Once considered the green lungs of Asia, Borneo now provides a lucrative home for palm oil growers and timber corporations.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of environmental destruction in Borneo is faster than in the Amazon.
In the second of a three-part series, Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley investigates the role of politics in the growth of palm oil plantations and timber concessions.
From Mongabay an interview with Hardi Baktiantoro, Director of the Center for Orangutan Protection (COP), who has mounted a guerrilla-style campaign against companies that are destroying orangutan habitat in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. To learn more about COP and make a tax-deductible donation for their work, please visit the Orangutan Outreach website: Orangutan Outreach. Orang means “man” and Utan means “of the forest” in Bahasa Malay.
Mongabay: Why did you start COP?
Hardi Baktiantoro: I was working at BOS rescue center in Central Kalimantan. In 2006 we rescued 265 orangutans, which could represent 1500 orangutans killed in the field.
It’s like an endless rescue. It’s useless. If we want to help the orangutan we have to deal with the root of the problem — destruction of their habitat.
I decided to quit BOS and start against the companies directly. In March 2007 me and several of my friends founded the Center for Orangutan Protection.
Mongabay: And what is your objective?
Hardi Baktiantoro: The objective is to save the last remaining forests for orangutans. We have to stop all of the destruction. The best way to protect the orangutan is to protect their habitat.
Mongabay: What is your approach?
Hardi Baktiantoro: We tell people the truth from the field using video and photos. I am a former photographer and I think pictures are the best way to tell people. We gather evidence from the field and send it to the media.
Mongabay: So the palm oil companies don’t like you much.
Hardi Baktiantoro: Of course. We don’t make the palm oil companies happy. They track me. I’ve had to hide my family, my phones have been tapped, and last year the COP web site was hacked.
Some of the big international conservation organizations are also not happy with my group because they just want to make things look good — like the government.
Mongabay: So greenwashing by NGOs — working with corporations without really changing things for the better — is a problem?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Yes there is a lot of greenwashing. It makes the company look clean.
Mongabay: After you’ve done a campaign have any companies been fined or changed their behavior?
Hardi Baktiantoro: We have several victories. Several companies stopped their illegal activities and stepped back from the forest, saving thousands of orangutans.
But I don’t think there are any permanent victories. Companies don’t want to lose their money and when the focus is off them they will resume their activities.
It’s a battle all the time with them.
Mongabay: How do you stop deforestation before it happens?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Usually we get information from our field staff, local people, the media, and informants that a company is starting to clear an area. We send our team out to document the evidence — whether it is orangutan habitat or primary forest. We make the documentation and then publish it.
Mongabay: And you use technology like GPS and Google Earth to document it?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Of course. It’s a very technical investigation.
We use Google Earth — the ordinary version — to show before and after. It is very helpful.
Mongabay: What are your thoughts on RSPO? Do you think it will ever work?
Hardi Baktiantoro: I think RSPO is just a shield for organized crime. RSPO has criteria but members still cut down the forest and kill the orangutan. For example in November 2007 during the RSPO meeting the IOI Group was still clearing the forest. So it’s like a big joke for me. It is a PR game. RSPO makes Wilmar and Sinar Mas look good but I rescued several orangutan from the Wilmar plantation in 2006 and 2007.
Earlier this year I visited sites where they are still clearing conservation value forest — forest that is home to orangutans.
Mongabay: Is Wilmar clearing peatlands?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Wilmar was not clearing peatlands at the sites we visited in Central Kalimantan but I can’t speak for other areas. It is a big company.
Mongabay: What about sub-contracting? Do you encounter instances where a big company with a good reputation is outsourcing clearing to smaller corporations which are depicted as “small-holders”?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Yes, this is a big problem. As I told you before, it is like organized crime. If we find something wrong in the field the company can easy say, “No that’s not us — they are a contractor. We have a very strict standard but it is not easy to enforce on the because people on the ground are not educated people.”
Mongabay: Some of this forest clearing may be environmentally damaging but is legal from a provincial government standpoint. The companies can say they are not doing anything illegal and perhaps even that the government is encouraging the activity, right?
Hardi Baktiantoro: I don’t care if it is legal or illegal. My opinion is that as long as long as orangutan habitat is being destroyed we have to stop it. It’s very common in Indonesia to legally clear the forest but the definition of who controls the forest can be questionable — it is often disputed.
For example we recently visited a site in Champaka, Central Kalimantan. According to the government, this is degraded land — grassland only. But in fact it is very good forest. Forest with very high conservation value and lots of orangutans and sun bear — so many animals there. But according to the government it is degraded land so it’s legal to clear.
Mongabay: Are there cases of companies protecting “high conservation value” forest that isn’t good forest?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Yes. Once more, this is an example of the PR game. For example several companies designate high conservation value forest on the map but when we checked on the ground they are just setting aside areas that are not suitable for planting. For example, land where there is still conflict with local people or the soil is too rocky for a plantation. So the companies just put up a sign that says conservation forest even if it has few animals or little conservation value. It’s totally “bullshit”.
Mongabay: Companies designate HCV in areas where they don’t have legal rights to the land?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Yes, this is common.
Mongabay: Was there social conflict at site you investigated near Mawas last week (a conservation area home to a large population of orangutans)?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Yes. It is a very sad fact actually. The land price was US$50 per hectare. So it’s very cheap for the company but for the local people this is very valuable land and when the forest is gone they are starving because this is where they get food and rattan, their main source of cash income. The plantation isn’t giving them any jobs.
Mongabay: $50 is a very low price. Did local officials sign off on this deal?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Yes. Local officials were part of it.
Mongabay: Do you see a lot of greenwashing in the palm oil industry?
Hardi Baktiantoro: There is a lot of greenwashing — not only by companies but by environmental groups.
Some environmental groups are not trying to save the forest — they are just covering the government’s failure to protect the forest. Big international groups submit publications that don’t talk about anything wrong in the field but the forest is still coming down and orangutans are being killed.
Mongabay: You’ve said you are not against palm oil per se, only deforestation of orangutan habitat. So if oil palm was established on legitimate degraded lands that didn’t have any social conflict, you wouldn’t have a problem with that?
Hardi Baktiantoro: Yes, I’m not against palm oil, the plantation company, the government or NGOs. I’m against the destruction. Anyone who destroys orangutan habitat and kills orangutans is my enemy.
Mongabay: Do you have any thoughts on REDD?
Hardi Baktiantoro: REDD is very technical to me but as long as it brings benefits to local people for protecting the forest I will support it. But so far I am just waiting to see what will happen. I am waiting to see if the money goes to the local people. I am afraid that the money will be stolen by the government in Jakarta.
Mongabay: How does your outreach program in schools work?
Hardi Baktiantoro: The objective of this program is to develop public support for orangutan protection. We have two targeted groups: (1) schools in Jakarta and Palangkaraya; and (2) schools in villages surrounding the orangutan habitat.
We organize support from school students in Jakarta and Palangkaraya like fund raising and used book distribution for schools in the villages and conservation camps. We tell students in villages about the plight of the orangutan and explain their future if their forests are gone. So far, it runs smoothly. School students in Jakarta collect money and their used books to be distributed in the villages.
Mongabay: How do you work with local communities to protect access to their traditional lands?
Hardi Baktiantoro: We develop a mutualism with local communities on protecting forest. For local people, forest means their livelihood and for COP, forest means for the survival of orangutan. Both of parties has to understand exactly the importance of forest. It is a little bit difficult in the beginning as they questioned our goals: why protecting orangutan, not helping poor people? Then they came to understand that orangutan protection is the most effective ways to protect their daily livelihood from destruction.