STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
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‘Mostly, we gather the same plants and hunt the same animals as our
parents and grandparents did, but a few mammals and some plants
are getting more difficult to find. Like the vulnerable babirusa, also
known as pig-deer’, Budi explains.
Permission to live
In contrast to many forest people living inside the conservation areas of
Indonesia, these families have permission to live here. Apa Rauf travelled
all the way to Jakarta to argue for their traditional rights in the area. They
want permanent permission to live here, but were only able to get it for
25 years. There are still people who want them out of the forest – some
because they think it is better for these families to ‘develop’ and move
to modern villages, others because they think it will protect the forests.
But having witnessed the vast monoculture palm oil plantations eating
their way into the forest along the coast, it is evident that the forest is
threatened by far more powerful actors than the Tau Ta’a Wana.
Sulawesi’s forests are worth protecting. Seen from the air, the island
resembles a sprawling octopus, with its green, forest-covered arms
stretching in all directions. The long geographic isolation has given
Sulawesi high plant endemism, distinct forest types which provide
habitats for the highest number of endemic mammals in Asia,
and numerous endemic birds. Mammals found only here include
the endangered mountain anoa (Bubalus quarlesi), the vulnerable
babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa) and the amazing sailfin lizard
(Hydrosaurus amboinensis), which is up to 90 cm long with a tail
twice the length of its head and body put together! Sulawesi almost
balance on the Wallace line, an area of biological discontinuity
between Asia and Australia. It made up of two ecoregions: lowland
rain forest, and montane rainforest dominated by oaks and chestnuts.
The island has extensive forest cover, but large parts of the lowland
forest are degraded and the impact of logging, open-pit mining and
plantations is evident along the coast.
Salisarao village, outside the nature reserve
The view is green from Salisarao village, which lays half a day’s walk
from Marisa. Hillside after hillside with forest stretches towards the
coast. On the horizon, however, we can see palm oil plantations
gradually taking more land and replacing the biodiversity-rich natural
forest with monoculture. Representatives of the palm oil industry have
already visited the village, trying to get their hands on the land. The
people of Salisarao told them to leave and hope they will not return.
‘No, we don’t want sawit (oil palm). They need such big areas, they
take all the land. There will be no room for gardens’, Indo Laku
explains as we rest by her family’s hut. She is spokesperson for the
village. Her daughter, Laku, teaches in the village school. There are
no government schools in these forests. The Skola Lipu ‘forest school’
is facilitated by the NGO Yayasan Merah Putih (YMP), a partner
organization of Rainforest Foundation Norway. The school has built
new confidence in the village.
‘Our children should be smart’
’In the government school, people looked down on us because we are
forest people, and because we are not Muslims’, the young teacher
Laku explains. In Skola Lipu it is more than reading and writing on
the curriculum. They are also thought about the area where they live
and about plants and animals in the forest. ‘We want our children
to be smart, to learn how to read and write and not be tricked by
outsiders’, Laku insists.
Apa Rauf and daughter
Mirna
