Children of the Forest – a Disappearing Culture?

In Malaysia and Indonesia, the main biofuel grown and processed is palm oil, the production of which has led to the destruction of millions of acres of rainforest. It is believed that of 16 million hectares of rainforest in Sumatra, only 500,000 hectares remain and all could be lost if no action is taken within the next five years (RSPB, 2010a). The tribe, Orang Rimba of Sumatra call themselves Children of the Forest, since they feel the forest is like a father and mother to them, they believe spirits advise them on how to survive on the fruits of the forest (Lost in Palm Oil, 2007). For them, the land cannot be owned and farmed, and it goes against their ethics and culture to do so, therefore, no matter how sustainable the plantations, are, any kind of land manipulation is a crime as Din Perulak the tribal head of Orang Rimba explains below.

“It's as if our mother is dying… There are plantations everywhere…How are we supposed to survive when there is no forest anymore?...This is the land where our ancestors live. We would lose our souls if we were to start working on this land. ” (Lost in Palm Oil, 2007, 01’32”)

With the expanding need to replace oil with biofuels, many countries may classify the land farmed by subsistence farmers as unproductive in economic terms in order to free up the land for external investors to plant biofuel crops (FAO, 2008). Often expropriation is easy since local users will often own no formal tenure rights, and the pressure to convert land to “productive” oil crop plantations may put further pressure on local communities and oust them from not only their land but from their traditional ways of living (FAO, 2008).

As land availability and resources deplete, indigenous communities may find it difficult to continue with their ancient ways of living such as foraging from the forest, and may have to adopt alternative lifestyles such as labouring or logging. Yet depriving indigenous peoples of their land contravenes Article 26 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Renewable Fuels Agency, 2010).

Yet in the World Growth report it is claimed that denying poor people the right of access to such biofuel plantations is denying them the right to increase their living standards (World Growth, 2009). However in reality, displaced families have little choice but to work on plantations for very low wages. In Malaysia, availability of migrant workers (often illegal Indonesian migrants) can further depress wages (Renewable Fuels Agency, 2010).

Communities may lose access to areas of forest which may have been economically beneficial and the loss of wild edible plants could have an impact in areas prone to food shortages (Rossi and Lambrou, 2008). One illegal plantation logger remarked in a documentary “the work on these oil palm plantations is… nothing but exploitation. We’re only day-labourers and when it rains there’s no work… You’re only paid a pittance, if anything at all,” (Greasy Loot, 2002, 17’17”). Yet some companies are proactively trying to care for the community for example a company in Sumatra provided livestock to its employee families (Zen et al., 2006).

Little alternative policy has arisen which could suit the needs of the displaced, and socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Even sustainable companies such as Sinar Mas in Indonesia have been caught stealing land from locals. In a recent court case, the villagers of Karang Mendapo won a four year battle from the company Sinar Mas which they alleged had stolen their land (Lost in Palm Oil, 2007). Now organisations such as RSPB have recognised that time is running out and that a new approach must be taken to protect the rainforests and traditional farming or tribal ways of life. The RSPB have bought an area of land called the Harapan Forest in Sumatra and are now working with a group of 27 families who have been allowed to forage in the forest and practise their traditional livelihoods (RSPB, 2010b). This model could perhaps be used in other fragile areas in order to protect the disappearing ecosystems, cultures and traditions which have been neglected.

A family in Harapan forest practising traditional skills.

References

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) (2008) ‘Climate Change, Biofuels and Land,’ Available at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/nr/HLCinfo/Land-Infosheet-En.pdf (Accessed 2nd April 2010)

‘Greasy Loot’ (2002) Greasy Loot, 11 October, Journeyman Pictures, [Online] Available at: http://www.journeyman.tv/10271/documentaries/greasy-loot.html (Accessed 1^st April 2010)

‘Lost in Palm Oil,’ (2007) Lost in Palm Oil, 22 November, Journeyman Pictures, [Online] Available at: http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=57724 (Accessed 1^st April 2010)

Renewable Fuels Agency (2010) Palm Oil Cultivation in Malaysia: Case Study, [Online] Renewable Fuels Agency. Available at; http://www.renewablefuelsagency.gov.uk/sites/renewablefuelsagency.gov.uk/files/_documents/RFA_Year_One_palm_case_study.pdf (Accessed 1st April 2010)

Rossi, A., and Lambrou, Y., (2008) Gender and Equity Issues in Liquid Biofuels Production: Minimizing the Risks to Maximize the Opportunities [Online] Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Available at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai503e/ai503e00.pdf (Accessed 10th April 2010)

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) (2010a) ‘Save the Sumatran Rainforest: Be Part of Something Big,’ [Online] Available at: http://www.rspb.org.uk/supporting/campaigns/sumatra/ (Accessed 17^th May 2010)

RSPB (2010b) ‘Harapan Rainforest’ [Online] Available at: http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/sumatra/default.aspx (Accessed 19th May 2010)

World Growth (2009) Collateral Damage: How The Bogus Campaign against Palm Oil Harms the Poor [Online] A World Growth Report. Available at: www.worldgrowth.org/assets/files/WG_Palm_Oil_ColDam_Report_12_09.pdf (Accessed 4th May 2010)

Zen, Z., Barlow, C. and Gondowarsito, R. (2006) ‘Oil palm in Indonesian socioeconomic improvement: a review of options,’ Oil Palm Industry Economic Journal, 6 pp. 18–29.