SITI MAIMUNAH AND THE MUNGKUBARU ADAT (TRADITIONAL) COMMUNITY

USAID LESTARI: STORY FROM THE FIELD

By: Indra Nugraha

The ulin wood (Lat. Eusideroxylon zwageri) or collo-quially known as bulian or ironwood is a type of tree that is native to Kalimantan. Ulin wood trees grow and thrive in the wet tropical forests of Indonesia, specifically in the southern part of Sumatera and Ka-limantan, and it can grow to a considerable size. The largest ulin wood tree in Indonesia is found at Kutai National Park; it is about 20 meters in height with the diameter of 2.47 meters. The tree is estimated to be 1,000 years old.

The ulin wood product is quite special since it pos-sesses 10 uses/benefits covering many aspects in-cluding the economics, ecology, health, and many others. For instance, from the economic perspective, the ulin wood product is a highly desirable building material because of its strength and hardness, and it will last for a long time (it does decay easily, it repels water and impervious to termite attack). A building made of ulin wood could theoretically last for hun-dreds of years; thus it could be quite a cost saver. With regard to its ecological function, ulin wood is commonly used by the orang utan as their place for nesting since they eat the young leaves of this tree.

Nowadays, the population of ulin trees has dropped considerably, and its very existence is under threat.

“I have made my promise to the Mungkubaru adat community to always accompany them to protect their rights over the en-dangered adat forest. Because the community consider the ulin forest as their property, and there-fore it is used and managed with-out much care. Some of them even use it as a plantation area,” she said.

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This condition is closely associated with illegal log-ging activities and a massive conversion of forest functions into plantation and mining. The condition is further aggravated by the fact that conservations and replantation efforts of ulin wood trees by the government and by relevant companies or the lo-cal communities are severely lacking. Case in point, the Badan Penelitian Kehutanan Banjarbaru (Banjar-baru Forest Research Agency) has estimated that the population of ulin wood trees in Kalimantan has dropped down to 20%. Hence, IUC 1997 has cat-egorized ulin wood trees as an endangered plant species.

In the midst of the indifference and lack of inter-est of the various parties to conserve and protect ulin wood trees, it is quite rare to see a community that rises to the challenge. An example is the adat community in the forest of Mungkubaru Village in Pa-langka Raya, Central Kalimantan. Ulin wood trees are thriving throughout this adat forest; thus the area has obtained a nickname as the ulin forest. Despite being located at precisely 28 kilometer to the concession area of PT. Taiyoung Engreen, this adat forest is well preserved. The local indigenous community as well as the company have their own interest to preserve the 400 hectares of ulin forest.

The conscientious effort by the local community to preserve the Mungkubaru adat forest (ulin for-est) is inseparable from the role of Siti Maimunah, a local scholar. She is the Dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Agriculture of Universitas Muham-madiyah Palangka Raya. She is a loyal companion to the Mungkubaru adat community in the struggle to raise public awareness and to maintain a continu-ous management of the forest. One of the activities was advocating the government to extend an official recognition to the status of Mungkubaru adat forest,

which has been continuously managed by the local community.

“I would like to accompany the local community in man-aging the adat forest in a continuous manner, wherever and whenever,” said Siti Maimunah when contacted by Mongabay in early June 2016.

The woman, who was born in Wonosobo on 31 Jan-uary 1976, further stated that by coincidence the Mungkubaru adat forest is located near the educa-tion forest managed by the campus where she dedi-cates her life. The ulin forest is considered as an adat domain by the Mungkubaru adat community.

“I have made my promise to the Mungkubaru adat community to always accompany them to protect their rights over the endangered adat forest. Because the community consider the ulin forest as their property, and therefore it is used and managed without much care. Some of them even use it as a plantation area,” she said.

Before the involvement of Siti Maimunah, actually, there was an institution that professed to assist the locals in managing the adat forest. Nonetheless, ac-cording to the community it was not clear how the forest was actually managed. Even worse, in the midst of it all, that institution suddenly left and abandoned them. The community simply assumed that the man-agement of the adat forest was entirely under the authority of this institution. Siti Maimunah said that she was concerned that control of some areas of the adat forest would somehow be transferred to the individuals who managed the institution.

Whereas the essence of an adat forest is that the party in charge of such a forest should be the indig-enous community living in the area, in this case, the Mungkubaru adat community should have the right

Foto: Ibu Siti Maimunah with forestry expert from the University of Gadjah Mada.

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and responsibility to manage the ulin forest without altering the landscape. This conviction led Siti Maimu-nah to speak up to raise public awareness through discussion and other activities to preserve the ulin forest of Mungkubaru. The outreach activities began intensively in 2012, even though she had begun her activities the year before albeit not as intensive.

“In the beginning, it was simply a survey on bio-diversity within the area of the education forest. At that time I told the community leaders that they have an adat forest; however, its legal status is unclear,” said Siti Mai-munah.

Unfortunately, the preliminary initiative to raise public awareness was not well received by several members of the community, specifically those whose interest was only to harvest ulin wood products for their own benefit and also those who were only in-terested in controlling the forest for their own inter-est. They went so far by throwing accusations that there were religious motives behind her approach. The majority of people in the village are Christian, while Siti Maimunah is a Moslem. The difference in faith had somehow made the community unenthusi-astic in responding to Siti Maimunah’s call to manage the ulin forest in a continuous manner.

