Electronic and Electrical Waste in China: A Policy Analysis with Future Recommendations

ANDREW L. SANFORD

NOV. 11, 2008

Introduction

The international trade in electrical and electronic waste is an important public policy issue that has serious ramifications for the environment and human health. Rapid advances in scientific innovation, spurred by high consumer demand for new and improved technologies, have created an unprecedented problem of disposal for obsolete electrical and electronic devices. Referred to as e-waste, these outdated products contain a diverse range of components that include everything from valuable precious metals to highly toxic chemical compounds. Structural inequalities in the global economic system, coupled with strong demand for raw materials in developing countries with export-based manufacturing sectors, have led to a situation in which a disproportionate burden of the human health and environmental costs of e-waste recycling are borne by poor workers employed in the informal sector, particularly in China. This issue merits further inquiry because of its relevance to contemporary public policy and the broader debate over economic inequality and social and environmental justice.

This briefing paper aims to accomplish several objectives. First, it will provide a solid background on the global issue of e-waste, explaining what it is, why it is a problem, and where it originates and ends up. Second, it will examine the drawbacks associated with e-waste in China, focusing on the city of Guiyu, the largest e-waste site in the world. Third, it will discuss Chinese policy, investigating barriers to the successful implementation of existing national and international laws. Lastly, it will offer key conclusions about what can be learned from the Chinese experience and offer recommendations that can be used to formulate and effectively put into practice new e-waste policies that better safeguard human health and the environment.

Background

A standard definition of e-waste does not yet exist. Widmer et al. (2005) note that the European Union has ten categories of e-waste, which include household appliances, various forms of telecommunications, consumer, and lighting equipment, electrical and electronic tools, medical devices, monitoring and control instruments, and toys, leisure, and sports equipment. These old and discarded goods are highly diverse in nature, which makes it difficult to arrive at a standard categorical definition. For the purposes of this briefing paper, e-waste will be used as a generic term that encompasses the totality of all the aforementioned goods.

E-waste is a growing problem that epitomizes many of the most troubling aspects of modern consumer culture. In 2005, e-waste accounted for eight percent of all municipal waste in the world (Babu et al. 2007). The amount of e-waste being produced is accelerating due to the shorter life cycles of consumer electronic goods and the rapid expansion of markets for these products in the developing world, particularly India and China (Babu et al. 2007; Streicher-Portea et al. 2005). In 2004 alone, over 180 million new personal computers were sold around the world, and 100 million obsolete PCs entered the waste stream (Hilty 2005).

The process of disposal for these discarded products is a complex process. Due to the human health hazards posed by many chemical compounds used in the manufacture of electronic goods, many types of e-waste are also considered to be toxic wastes. The tightening of environmental laws in developed countries has led to an economic situation in which it is less expensive to export hazardous wastes overseas than dispose of them within national borders. In the United States, for example, the cost of hazardous waste disposal jumped from $15 per ton in 1980 to $250 per ton in 1988, compared to a disposal cost of $2.50 per ton in Africa (Clapp 1994). The prevailing trend has thus encouraged a transfer of hazardous wastes, along with their associated human health and environmental costs, from core economies to peripheral or semi-peripheral economies in the global system of trade.

Compounding this problem is the demand for raw materials in the developing world, particularly countries whose national economies are heavily reliant on export-based manufacturing. China and India are the two prime examples (Tong and Wang 2004). Although there is an economic and environmental logic to reusing and recycling electrical parts and components in the countries producing these goods, the reality on the ground is far more insidious. Given that China receives 90% of all recycled materials entering the Asian market (Widmer et al. 2005), it is worth examining in further detail what happens when e-waste arrives in China and what the drawbacks of e-waste recycling look like on the ground.

E-waste in China: The Case of Guiyu

E-waste usually arrives in China under false auspices. Although Chinese law technically forbids the importation of seventh category waste, these regulations are easily circumvented through a variety of methods, particularly smuggling, corruption, poor funding, and lack of adequate enforcement mechanisms (Tong and Wang 2004; Puckett et al. 2002). It is generally imported into China through port cities, particularly Nanghai in the Pearl River delta and Taizhou in the Yangtze River delta (Tong and Wang 2004). Active industrial clusters associated with the e-waste trade have also emerged in the coastal provinces of Zhejang, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hunan, Fujian, and Shandong (Liu et al. 2006). After being imported, e-waste is transported to regional hubs for manual disassembly, often by migrant workers.

