Jakarta, 8/8 (Equa­tor News): Tues­day (7/8) at 12.00 the con­tin­gent of Forestry Min­istry, MS. Kaban has landed on the soc­cer field of Sun­gai Utik to visit the Rumah Pan­jang. This was a suc­cess­ful visit after the post­pone­ment of the same visit a planned few years ago.

The main pur­pose of the Minister’s visit is to hand over the Eco­la­bel cer­tifi­cate to the Sun­gai Utik Com­mu­nity mem­ber. Sun­gai Utik com­mu­nity mem­bers have suc­ceeded in man­ag­ing their for­est area sus­tain­able and free of ille­gal log­ging activ­i­ties. In Kapuas Hulu, only Sun­gai Utik tra­di­tional for­est area that no ille­gal log­ging activ­i­ties are per­formed. The for­est area is well pre­served and no Malaysian investors have suc­ceeded in exploit­ing it as they did to other area a few years a go. It took 20 min­utes for the Minister’s heli­copter to find a good land­ing zone.

“Dur­ing that 20 min­utes I was just think­ing that this would be the sec­ond time I failed to visist the Rumah Pan­jai (long house) in Sun­gai Utik. But through my prayer and strong will to meet the com­mu­nity mem­bers here, my heli­copter finally man­aged to land,” said the Min­is­ter when con­vey­ing his remarks. The audi­ence applauded his remarks.

The Minister’s con­tin­gents is wel­come by the Vice Bupati , Drs. Y Alexan­der, Msi, Sun­gai Utik tra­di­tional lead­ers, Head of Police Chief, Head and staff of Embaloh Hulu regency. A tra­di­tional Dayak Iban wel­come dance accom­pa­nies the con­tin­gent on the jour­ney to the Rumah Pan­jai (long house). “I have met with the tra­di­tional lead­ers of Sun­gai Utik Rmah Pan­jai , and based on the dis­cus­sion we had I was deter­mined to visit this area and directly meet the com­mu­nity mem­bers of this vil­lage. What I want to see is that this area can be more advanced com­pared to other area as the com­mu­nity mem­bers have man­aged to pre­serve their for­est area,” praised the Minister.

Accord­ing to the Min­is­ter, the eco­la­bel cer­tifi­cate granted to the com­mu­nity is the first eco­la­bel cer­tifi­cate LEI ever given to tra­di­tional com­mu­nity group in Indone­sia. “We surely hope that this can be a his­tor­i­cal moment for sus­tain­able for­est man­age­ment sys­tem of which directly per­formed by tra­di­tional com­mu­nity group in Indone­sia,” he said.

Kaban explained that, sus­tain­able for­est is for­est in which river flood dur­ing the rainy sea­son, never dry dur­ing the draught and the water stays clean. Com­mu­nity mem­bers rside in the area have access fish, rat­tan and eng­gang. Birds can be found on the top of tall trees and fly around the area. “If you can see and hear ani­mals in the for­est, then it can be said that the for­est is well pre­served,” said Kaban.

Kaban added that the gov­ern­ment must put its effort to pro­vide guar­an­tee and pro­tec­tion for the tra­di­tional for­est man­age­ment sys­tem. “While keep­ing up with the recent devel­op­ment, it is often the case that we neglect the wis­dom of the local tra­di­tional value. This is impor­tant because we have to pass the value on to the next gen­er­a­tion,” he explained.

Kaban added that due to the well pre­served for­est area, the com­mu­nity reside area should be bet­ter, devel­oped, smarter and updated to the recent sit­u­a­tion.
“The gov­ern­ment, in this case the Forestry Depart­ment, will clearly state that for­est areas such as Sun­gai Utik area are pro­tected by the law’, Kaban assured.

For the gov­ern­ment, for­est man­age­ment must be guar­an­teed. For­est can not be possed and solely be exploited. We should not do the same mis­take in man­ag­ing the for­est as we did in the past.
Kaban explained that in the near future, the gov­ern­ment through the Forestry Depart­ment will issue the Forestry Min­is­ter Reg­u­la­tion through this reg­u­la­tion the exis­tence of tra­di­tional for­est and ulayat for­est pos­sessed by the com­mu­nity of which bor­der area is clearly defined and com­mu­nally main­tained can be pro­tected by law. “The state has the respon­si­bil­ity to pro­tect every­thing cov­ered in Indone­sia area,” said Kaban.

Mean­while, the vice Bupati, Y Alexander,Msi, said that the com­mu­nity of Kapuas Hulu, espe­cially the Rumah Panaji com­mu­nity mem­bers honor the Ministry’s visit. There has been no Min­is­ter ever visist Kapuas area. “We hope that this visit can encour­age us to improve our efforts in man­ag­ing the for­est area and keep it pre­served,” he said.

The Vice Bupati explained that he will fol­low up it up by syn­chro­niz­ing the Forestry Office and Dis­trict gov­ern­ment pro­grams in for­est preser­va­tion efforts.
“We will coor­di­nate with Forestry Depart­ment, espe­cially for the mat­ter of for­est preser­va­tion offort bud­get­ing,” he explained briefly. (wieK)

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