“Before, there was only one or two villages here,” said Saparuddin, executive director of Bikal, a local environmental organization. “Now there are seven. You see new houses and businesses being built every day. Maybe someday they’ll build a mall here.”
Mr. Saparuddin, 35, who grew up inside the park and still has relatives living here, said giant lowland rain-forest trees used to cover the areas now traversed by the road.
Nowadays, squatters have burned and cleared the areas on either side of the road. The sounds of chainsaws could be heard from inside the forest on a recent drive. In some patches, a single surviving large tree could be seen towering over a cleared area.
The park’s human population has risen in recent years as local governments, emboldened by decentralization, challenged the central government by encouraging people and businesses to settle inside the park.
“The problem of incursions into national parks is very common in Indonesia,” said Ms. Russon, the orangutan expert. “Some are illegal. Others, like the case of Kutai National Park, are sanctioned by local governments.”
Forestry officials are now trying to stop the new bus terminal and gas station from operating. But it is not clear whether they will succeed, especially since the buildings are almost finished.
The government east of here, called East Kutai, has been pressing to have an enclave amounting to more than 10 percent of the park excised from Kutai and officially turned into a subdistrict.
Zairin Zain, a spokesman for the provincial government of East Kalimantan, which supports the enclave plan, said the local authorities believed that they should be allowed to develop it because it had been stripped of wildlife and had been damaged beyond repair.
The bid for the enclave has drawn newcomers to the park, some apparently hoping to sell the land they have grabbed to mining companies in the future. Others have come seeking cheap land and business opportunities.
In a typical, opaque exchange, Mukayan, 43, acquired a piece of land near the park’s northern border from the previous owner about four years ago. He had chosen the location because of rumors that a bus terminal would be built across the road, he said, adding that he had hoped to open a small shop selling snacks to travelers.
Though opposition from the Forest Ministry has halted construction on the terminal for now, Mr. Mukayan said the price of his land had increased sevenfold. What is more, the number of neighboring houses — just a handful four years ago — was growing so fast he had lost count.
In the meantime, Mr. Mukayan kept busy attending to small birds he had caught from the forest and kept in cages hanging from his garage ceiling. A bird he had named General won first prize in a local bird contest.
“I hope, for my business, that the bus terminal will open soon,” Mr. Mukayan said, looking across the road at what must have seemed to him a building tantalizingly close to completion. “I know this is a national park. But we just want to use the land alongside the road. We’ll leave the inside untouched.”
Source:
New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/world/asia/14borneo.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=earth
Originally written:
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: June 13, 2009
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