One of these hubs is the city of Guiyu in Guangdong Province, where 100,000 migrant workers from the Chinese countryside are employed in the e-waste sector, earning approximately $1.50 per day (Puckett et al. 2002; Wong et al. 2007a). A former rice-growing village, Guiyu is today the center of China's booming e-waste disassembly industry and the largest city in the world of its kind, with 80% of local families engaged in the e-waste sector (Bi et al. 2007). The city is plagued by chronic pollution problems, and water has to be piped in from a neighboring town because the local drinking water is contaminated.

The most dangerous aspect of e-waste recycling in Guiyu is what is known as primitive dismantling. Methods used to perform this task include the stripping of metals in open-air acid baths to recover gold and other precious metals, chipping and melting of plastics, burning coated wires to recover copper, melting of electronic circuit boards to recover metal components, and open-air combustion of electronic scraps and unsalvageable waste (Deng et al. 2006; Bi et al. 2007; Wong et al. 2007a). These practices take place without any protection for workers, so that chronic health problems are rampant in Guiyu (Bi et al 2007).

Large-scale primitive e-waste disassembly has resulted in a situation where levels of mercury, lead, arsenic, chromium, copper, zinc, and a host of other toxic metals are present in extremely high concentrations (Deng et al. 2006; Wong et al. 2007b; Wong et al. 2007c). Additionally, the world's highest known concentrations of polybrominated diphenyls and dioxins are found in Guiyu (Bi et al 2007; Li et al 2007). These mutagenic and carcinogenic substances, which are some of the most toxic chemicals known to modern science, are extremely persistent organic pollutants that remain in the environment for decades.

Guiyu is today a textbook example of the major human health and environmental problems associated with the e-waste processing industry. It is also emblematic of the broader problems wrought by a global neoliberal economic regime that values profit over life.

E-waste Policy in China

What is occurring in China's e-waste sector is at odds with official government regulations. National laws exist designed to regulate the e-waste industry and prevent certain kinds of hazardous materials from entering the country. These laws and their inability to control the rampant problems associated with the e-waste sector merit further inquiry if effective measures are to be implemented that truly mitigate the devastating social and environmental impacts created by the e-waste industry.

Two early measures adopted by the Chinese government were the Law on the prevention of pollution from solid waste and Notification on the import of seventh category wastes, which came into effect in 1996 and 2000, respectively (Hicks et al. 2005). The first piece of legislation was an early attempt on the part of the government to regulate the recycling industry by certifying importers of seventh category waste. The second law instituted a ban on the import of scrap of computers, panel displays, television cathode ray tubes, and similar e-waste products (Tong and Wang 2004). These were both top-down measures that lacked adequate enforcement mechanisms and failed to account for the growing role of private enterprise in China. As a result, certified state-owned businesses were unable to compete with individual entrepreneurs for e-waste and scrap metal supplies (Tong and Wang 2004).

The Notice on strengthening the environmental management of e-waste, issued in 2003, prohibited environmentally damaging processing of e-waste (Hicks et al. 2005). However, it failed to create a management system for e-waste; it was therefore impossible to shut the informal sector down (Liu et al. 2006). The Ordinance on the management of waste household electrical and electronic products recycling and disposal, submitted to the State Council in 2005 and currently waiting approval, is a more comprehensive piece of legislation designed to create a system of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) that forces manufacturers to take back products at the end of their useful lifecycle (Hicks et al 2005). It also aims to reduce the use of toxic and hazardous substances in the manufacturing process and establish a standardized certification system for the labeling of secondhand appliances (Hicks et al 2005; Liu et al 2006). Another recent piece of legislation, The draft management measure for the prevention of pollution from electronic products, puts further restrictions on the use of six hazardous substances in manufacturing, sets requirements for 'green product' design, and mandates manufacturer labeling that informs consumers of the presence of hazardous components in electronics and instructions on their safe use and recycling (Hicks et al. 2005).

These regulatory policy measures are clearly a step in the right direction. What remains to be seen is whether they can be effectively implemented with the cooperation of private enterprise. The two most recent pieces of legislation, still awaiting approval before they become law, appear to be a more wholehearted attempt on the part of the Chinese government to adapt to the realities of profit-driven market economics. Whether these laws will be effective at mitigating the e-waste problem remains to be seen.

