Pomatodon. Of The Tree and Off-the-Map Land
The Tidung and the Agabag communities has been the first dwellers along the Sembakung river in East Borneo. The river has been everything for their life, like everywhere else in Borneo.
But these recent days, the river has a new meaning for them: flood.
Flood could drawn their villages for weeks. The Tidung, which were dependent to their paddy field, couldn't cope any longer with this situation. Rice has been an essential element in every rites of their cultures. It was hard to imagine the Tidung without their paddy field. Paddy and rice has been their core identity.
Once they wanted to expand their fields to avoid flood. But somewhere from the capital of the country, government has laid its finger to their forest. They couldn't open new areas for their field because they already belonged to the conservation area the government has set up.
At the same time, the Agabag communities which dependent to their forests as the Tidung dependent to their paddy field, has found that their forests have became barren. A commercial company hold a legal decree to log the forest which belonged to the Agabag. The decree itself was given to let the company converted any barren areas to something called "industrial forest", according to the government's term. Meaning, they were authorized to plant the areas with acacia trees which later they sell to global market.
In reality, it was not barren areas. It was the Agabag's forest. A virgin forest that they logged until barren only to be replaced with acacia plantation. They sell the timbers. They got decree to convert the areas into industrial forest, and the Agabag paid the cost with the lost of their virgin forests and hunted animals.
It was the stories of the absence of old nations, Tidung and Agabag, in the consideration of new nation, Indonesia, in the height of global market expansion. The customary right of Tidung and Agabag communities has never been translated into the political process in managing the forest resources, although in fact, they have been the true defendant of the last virgin forests in Borneo for centuries.
But these recent days, the river has a new meaning for them: flood.
Flood could drawn their villages for weeks. The Tidung, which were dependent to their paddy field, couldn't cope any longer with this situation. Rice has been an essential element in every rites of their cultures. It was hard to imagine the Tidung without their paddy field. Paddy and rice has been their core identity.
Once they wanted to expand their fields to avoid flood. But somewhere from the capital of the country, government has laid its finger to their forest. They couldn't open new areas for their field because they already belonged to the conservation area the government has set up.
At the same time, the Agabag communities which dependent to their forests as the Tidung dependent to their paddy field, has found that their forests have became barren. A commercial company hold a legal decree to log the forest which belonged to the Agabag. The decree itself was given to let the company converted any barren areas to something called "industrial forest", according to the government's term. Meaning, they were authorized to plant the areas with acacia trees which later they sell to global market.
In reality, it was not barren areas. It was the Agabag's forest. A virgin forest that they logged until barren only to be replaced with acacia plantation. They sell the timbers. They got decree to convert the areas into industrial forest, and the Agabag paid the cost with the lost of their virgin forests and hunted animals.
It was the stories of the absence of old nations, Tidung and Agabag, in the consideration of new nation, Indonesia, in the height of global market expansion. The customary right of Tidung and Agabag communities has never been translated into the political process in managing the forest resources, although in fact, they have been the true defendant of the last virgin forests in Borneo for centuries.
