OPERATION USA SUPPORTS EFFORTS
TO CONSERVE INDONESIA'S FOREST LAND

Host to ten percent of the world’s flowering plant species, twelve percent of the world’s mammals and seventeen percent of the world’s bird species, Indonesia’s abundant biodiversity was severely threatened in the aftermath of the Asian Tsunami in December 2004. The hardest hit province of Aceh faced the overwhelming challenge of balancing large-scale reconstruction with conservation of the province’s rich biodiversity.

A short drive from Banda Aceh into the surrounding forested hills with Operation USA’s partner, Yayasan Lamjabat, reveals evidence of the slash and burn agriculture techniques that are increasingly being practiced today. This forested mountain area is one of outstanding beauty and is home to gibbons, monkeys, wild pigs, deer, the deer-mouse, porcupines, monitor lizards and many species of birds and other wildlife that have yet to be identified. 

Yayasan Lamjabat is one of the few local Acehnese NGOs deeply concerned about the negative impact 30 years of civil conflict, further compounded by the Asian Tsunami, has had on Aceh’s environment as forests are rapidly being cut down for building materials, farming land and plantations. “It is very important that the remaining forest is protected in order to provide a safe haven for existing wildlife and to provide lasting benefits to the local communities,” says Linda North, co-founder of Yayasan Lamjabat .    “It is feared that the communities and potential industrial businesses will gradually clear the area.  Not only do the forests provide a free source of food - fruits and nuts for example - for the local people, but they also protect the communities from potentially lethal flooding and landslides.” 

Communities in the area of Peukanbada have seen their quality and standard of living drop substantially over the last 20 years for various reasons. Before the Tsunami, the civil conflict severely curtailed income-generating opportunities, as there were 24-hour curfews in force. Furthermore, there were often gun battles in the areas where the community would farm or fish also preventing them from earning a living. Livestock were often lost as they went into the hills and couldn’t be retrieved due to security concerns.

The Asian Tsunami aggravated an already difficult situation. During the conflict, farmers and fishermen focused more on farming land at the base of the mountains, leaving the forests untouched. As a result of the Tsunami, all fishing boats, farmland and all livestock were either lost or destroyed. Today, farmers can no longer use the lowlands to farm because sand and silt deposits have left farmland infertile. They have no choice but to move to forested mountain areas to farm, resulting in vast plots of land being cleared of trees and shrubs before crops are planted.

 Yayasan Lamjabat’s response to this critical issue is the Environmental Education Center (EEC) that has been established with the support of Operation USA in Peukanbada on the outskirts of Banda Aceh – an area that has come under threat. The EEC aims to inform and encourage young people and the wider community to look after and assist in improving and conserving their natural heritage. With the resources that the EEC now offers, Operation USA and Yayasan Lamjabat hope that the farmers and their communities will have access to important information that will help them acquire an awareness and sensitivity to environmental issues and problems relating to environment and development. The EEC will offer farmers an opportunity to learn about new farming techniques that are environmentally sustainable.

Yayasan Lamjabat sent its program staff to an organic farming training center last month and they are now ready to start working with women and youth on more appropriate farming practices, including organic composting using livestock waste.

“The response from women learning new ways of farming is very good. We have started children’s education activities that are run at the same time so that the women can participate in the program knowing that their children are being well looked after,” says North.  “We are trying not to be seen as the organization that says ‘don’t do this and don’t do that’ but instead, we help the community to see for themselves what they should and could do to change any environmentally destructive behavior.” 

Indeed, this is something we could all think about.

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03/2007