(Putusi­bau, August 7, 2008): The eco­la­bel cer­tifi­cate granted to the com­mu­nity of Dayak Iban in Kam­pung Sun­gai Utik, Embaloh Hulu Regency, Kapuas Hulu Dis­trict of Kali­man­tan Barat Provinde is an epit­ome of sus­tain­able for­est man­age­ment effort per­formed in Indone­sia of which the world com­mu­nity needs to appre­ci­ate. “This has to be noted, the eco­la­bel cer­tifi­cate is an evi­dence for the world com­mu­nity to see that the com­mu­nity (of Sun­gai Utik) deserves the incen­tive and to make the world com­mu­nity real­ize that tra­di­tional com­mu­nity can pre­serve the for­est,” said M.S Kaban, the Forestry Min­istry, in Sun­gai Utik, Embaloh regency, Kapuas Hulu Dis­trict, Thursday.

ANTARA jour­nal­ist reported, the state­ment was con­veyed by the min­is­ter after hand­ing over the eco­la­bel cer­tifi­cate from LEI to Bandi “Pak Janggut” Anak Ragai (83). Pak Janggut is a “Tet­uai Rumah Pan­jai”- a title of the most influ­enced tra­di­tional fig­ure– of Dayak Iban tribe in Sun­gai Utik. The cer­e­mony was also attended Tau­fiq Alimi (LEI’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor) Abdon Naba­ban (AMAN’s Sec­re­tary Gen­eral), Alexan­der (the vice Bupati of Kapuas Hulu) and other impor­tant fig­ures. LEI, AMAN, Multi Stake­hold­ers Forestry Pro­gramme (MFP), guar­an­tor insti­tu­tions, and the gov­ern­ment of Kapuas Hulu Dis­trict col­lab­o­ra­tively held the occa­sion.
Sun­gai Utik vil­lage is a part of Kapuas Hulu moun­tain­ous area adja­cent to Malaysia’s Ser­awak Bor­der. The area can is only three hours away from Putusi­bau, the cap­i­tal of Kapuas Hulu Dis­trict, and can be reached by land trans­port. The minister’s con­tin­gent arrived to Putusi­bau by using heli­copter. MS. Kaban con­veyed that Sun­gai Utik com­mu­nity indeed deserves the world community’s appre­ci­a­tion as what the com­mu­nity has per­formed achieved is not an overnight effort. The com­mu­nity has con­ducted their effort for decades amid the big chal­lenge from the neigh­bor­ing coun­try, they can still hold out. “So, I think the Sun­gai Utik com­mu­nity really deserves some­thing that make them proud of doing such efforts. This must be fol­lowed up, we have to do some­thing to turn the for­est into the source of pros­per­ity for this com­mu­nity, and we have to col­lab­o­ra­tively pre­pare it,” the min­istry added.

Kaban added that with the inv­oleve­ment of NGOs, tra­di­tional com­mu­nity asso­ci­a­tion (AMAN) and LEI, he hopes that the eco­la­bel cer­tifi­cate can be used as the first step for the next devel­op­ment phase. “This can be the exam­ple of how other Indone­sian tra­di­tional com­mu­nity should man­age their for­est area,” he said. Accord­ing to Kaban, there should be a fol­low up action after the cer­tifi­cate is received. Should it not be fol­lowed up the cer­tifi­cate alone will bring no impli­ca­tion to the community’s life and might lead to an unfa­vor­able psy­cho­log­i­cal effect. “We need to find out other things to offer for future needs, for exam­ple we can be envi­ron­men­tal ser­vice provider, (join the) car­bon trade, of which can ben­e­fit Sun­gai utik com­mu­nity mem­bers. This should be our first pri­or­ity,” he said

Mis­man­aged
The min­istry also added he would like to stress that forestry sec­tor must play the role as the source of of pros­per­ity for the com­mu­nity. “It is very impor­tant not to mis­man­aged the for­est areas, and we must try hard to main­tain and pre­serve the area as well as to pre­vent other peo­ple to exploit Sun­gai Utik’s nat­ural resources for their own ben­e­fit,” he said. He also hopes that the noble effort can be con­tin­ued and doesn’t stop upon receiv­ing the cer­tifi­cate. In this way, the 25 years hard work that has been per­formed by the com­mu­nity, under the lead­er­ship of “Pak Janggut”, can really mean some­thing for the life of the com­mu­nity mem­bers, both in “Rumah Pan­jang” and for the com­mu­nity in general.

