The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 8 | Issue 7 | Number 2 | Article ID 3302 | Feb 15, 2010

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In the Tropical Forests of Sumatra: Notes from ClimateChange 'Ground Zero'　スマトラの熱帯林にて−−気候変動の「爆心地」より

Andre Vltchek, Geoffrey Gunn

In the Tropical Forests of Sumatra:Notes from Climate Change ‘GroundZero’ [Abbreviated Chineset r a n s l a t i o n a v a i l a b l e(http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/ch/3544-Sorrows-of-Sumatra)]

Andre Vltchek from Palembang, Musi Riverand Bangka Island

Introduction by Geoffrey Gunn

It is probably a cliché to observe that tropicalrain forests host the greatest knownconcentrations of bio-diversity on the planet. Together, the three great global equatorialbiozones are central Africa, the Amazon basin,and the Indonesian archipelago, includingsouthern Sumatra Island, and the even moreremote tin-rich offshore island of Bangka, asprofiled here by Andre Vltchek. Recentunderstandings also point to these dramaticallyshrinking forest reserves as carbon soaksand/or as the planet's treasured green lungs.

Indonesian rain forest

Distantly known to the ancients, as in earlyPtolemaic representations, Sumatra was alsovisited by travelers, traders, and monks plyingthe maritime silkroads between India andChina. As confirmed by recent archeology,Palembang, on the banks of the Musi River insouthern Sumatra, was also the capital of theancient Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya, standingat the core of this ancient trading systemathwart the Malacca Straits. In fact, all themajor river systems on Sumatra and across the

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Straits hosted Indianized settlementssuggestive of an earlier golden age. Practicallynothing of these ancient civilizations remainstoday, just as massive sedimentation hasextended the coastline of Sumatra, leavingmodern cities like Palembang far upstreamwith the lower reaches of the rivers flowingthrough ex tended mangrove fores tenvironments. No doubt exploding volcanoes,earthquakes and tsunamis added theirgeomorphological impacts. Humans have hadto adapt to this changing coastal riverineenvironment.

Vltchek remarks upon various humansettlements along the Musi River. Until therecent past, a substantial percentage ofPalembang residents resided in extended“water villages.” The maritime and the settledhave always been in flux in this environment,especially as harvesting the river and coastalwaters is still a major source of livelihoodacross the archipelago. The ravages of natureaside, we can believe that with lower densitypopulations living in simpler times, a stricthuman-nature balance existed in this kind ofenvironment, or what today would be describedas a resource-management model orsustainable forms of livelihood/development.

But Vltchek also draws attention to a

pockmarked denuded landscape on offshoreBangka Island and we do not doubt hisexplanations. Still, it is intriguing that Bangka'slucrative tin deposits attracted pioneer minersfrom China dating back even prior to Dutchcolonization. As on western Kalimantan(Borneo) Island, Chinese immigrants alsointroduced hydraulic sluices and other Chinesetechnologies, undoubtedly transforming thelandscape for the worse. But the tempo ofenvironmental change in southern Sumatra wasalso abetted by Dutch colonization. Notably,the exploitation of Sumatra's riches kicked off, as with oil exploration, the modern exploitationof Bangka's tin, and the recruitment of Javanese to supply export labor in Sumatra'stea, coffee and rubber plantations. The Exxon-Mobil Stanvac oil refinery opened in 1926(demolished ahead of the Japanese invasion)and sited beside the Musi River is one legacy ofthis earlier wave of foreign investment.

Having spent several weeks on the Musi Riverduring the second year of the Indonesian NewOrder regime of President Suharto (1968), Ihave a mental picture of a river system thatmore closely approximates the sustainabledevelopment model (some would argue, benignneglect model) as underwritten by Indonesia'sfirst president, Sukarno, who, not onlynationalized Dutch investments but, famously,told Washington to “go to hell” with yourforeign aid. For sure, the Musi River andprobably other rivers of Kalimantan andSumatra were choked with rotting vegetationand other natural flotsam. No doubt, as well,the city and the Stanvac refinery added to riverpollution. But, this was in an era prior to thewholesale plunder of the archipelago by theNew Order regime, including its infamousmilitary linked companies.