“There were a lot of agitation and talks that claimed my action was like the Gafatar (a cult movement, which has been declared as heresy) or a misguided cult. How-ever, slowly and gradually people began to see and understand that all the incitements were not founded. Because what I said and done with the people was the activities that were actually related to self-sufficient agriculture,” she said.

As a scholar in forestry, Siti Maimunah clearly un-derstood the important value of an adat forest for the continuity of community economics and the en-

vironment. She earned her undergraduate (S1) de-gree in forestry from STIPER Yogyakarta in 1999 and later her Master’s degree (S2) in Forestry Sciences from Universitas Gajah Mada in 2005.

Nonetheless, a small number of people continued to inflame the community with issues pertaining to religion as the underlying motives for her outreach activities. She countered their attack by explaining that all religions essentially teach their followers the importance of preserving the environment (forest), and only by then the people began to accept her approach, even though they did not always partici-pate in the activities. When issues on religion failed to incite the local community, some members of the community whose interest was disrupted by her activities tried to distance Siti Maimunah from the Mungkubaru adat community by spreading rumors that she is ‘a company person’. The truth of the mat-ter isshe acted as a liaison for PT. Taiyoung Engreen for activities carried out in the adat forest. She did not shy away from asking the company to reprimand the company’s employees or members of the com-munity whose acts were damaging to the forest. She was sad that so many people tried to inflame the community to act against her. However, their actions would not deter her ; she was committed to contin-ue accompanying the Mungkubaru adat community until they receive the recognition for their ulin for-est and until the forest is managed in a continuous manner.

“I will continue in my efforts until I win the trust of the community. Some of the community leaders are behind me, including the village head. I promise to help them to gain their legal status and I will act as a liaison with PT. Taiyoung,” she said.

There was no turning back. Once a step was taken, then it should be followed through until the very end

Foto: Ibu Siti Maimunah with fellow forestry expert.

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and that was her determination. Slowly but definitely, a positive response from the government began to emerge with regard to the legality of the adat forest. Therefore, she tried to facilitate a meeting between members of the community, PT. Taiyoung and the Dinas Kehutanan Kalimantan Tengah (Regional For-estry Office of Central Kalimantan). The outcome of the meeting was quite encouraging since all the relevant parties agreed to protect the ulin forest of Mungkubaru.

Previously in 2014, Siti Maimunah along with the Tim Forum Multi Pihak (Multi Parties Forum Team), which was set up by USAIDS IFACS under Dr. Herrie Saksono, was actively lobbying the Bupati of Gunung Mas (Head of Gunung Mas District) to open up a dialogue with the Mungkubaru adat community who managed the ulin forest. It was considered neces-sary, because even though Mungkubaru is located within the administrative region of the City of Pa-langka Raya; nonetheless, the forest itself is located in the administrative region of Gunung Mas Dis-trict. Eventually, the meeting and dialogue between the Mungkubaru adat community and the Bupati of Gunung Mas went as planned and the result was encouraging. The Bupati of Gunung Mas endorsed the conservation efforts by the Mungkubaru adat community and would not make an issue of the ad-ministrative boundaries.

“Bupati Gunung Mas was quite appreciative and agreed that the community should manage their adat forest. It was interesting, even though I am not of a Day-ak descent, my concern for the ulin forest was appre-ciated and it was a meaningful gesture. Even Mr. Siun Jarias, the Regional Secretary of the Central Kalimantan Province, asked, “Excuse me, are you a Dayak?” I said I am an Indonesian sir. Mr. Siun Jarias smiled when he heard my answer. I care and will continue to do so be-cause I am an Indonesian,” she said.

Mr. Siun Jarias, the Regional Secretary of Central Ka-limantan, finally convinced that Siti Maimunah was really sincere in her intention to accompany and fight for the rights of Mungkubaru adat community to manage the ulin forest. At that time, an application made by an institution to do the same was already on Mr. Siun Jarias’ desk. However, after seeing Siti Maimunah’s strong determination, the institution’s application was rejected. The Provincial Government of Central Kalimantan was more convinced of the proposal made by Siti Maimunah and her friends. Nonetheless, Siti Maimunah’s struggle is not over yet, not by a long shot. The status of ulin adat forest still has not been recognized by the government. She and her friends still have to work hard in the strug-gle for the rights of Mungkubaru adat community to manage their ulin forest.

“The right strategy and the quickest way to obtain the desired legal status are to consolidate the community’s

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vision and mission into a single conservation goal. Then it is necessary to enter into an agreement with PT. Tai-young as the party in charge. Such an agreement, which is facilitated by the Dinas Kehutanan Kalimantan Ten-gah (Regional Forestry Office of Central Kalimantan), will be submitted as a recommendation to the Governor of Central Kalimantan. And after that we will also sub-mit a recommendation to the Ministry of Environment (KLHK),” he said.

In 2014, Siti Maimunah was awarded the Green Award from USAID IFACS for her role in establishing the education forest. In addition to actively accompa-nying the Mungkubaru adat community, Siti Maimu-nah also took part in establishing the Rakumpit ed-ucation forest that covers an area of 5,000 hectares as a research site and a destination for eco-tourism.

She received another award from PT. Hutan Amanah Lestari for successfully conducting test research on aerial seeding in the city forest of Palangka Raya. In 2016, she passed the selection process of the ICCTF Project as the Project Director for environmental mitigation with her work entitled Conservation and Rehabilitation of Hutan Amanah Lestari Peat Swamp Forest as a working classroom for Universitas Mu-hammadiyah Palangka Raya.