NUKUKAN, North Kalimantan: Officials with the North Kalimantan district of Nunukan on Tuesday admitted that 700 hectares of protected forest area in the region had been converted into oil palm plantations and settlements, Jakarta Globe reported.
The forest, which is protected under a 1979 agriculture minister regulation, is situated on Sebatik Island in Nunukan and originally covered 1,054 hectares. But now 70 percent of its once dense tree coverage has disappeared.
Hamran, head of the Central Sebatik subdistrict, has put the blame on local residents who cut down trees and replaced them with empty fields intended for oil palm plantations and for houses.
“Well, historically, [the islanders]inhabited the area first, before the central government declared it a protected forest back then in 1979,” Hamran said in a recent interview. “Subsequently, they kept opening the forest until only 300 hectares of it was left. The rest has turned into plantations.”
Hamran admitted that Sebatik residents had never been informed of the exact boundaries of the protected forest.
He added the opening of some parts of the protected forest to construct a road several years ago worsened the situation, as many people had started clearing areas alongside the 10-kilometer long road.
The head of the forest protection and plantation unit at the Nunukan administration, Arie Mulyadi, said only 398 hectares of the protected forest was still intact and had survived largely because of their difficult terrains, such as on a steep cliff.
Arie said Sebatik people actually only learned that the forest was protected in the 1990s, more than a decade after the protected status was given to the forest.
“Now we can only maximize our efforts to protect the remaining 398 hectares. We can’t do anything with areas already converted into settlements and plantations,” Arie said, adding that all buildings in the protected forest area were illegal.