Executive Summary: Key Conclusions and Recommendations

Electrical and electronic waste is a global problem that has had detrimental effects on the environment and human health. Developing countries with lax environmental laws, an abundance of cheap labor, and high demand for raw materials have shouldered a disproportionate share of the burden for the problems created by e-waste, particularly China. Shorter product lifecycles and increasing demand for electronic goods by consumers in the developing world have created an urgent need for regulatory measures that effectively address the e-waste problem. With these factors in mind, the following policy recommendations are offered with the goal of mitigating the health and environmental impacts of e-waste:

-Labeling of hazardous materials in electronics should be mandatory.

-Strict controls on the use of hazardous substances by manufacturers of electronic products should be implemented.

-The principle of Extended Producer Responsibility should be expanded so that manufacturers are held accountable for the full lifecycles of the products they produce. Binding timelines for phased implementation of EPR should be created.

-Grants and subsidies should be created to encourage the development of technologies that enable ecologically sound disassembly of electronic waste products.

-Employers in the e-waste sector must include safety education as part of training and provide workers with equipment that reduces the risk of occupational health hazards.

-Strict legal and monetary penalties should be enforced for companies and employers who break the law.

-Efforts to remediate present and former e-waste sites should be undertaken.

References:

Babu, B.R., Parande, A.K., & Basha, C.A. (2007). Electrical and electronic waste: a global environmental problem. Waste Management & Research 25(4), p.307-318.

Bi, X., Thomas, G.O., Jones, K.C., Qu, W., Sheng, G., Martin, F.L., & Fu, J. (2007). Exposure of electronics dismantling workers to polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated biphenyls, and organochlorine pesticides in south China. Environmental Science and Technology 41, p.5647-5653.

Clapp, J. (1994). The toxic waste trade with less-industrialised countries: economic linked and political alliances. Third World Quarterly 15(3), p.505-518.

Deng, W.J., Louie, P.K.K., Liu, W.K., Bi, X.H., Fu, J.M., & Wong, M.H. (2006). Atmospheric level and cytotoxicity of PAHs and heavy metals in TSP and PM2.5 at an electronic waste recycling site in southeast China. Atmospheric Environment 40(36), p.6945-6955.

Hicks, C., Dietmar, R., & Eugster, M. (2005). The recycling and disposal of electrical and electronic waste in China- legislative and market responses. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 25(5), p.459-471.

Hilty, L.M. (2005). Electronic waste- an emerging risk? Environmental Impact Assessment Review 25(5), p.431-435.

Li, H., Yu, L., Sheng, G., Fu, J., & Peng, P. (2007). Severe PCDD/F and PBDD/F pollution in air around an electronic waste dismantling area in China. Environmental Science and Technology 41, p.5641-5646.

Liu, X., Tanaka, M., & Matsui, Y. (2006). Electrical and electronic waste management in China: progress and the barriers to overcome. Waste Management & Research 24(1), p.92-101.

Puckett, J., Byster, L., Westervelt, S., Gutierrez, R., Davis, S., Hussain, A., & Dutta, M. (2002). Exporting harm: the high tech trashing of Asia. [Online]. Seattle, WA: The Basel Action Network and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Available at: http://www.ban.org/Ewaste/technotrashfinalcomp.pdf

Streicher-Portea, M., Widmer, R., Jainc, A., Baderd, H.-P., Scheideffere, R., & Kytzia, S. (2005). Key drivers of the e-waste recycling system: assessing and modeling e-waste processing in the informal sector in Delhi. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 25(5), p.472-491.

Tong, X. & Wang, J. (2004). Transnational flows of e-waste and spatial patterns of recycling in China. Eurasian Geography and Economics 45(8), p.608-621.

Widmer, R., Oswald-Krapf, H., Sinha-Khetriwal, D., Schnellman, M., & Boni, H. (2005). Global perspectives on e-waste. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 25(5), p.436-458.

Wong, M.H., Wu, S.C., Deng, W.J., Yu, X.Z., Luo, Q., Leung, A.O.W., Wong, C.S.C., Luksemburg, W.J., & Wong, A.S. (2007a). Export of toxic chemicals- a review of the case of uncontrolled electronic waste recycling. Environmental Pollution 149(2), p.131-140.

