by JOHANIS JOHN VIRIUS, Secretary, LP3M
In Nunukan district, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, along the Sembakung River from Mansalong sub-district to the upper reaches of the river, we will find a group of villages named Patal Village (Kelompok Desa Patal).
From 11-13 April, LP3M collaborated with the Mansalong local parish, Sawit Watch and NTFP-EP to organize a seminar on the impacts of large-scale palm oil plantation in Mansalong sub-district. This was a follow-up from the seminar organized in Malinau district in January 2006 as representatives from the Mansalong sub district strongly felt that the experience and information from the earlier seminar would greatly benefit the people in Mansalong sub-district. The seminar was organised to challenge the government’s policy on the expansion of large-scale palm oil plantation in Kalimantan and to simultaneously socialize the results of the grand synod of the Indonesian Catholic church (2005) to conserve and restore the forest of Kalimantan.
The majority of people in the six villages in Patal are from the Dayak Agabag sub-ethnic group. They were formerly called Orang Tenggalan (Tenggalan People). Their daily activities include gathering gaharu (eaglewood) and rattan from the forest and cultivation of non-irrigated fields. The women, apart from gathering firewood along the edge of the river, make handicrafts like mats and baskets from rattan. The Agabag people’s staple diet is Ilui, made from cassava. Rice is only eaten when they are in the forest in search of gaharu.
The opening of the seminar was attended by around 500 people from the villages in the sub-district. The seminar was organized just before the Holy Week as many of the Agabag people were Catholics. However not only Catholics but other Christian denominations and Muslims attended the seminar. It was organized just before Holy Week as the villages that were located far away from one another, gather together in Patal for Holy Week. However the seminar proper in the following two days was joined by over 100 village leaders, elders, key community members and cultural leaders.
The seminar was similar to the one held in January whereby views and experience were shared on the negative impact of large-scale palm oil plantations in other parts of Indonesia. Another similarity was the enthusiasm of the local people to participate, understand and resolve the problems they are now facing in Patal with the palm oil companies converting their communal forest into palm oil plantations.
A secondary student who actively participated in the seminar, Henricus Leven strongly felt a need to be present at the seminar, knowing that the environmental problems plaguing Kalimantan must be solved not only for his benefit, but for his people and his land.