“In this way, we can tell the whole world that if they should man­age for­est areas in the most appro­pri­ate way, they can look at Sun­gai Utik for an exam­ple. This is some­thing that we have to say to the world,” said Kaban. Mean­while, AMAN’s Gen­eral Sec­re­tary, Abdon Naba­ban said that the effort per­formed requires pro­tec­tion, guar­an­tee, and sup­port from the gov­ern­ment and the state. This is to steer clear of the tempt­ing offers from the Malaysian big buy­ers to buy woods from the pre­served area. “Aside from the sup­port and pro­tec­tion from the gov­ern­ment and the state, the bal­ance between the econ­omy ben­e­fit and eco­log­i­cal inter­ests should also be main­tained,” he said.

Tau­fiq Alimi, the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of LEI, stated that Sun­gai Utik Dayak Iban’s res­olute­ness of which resulted in say­ing no to the tempt­ing eco­nomic offers is an exam­ple of the cul­tural ini­tia­tive that can be used to bat­tle ille­gal log­ging activ­ity, and it has brought pos­i­tive impacts. “Dayak Iban tribe holds its cul­tural value strongly, and they refuse the investor’s offer to exploit their tra­di­tional com­mu­nity for­est area. This is why the for­est area is still well man­aged until now. This is a rare local wis­dom, and after under­go­ing a series of Sus­tain­able Com­mu­nity Based For­est Man­age­ment (SCBFM) assess­ment, we grant the first eco­la­bel cer­tifi­cate in Indone­sia’” he said.

ANTARA reporter who fol­low the activ­ity from Putusi­bau reported that the hand­ing over cer­e­mony was sched­uled on Thurs­day (7/8) attended by the Forestry min­is­ter, M.S. Kaban, the Gov­er­nor of Kali­man­tan Barat, Drs. Cor­nelis and other stake­hold­ers such as NGOs, local gov­ern­ment and Indone­sian donor insti­tu­tion for tra­di­tional com­mu­nity for­est. The eco­la­bel scheme for tra­di­tional com­mu­nity for­est in Sun­gai Utik com­menced in 2004–2006. At that time LEI, AMAN, For­est Watch Indone­sia (FWI), and Euro­pean Union held a col­lab­o­ra­tive pro­gram in Kam­pung Sun­gai Utik. The col­lab­o­ra­tive pro­gram also involved three com­mu­nity advo­cacy orga­ni­za­tions based in Pon­tianak. The three orga­ni­za­tions are Lem­baga Bela Banua Tal­ino (LBBT), Pem­ber­dayaan Pen­gelo­laan Sum­ber­daya Alam Ker­aky­atan (PPSDAK), dan Pro­gram Pem­ber­dayaan Sis­tem Hutan Ker­aky­atan (PPSHK). The orga­ni­za­tions pre­pared the stan­dard imple­men­ta­tion of Sus­tain­able For­est Man­age­ment prac­tice in which the tra­di­tional com­mu­nity is capa­ble of play­ing the role.

On March 2008, a series of SCBFM cer­ti­fi­ca­tion assess­ment was held by PT. Mutu­a­gung Lestari (MAL) as the qual­ity cer­ti­fi­ca­tion body under LEI’s accred­i­ta­tion. The result of the for­est cer­ti­fi­ca­tion (eco­la­bel) assess­ment stated that the com­mu­nity of kam­pong Sun­gai Utik is enti­tled to receive the sus­tain­able for­est man­age­ment certificate.