Wong, C.S.C., Wu, S.C., Duzgoren-Ayin, N.S., Aydin, A., & Wong, M.H., (2007b). Trace metal contamination of sediments in an e-waste processing village in China. Environmental Pollution 145(2), p.434-442.

Wong, C.S.C., Duzgoren-Ayin, N.S., Aydin, A., & Wong, M.H. (2007c). Evidence of excessive releases of metals from primitive e-waste processing in Guiyu, China. Environmental Pollution 148(1), p.62-72.

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From Rain Forests to Industrial Monoculture: The Early Stages of Palm Oil Production

ANDREW L. SANFORD

NOV. 11, 2008

The production of palm oil is one of the most ecologically destructive practices on the planet. Before it is processed and distributed to countries around the world, palm oil originates in tropical regions, where land is converted from rain forests to monoculture plantations. These industrial plantations, which harbor little of the biodiversity of the ecosystems that they replace, are the result of rural development policies instituted at a variety of scales, from the local to the international level. Supported by strong financial interests within both core and peripheral regions of the global economic system, these plantations having been exploding in number and extent since the mid-1960's, with devastating ecological consequences. The rapid rise of oil palm, its increasing importance in meeting the cooking needs of the developing world, and the variety of other commercial and industrial uses to which the tree is put merits further investigation. It is therefore worth examining how the process of ecological transition plays out from start to finish, with the goal of shedding light on a common, if often overlooked, component of the human diet for billions of people around the world.

Several facts are worth stating at the outset in order to provide context to the importance of palm oil as an agricultural commodity. First, palm oil accounted for 49% of world trade in vegetable oils as of 2003 (FAO, 2006). It is second only to soybean oil as a foodstuff and just passed soybean oil to become the most commonly produced vegetable oil in the world (FAO, 2006). It is also relatively inexpensive to grow, producing yields three to twenty times greater than other oil crops (FWI/GFW, 2002; FAO, 2006).

The expansion of the palm oil industry has been phenomenal; since the mid-1960's, production has grown 3600% in Indonesia alone (FWI/GFW, 2002). In Malaysia, the amount of cultivated land used for palm oil production rose from 54,638 hectares in 1960 to 3,376,664 hectares in 2000, a 61-fold increase (WWF, 2002). Malaysia and Indonesia today account for 81% of world palm oil production (Basiron, 2002).

From an economic perspective, these statistics and growth rates are astounding. When one considers the ecological consequences, however, the analysis is more sobering. Behind the rosy numbers lies a destructive pattern of large-scale land conversion. Tropical rain forests in Malaysia and Indonesia have undergone unprecedented and permanent changes as a result of degradation and deforestation. Rates of deforestation in Indonesia have been so severe that it is believed that only remnant patches of tropical lowland rain forest still exist in Sumatra today (FWI/GFW, 2002). In Kalimantan, the region of Borneo that falls under Indonesian jurisdiction, most tropical lowland rain forest will cease to exist by 2010 if current rates of deforestation continue unabated (FWI/GFW, 2002).

Implicit in these changes is the loss of critical habitat for flora and fauna in a region that is home to some of the planet's most impressive biodiversity and the outright extinction of several species of large animals (CSPI, 2005). Several large species at high risk are the Sumatran tiger, both the Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, and the Asian elephant. Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson referred bleakly to the Sumatran rhinoceros as belonging to the "Hundred Heartbeats Club," a species whose living population currently numbers less than 100 individuals (Wilson, 2002). These charismatic megafauna are very often the focus of international conservation groups, but countless other unique lifeforms of intrinsic value are endangered or already extinct as the result of rain forest conversion to palm oil plantations.

Physical changes in the non-human environment often accompany the severe effects of palm oil plantations on biodiversity. Closed canopy forests regulate heat, moisture, and wind regimes, creating local microclimates. When forests are degraded or deforested, increased sunlight, dryness, and wind create conditions that lead to a gradual recession of the remaining forest edge (Gascon, Williamson, and da Fonseco, 2000.)

