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cores of farmers and activists convened at Palembang District Court on Thursday and demanded the release of six of their colleagues charged with damaging forests in the Dangku Wildlife Reserve.

'€œWe call on the judges to understand that the forest areas occupied by our colleagues are located in customary forests. This is our right as a traditional community,'€ said 60-year-old farmer and coordinator of the Dawas and Tungkal Ulu Traditional Community, Sukri, during the rally.

They also demanded that the police investigate large land transactions and illegal logging in the protected area, instead of prosecuting traditional farmers, he said.

'€œWe regret that BKSDA [Natural Resources Conservation Agency] has allowed illegal logging and land transactions in the reserve, where dozens of illegal sawmills have operated for years,'€ said Sukri.

BKSDA is the state agency responsible for managing protected forests.

The Dangku Wildlife Reserve spans 31,735 hectares and is home to a variety of fauna, such as the Sumatran tiger, elephant, tapir, deer, honey bear, rangkong bird and black hawk.

Its flora includes a variety of timber, such as meranti, seru, tembesu, pulai, rengas, prupuk and sungkai, as well as durian, rattan and pandan.

The farmers were represented by activists from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Nusantara Traditional Community Alliance and Indonesian Green Students.

The six defendants are M. Nr Jakfar, 73; Zulkifli, 60; Ahmad Burhanddin Anwar, 20; Samingan, 43; Sukisna, 40; and Dedi Suyanto, 30.

The South Sumatra Traditional Community legal team said the six were victims of the conservation area'€™s unclear boundaries.

'€œThe traditional communities have been living there for hundreds of years before it was designated a conservation area by the government,'€ said legal team member Yopie Bharata.

According to Yopie, the Constitutional Court had recognized that traditional forests were not part of state forests. The decision was a revision of Law No. 41/1999 on forests.

The court also required the government to again measure overlapping forest areas to prevent disputes with communities.

The six defendants were charged with violating Law No. 18/2013 on preventing the clearing and destruction of forests, which carried a minimum sentence of three years and a fine of Rp 1.5 billion if found guilty.

The individuals were caught during a joint raid by members of BKSDA, the police, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and forest officials in June.

'€œFor the past year we'€™ve warned them to not encroach and damage the conservation forest, but they did not heed us, so we were forced to act,'€ said South Sumatra BKSDA forest security and investigation affairs head Edi Sopian recently.

According to Edi, the residents felled trees and converted the area into homes and rubber farms.