani Lestari timber concession.72 It remains to be seen whether these companies are willing to make the financial sacrifice to uphold and reinforce the conservation efforts within the Park, otherwise, as UNESCO predicts, "Kutai National Park will disintegrate further and the last significant sample of one of the world's richest habitats will finally disappear from the map".73 If the forests are left undisturbed or are harvested in an ecologically sustainable manner, then the options for future land uses are left open. Once the forests are damaged and cleared, their biodiversity declines, species are lost and irreversible ecological and environmental changes occur. Most of Indonesia's rich biodiversity is harboured within her rapidly disappearing forests. |
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