On a regional level, large-scale deforestation can result in decreased evapotranspiration, reducing cloud formation and rainfall. In Southeast Asia, Epstein (2002), notes that global warming may be a contributor to the increased frequency, duration, and intensity of El Ni–os since 1976. Since rain forest conversion to palm oil plantations is normally followed by the use of fire to release nutrients into the soil, carbon dioxide emissions from recurring fires on Sumatra and Borneo are themselves a major contributor to global climate change (Aiken, 2005).

Oil palm agriculture has important implications for water quality as well. Sedimentation from soil erosion can degrade drinking water and destroy aquatic ecosystems. Inputs of petrochemical herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers often pollute local waterways in areas that have already been converted to industrial plantation agriculture. Additionally, effluent from industrial wastewater creates massive amounts of untreated sewage. In 1999 alone, palm oil mill effluent in Indonesia produced the equivalent of the amount of domestic sewage generated by 20 million people (CSPI, 2005).

Land conversion from rain forest to industrial monoculture plantations typically begins when logging concessions are granted to timber companies, often as a result of pervasive corruption or nepotism at the national level. The Suharto regime in Indonesia was particularly infamous for awarding such concessions to its political favorites (FWI/GFW, 2002). Logging companies then take advantage of the immensely profitable practice of harvesting tropical timber, extracting high-value trees and sending them to sawmills and eventually overseas to export markets. In some cases, particularly in Indonesia, where decentralization following the Suharto era led to less government intervention in hinterland areas, illegal logging networks have been formed at the local level with the tacit approval of provincial governors (McCarthy, 2002).

Once the forest has been cleared, the remaining brush and detritus are normally burned to release nutrients into the soil. The land is then surveyed, and leguminous cover crops are planted to encourage nitrogen fixation in the soil and prevent erosion (WWF, 2002). The final step in the establishment of monoculture plantations involves transplanting year-old oil palm clones or seedlings from nurseries in neat rows that often stretch as far as the eye can see (WWF, 2002).

A two to three year process of field maintenance then takes place before the newly planted oil palm trees become productive and begin to yield fruit. This maintenance involves weeding, pruning, and the application of fertilizers and various forms of pest control (WWF, 2002). The oil palm industry uses over 20 different kinds of herbicides and pesticides, including the herbicide paraquat dichloride, which has been found to be responsible for nosebleeds, nail loss, and abdominal ulcerations amongst female plantation workers in Malaysia (CSPI, 2005).

Harvesting of fresh fruit bunches is accomplished with the aid of hand chisels when the trees are young, and later occurs with the help of mounted sickles when the trees are older and the fruit is out of reach (WWF, 2002). Tractors with mounted arms then go around collecting the fruit bunches, transporting them in wagons to processing plants on the plantations, where they are turned into palm oil and a variety of other commercially significant products (WWF, 2002). These include fatty acids used in the making of soaps, fragrances, cosmetics, and candles, fatty alcohols used to make washing and cleaning products, fatty nitrogen compounds used to prevent rust, and glycerols used in lubricants, stabilizers, solvents, and other industrial applications (WWF, 2002).

Palm oil today is used in a number of food products, including shortenings, margarines, ice cream, cookies, crackers, biscuits, cake mixes, icing, dough fat, and instant noodles (WWF, 2002). Almost all large transnational food conglomerates use palm oil as an additive for their products; examples of well-known foods containing palm oil include Cadbury chocolate, Oreo cookies, Kraft Vegetable Thins, and Pilsbury dough. When occidental consumers buy these products, they unknowingly participate in the destruction of tropical rain forests.

One of the reasons that palm oil is so widely used is that it is inexpensive relative to other vegetable oils. Since 1986, palm oil has been consistently cheaper than peanut, soybean, canola, sunflower, and rapeseed oils (FAO, 2006). Its cheap price makes it affordable to consumers in the developing world, particularly in India, Pakistan, and China (USDA, 2002). This is an important fact to consider when thinking about the process of ecological destruction that accompanies palm oil production.

The role that various national and transnational corporations play in fueling the oil palm boom cannot be overstated. In both Malaysia and Indonesia, the very same conglomerates that are granted logging concessions often own the saw mills that process the tropical timber, the trading companies that export the value-added sawn wood, and the subsidiaries in charge of establishing plantations, processing oil palm, and exporting its derivative products (FWI/GFW, 2002). These conglomerates thus profit in numerous ways from the conversion of rain forests to monoculture plantations. A financial incentive exists at each step of the process, from the initial clearing of the rain forest to the eventual export of palm oil and other oil palm products.