Today, as Vltchek vividly describes, this oncepristine wilderness is subject to the predatoryactions of agro-business interests, resulting inunbelievable desecration of the environment. Added to that, the deliberate burning of forest

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to open land for oil-palm plantations, mighthave gone unnoticed in regional capitals andthe world were it not for the famous “haze” orsmoke pollution which drifted into Singapore,Kuala Lumpur, and Brunei in the early tomid-1980s, shutting airports and schools.

To be sure, then as now, as Vltchek evokes, theMusi River has a central African – moreaccurately - Conradian quality (Bangka islandwas reputedly the setting of Conrad’s LordJim), just as the modern chaotic Palembang inthe tropical torpor presents an uninviting evenpestilential side. Arriving at the mouth of theMusi River aboard a (traditional) Chinesevessel, my craft was greeted with a cannon shotacross - or aimed at - the bows, the flash andthunder signaling a half-hidden customs houseburied behind a mangrove forest, itselfshrouded in early morning mist rising from theriver. Whether or not preying upon passingvessels was a Suharto-era practice or onekicked off by the passage of Chinese fleetsreaching back over the millennium, I don'tknow, but it was obviously lucrative given theprocession up and down the river by aprofusion of native craft, from rafts to Bugineseprauhs, alongside motor launches, ocean goingliners and tankers.

In any case, returning to the resources-management theme, we also wonder whetheror not part of the cost of equatorial forestmanagement should be borne by first worldconsumers of tropical hardwood alongside oilpalm products which include soap andcosmetics. This is not an original thought, butas Third World critics have strongly argued inrun up to the COP 15 environmentalconference, it is surely part of the solutiona longs ide bet ter loca l governance ,transparency, and public education that areobviously in short supply in the localesdescribed in the body of this article. GG

Tin mine pits are like enormous open woundsdominating the landscape of island Bangka,

near Sumatra and only 40 minutes flight fromthe Indonesian capital – Jakarta. Even from theair it is obvious that the island is a textbookexample of man-made environmental calamity.Only a few tiny pockets of natural forestremain, surrounded by rubber and palm oilplantations.

En route from the airport to the Eastern part ofthe island, our driver explains diffidently,“Mining companies don’t give much back tothis island. The government built one decenthospital here. But that’s about it and the peoplehave no say about what happens on thisisland.”

The island of Bangka, home to around 650,000people, is known for its white beaches, butthose are now covered by garbage andbasically unusable for tourism. Most of thebeaches exhibit the latest ‘cultural trend’: moreaffluent young people and families bring theircars and scooters to the seafront and driveback and forth on the sand, until late eveninghours. Silence – once the last attraction of theisland – is gone, replaced by the roar ofengines. The beach decorated by somefantastic rock structures is now badly polluted.

Bangka from the air

Just a few miles across the sea from Bangka, adilapidated hydrofoil (one of which recently

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sank) enters the magnificent Sungai Musi – oneof the mighty rivers of Sumatra Island. While Iwas admiring the surface of the river from theboat, a local student suggested that I lookbetween the trees separating the riverbank andthe interior: “Try to catch the moment – theopening. You will see – there is nothing left ofthe forest.”

One hour later, this black smoke and pop-musicbelching craft docks at the port of the city ofPalembang.

Brown waters of the Sungai Musi

With 1.5 million inhabitants, Palembang is thesecond largest city of Sumatra and one of themost populous in Indonesia. It is one of themost appalling urban centers on the Asiancontinent with hardly anything to offer exceptfor a handful of Dutch-era buildings and severalpicturesque traditional houses on stiltsinhabited by the very poor. The city’s entiresocial life centers on the enormous FrenchNovotel hotel built like a fortress, with adjacentshopping mall nearby. Although located some80 km from the coast, Palembang is a vastseaport with huge vessels docked at the banksand in the middle of the Musi River. The riverand the streams that feed into her are not justpolluted – they appear to be positively toxic.

Dwellings by the water in Palembang

Inflated carcasses of dogs and other animalsare sailing on the surface of the river, togetherwith industrial waste, debris, bottles andsimple household waste. Despite its size,Palembang - like almost all Indonesian cities -has no public transportation, except corrodedand polluting minivans and a few decomposingbuses. Palembang is home to oil refineries, aswell as cement and fertilizer plants. It sits inthe middle of two major areas of unbridleddeforestation on the Island of Sumatra. WhileIndonesia is often referred to as Ground Zero ofclimate change, Palembang should beconsidered one of its most telling monuments.

