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Illegal logging threatens East Java forest. Villagers seek other income to protect it.
Once illegal loggers, villagers in Jember and Banyuwangi have started to look to alternate sources of income to prevent further destruction of Meru Betiri forest, one of the last tropical rainforests in Java.
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Sutarto, 43, (left) checks on tree seeds at a seedling nursery in Sanenrejo village, Jember regency, East Java on Feb. 15. He and several villagers have been working to replant trees in the deforested area of Meru Betiri National Park in the province. (JP/Wahyoe Boediwardhana)
O
nce a lush and green location for a pilot project in reducing forest degradation, the Meru Betiri National Park in East Java faces the dire threat of deforestation, mostly from illegal logging and encroachment by people living in the region.
But hope has started to rise in the region, as villagers and local authorities begin to work together at creating alternative sources of income to prevent further destruction of one of the last tropical rainforests on the country’s most populous island.
Sutinggal, 40, had been working as an illegal logger since 1999. He used to walk into a nearby part of Meru Betiri forest in Sanenrejo village, Tempurejo district, Jember regency to cut down trees and sell them to traders.
What Sutinggal did was illegal as the government had declared the 50,000-hectare forest spanning across two regencies of Jember and Banyuwangi a protected area for conservation purposes since 1972. The then-forestry ministry later revised the total area of the national park to 52,626 ha in 2016.
Consequently, law enforcement officers arrested Sutinggal several times for his illegal activities in the forest.
“I was asked several times by the officers whether I was afraid of being captured by them. I told them I was afraid, but I was more afraid that my wife and children couldn't eat,” Sutinggal told The Jakarta Post in early February.
From logging to farming