Isna Wijayani Lexy is Professor of journalism atthe Faculty of Social and Political Science –Communication Department, UniversityBaturaja, Sumatera. Hers is one of the fewoutspoken voices in this part of the world:

“Illegal loggers can usually counton backing from the police,military, local government officialsand thugs. Media only cover raidsagainst the loggers, that is, if thereare raids. Even then it is very rarethat journalists cover them on theirown, as they are usually short offunds and can’t just go up or down

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the river as they please. On this aswell as many other topics, there isnews hegemony and no diversity incontents. The local journalists darenot take risks. Journalists inPalembang only look for easy newsand if they have been ‘serviced’(bribed), bad or critical news willnot be published. Money talkshere, even when it comes to thenews.”

Logging is considered a ‘very dangerous topic’to cover and the local press would never dareto go into uncomfortable details. It is widelyknown that police and the military are involvedin lucrative illegal logging operations.

There are plenty of alarming reports by localacademics and international observers aboutthe archipelago’s disappearing rainforests andunbearable pollution levels in all majorIndonesian cities. But there are few soundanalyses that link all the factors that makeIndonesia environmentally one of the mostbattered nations on earth: corruption,government incompetence, powerful position ofarmed forces and unbridled pursuit of profitsutilizing the easiest and often non-sustainablemeans.

Restraint was broken when The Jakarta Globereprinted on January 29, 2010 an AgenceFrance Press report: “The Indonesian militaryis deeply involved in the trade in illegally felledtimber that is destroying vast tracts of pristineforest and contributing to global warming,researchers said Friday. The report comes daysafter the government revealed plans to askforeign governments to contribute to a billion-dollar "green investment fund" to help it cutgreenhouse gas emissions through sustainableinfrastructure projects. Environmentalistsargue that the government could go a long waytowards meeting its target of cutting emissionsby 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 simplyby stopping rampant, unchecked illegal

logging. But the new study by the Center forEast Asia Cooperation Studies (CEACoS) at theUniversity of Indonesia has revealed howdifficult this could be given the military'sinvolvement in the illicit trade.CEACoSexecutive director Tirta N. Mursitama, the headresearcher in the project, said the militaryacted as a coordinator, investor, facilitator andmiddleman for the illegal loggers…”

The Report centers on the forest borderingMalaysia in East Kalimantan/Borneo, but thesituation is similar in the rest of the country,including Sumatra.

Given the combination of state controls and thesilence of the media, the public remains largelyuninformed about the environmental and socialdisasters that are devastating their country.

Despite pollution, the River Musi is still one ofthe mightiest waterways of Southeast Asia. Themisery along this waterway is on a par withsome of the poorest parts of Africa. Tinyvillages and towns along the shores are lost intime – often cut from the rest of the country.

Upang town is built on stilts. It is an expensiveone-hour boat ride from Palembang atbreakneck speed. Speedboats between BangkaIsland and Palembang don’t stop here. Thetown survives by supplying riverboats with fueland food. Children can study only until the 9thgrade – the closest high school is in Palembang,therefore unreachable for the great majority ofinhabitants.

Upang sits in the middle of illegal logging onMusi River.

Two young girls - Linda and Yanti – are workingin a warung (local eatery) on stilts.

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“Each household has people who work acrossthe river on ‘cleared land’”, explains Linda whohas no idea how many households there are inUpang. “People from the entire area areworking on ‘cleared land’, many doing the‘clearing’ itself. There are no permits necessaryand no taxes; nobody checks.”

Suddenly it starts to rain. The sound of thetropical downpour is overwhelming as it strikesthe metal sheets of the roof. Old cargo boats onthe river suddenly look like phantoms and theother shore disappears from sight.

The girls explain that their monthly income isRp 20.000 to 30.000, approximately US$2 toUS$3 at the present exchange rate.

“Here we only wait for the weddings”, explainsYanti. “At least something happens during thewedding. There is music and food. My dream isto become rich. If I were rich, I would give alms(zakat) and then travel – I would go to Bandungand to Jakarta. I would visit the NationalMonument.” Neither girl had ever left Upang –not even to visit Palembang, 25 miles up theriver.

T h e g i r l s h a d n o k n o w l e d g e a b o u tdeforestation. They knew it only as ‘clearingthe land’, something good for planting rice andpalm oil. Global warming – no idea what it is.We asked the same question of several people

along Musi River and we always received thesame answer – incomprehension andbewilderment on their faces.

Rural Indonesia is extremely poor andunderdeveloped - moral and ethical questionshere are simply perceived as odd. Caring forthe environment and the world are luxuriesmost impoverished Indonesian can’t afford,while for the rich rulers of this nation they aresimply not profitable enough.

Before leaving, we asked the girls whether theyvote; whether they participate in what the Westcalls ‘the third largest democracy’.

“We have no interest in politics”, said Yanti.“We voted for some party, but we don’tremember its name. We decided whom to votefor based on the photos; we voted for Nurdinbecause he is handsome and we both voted forthe same person. Why did we vote at all? Well,they gave us election card, so we did. It gave usat least something to do that day.” Theirresponse is illustrative of the torpor ofIndones ian po l i t i c s , w i th mu l t ip leindistinguishable parties, and widespreadpolitical apathy.

Sailing across the river and then slowlyprogressing towards Palembang, the full horrorof deforestation suddenly emerges. Hundredsof square miles of rain forest destroyed andreplaced by tremendous bare plains; someareas still burning. There are bags withchemicals and bottles of spray scattered allover the earth. Even for those who are notexperts on the environment, this could hardlyappear as anything else then unbridled, grossand brutal rape of the nature.

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As the banks of the river are slightly elevated,it is not easy to see the onslaught against theforest – it is necessary to enter one of the smalllagoons by boat and then find one’s waythrough the swampy banks in order to see thescale of the devastation.

New crop after forest devastation

At one of the epicenters of disaster, at SawahUpang, we spotted an old couple sitting in frontof their house. They waved and happilyexplained their presence here: “We are fromPalembang. Five years ago we bought the landhere from other people from Upang. Now wehave our rice fields here.”

Upang

Deforestation? Global warming? - They bothsmiled, not comprehending.

On the way back to Palembang it began to rainand this t ime the rain was heavy andcontinuous. Huge rusty cargo ships once againstood in the middle of the river like sometremendous ghosts, while the factory chimneysregurgitated colorful smoke skyward, even inthis heavy downpour, Streams brought to theriver brown and foamy liquid. All around wasmisery, dirt and hopelessness – so common intoday’s Indonesia but here somehow brought tothe extreme.

Indonesia has achieved the world's fastest rateof deforestation, with an area the size of 300soccer fields every hour. According toGreenpeace: “Of the 44 countries whichcollectively account for 90 percent of theworld's forests, the country which pursues thehighest annual rate of deforestation isIndonesia with 1.8 million hectares (4.4 millionacres) of forest destroyed each year between2000-2005."

The country has already lost over 70 percent ofits intact ancient forests and half of what is leftare threatened by commercial logging, forestfires and clearances for palm oil plantations.And the greed seems to know no boundaries.

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No matter how pressing, the environmentalissues can’t be separated from the general andcontinuous decay of Indonesian state – from itsendemic corruption, impunity of armed forces,extreme breed of market fundamentalism andfaith put above rational thinking.

Andre Vltchek – novelist, journalist andfilmmaker, wrote and photographed thisarticle. An Asia-Pacific Journal associate, he ispresently living and working in Asia and Africaand can be reached at andre-wcn@usa.net. Heis co-editor with Tony Christini of Liberation Lit(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977459063/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20), a landmark collection of artand criticism of social change, includingcontemporary liberatory fiction and criticism,poetry and visuals, and co-author with Rossie

Indira of Exile: Conversations with PramoedyaA n a n t a T o e r(http://www.amazon.com/dp/1931859280/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20). His homepage and blog canb e a c c e s s e d h e r e(http://japanfocus.org/-Andre-Vltchek/3302).

Geoffrey Gunn is author of Singapore and theA s i a n R e v o l u t i o n s(http://www.selectbooks.com.sg/getTitle.aspx?SBNum=045001), 2008 and an Asia-PacificJournal coordinator.

Recommended citation: Andre Vltchek andGeoffrey Gunn, "In the Tropical Forests ofSumatra: Notes from Climate Change ‘GroundZero,’" The Asia-Pacific Journal, 7-2-10,February 15, 2010.

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