The role that Dutch banks have played in financing these operations has drawn increased scrutiny in recent years as groups concerned with the ongoing cycle of destruction have investigated the complicity of Western business interests in supporting tropical land conversion in Southeast Asia. ING Bank, ABN AMRO Bank, Rabobank, MeesPierson, and Nederlandse FMO are five major lenders who have provided equity and insurance to Malaysian and Indonesian companies with oil palm holdings (Greenpeace, 2000). It is therefore worthwhile to keep in mind that foreign banks are at least in part responsible for the deforestation that has resulted from the establishment of oil palm plantations, in addition to the conglomerates themselves and consumers in both the developing and industrialized world.

Global palm oil production, concentrated largely in Malaysia and Indonesia, has increased at an explosive pace since the 1960's due to the large-scale conversion of tropical rain forests into industrial plantations practicing intensive monoculture. Devastating ecological consequences have accompanied this transition. The loss of critical habitat for many forms of life in a region known for the splendor of its biodiversity, the release of massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a result of forest clearance, and severe water pollution from pesticides and effluent originating from palm oil plantations have resulted from an insatiable thirst for profits, the high demand for cooking oil in the developing world, and the use of cheap additives in goods manufactured by transnational food conglomerates. Billions of people on the planet consume foods made with palm oil today, most of them unaware of the destructive practices of timber concessionaires who, aided by Western financiers, profit at every stage of the land conversion process. Ultimately, almost everyone bears some responsibility for the continuing destruction of rain forests to create palm oil. It will be important to heighten awareness of this complex issue moving into the future if further destruction of these irreplaceable ecosystems is to be averted.

References:

Aiken, S.R. 2005. Runaway fires, smoke-haze pollution, and unnatural disasters in Indonesia. The Geographical Review 94 (1), 55-79.

Basiron, Y. 2002. Palm oil and its global supply and demand prospects. Oil Palm Industry Economic Journal 2 (1), 1-10.

CSPI [Center for Science in the Public Interest]. 2005. Cruel oil: How palm oil harms health, rainforest & wildlife. Washington, D.C.: Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Epstein, P.R. 2000. Is global warming harmful to health? Scientific American 283 (2), 50-57.

FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations]. 2006. Biofuels and commodity markets- palm oil focus. Paper presented 24-25 October 2006 at AgraInforma Conference, Brussels. Retrieved 15 April 2007 at http://www.fao.org/es/ESC/common/ecg/110542_en_full_paper_English.pdf

FWI/GFW [Forest Watch International/Global Forest Watch]. 2002. The state of the forest: Indonesia. Bogor, Indonesia: Forest Watch Indonesia. Washington, D.C.: Global Forest Watch.

Gascon, C., Williamson, G.B. & da Fonseca, G.A.B. (2000). Receding forest edges and vanishing reserves. Science 288 (5470), 1356-1358.

Greenpeace Netherlands. 2000. Funding forest destruction: The involvement of Dutch banks in the financing of oil palm plantations in Indonesia. Amsterdam: Greenpeace Netherlands.

McCarthy, J. F. (2002). Turning in circles: District governance, illegal logging, and environmental decline in Sumatra, Indonesia. Society and Natural Resources 15, 867-886.

USDA [United States Department of Agriculture]. 2002. Oilseeds: World markets and trade. Circular series FOP 10-02, October 2002. Accessed 15 April 2007 at http://www.fas.usda.gov/oilseeds/circular/2002/02-10/Full.pdf

Wilson, E.O. 2002. The future of life. New York: Vintage Books.

WWF. 2002. The palm oil industry in Malaysia: From seed to frying pan. Selangor, Malaysia; WWF Malaysia. Accessed 15 April 2007 at http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/ where_we_work/asia_pacific/publications/index.cfm?uNewsID=16630

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Causes of Deforestation in Sumatra

ANDREW L. SANFORD

SEPT. 10, 2008

Sumatra, one of the largest islands in the archipelago of Indonesia, is home to some of the richest biodiversity on the planet, but its rain forests have suffered immensely over the past century. Forests that once covered almost the entire island have now been reduced to a mere quarter of their former extent. Such a situation merits both an inquiry and an explanation- an investigation into what once existed and what remains, and a search for the answer to a simple question- why did the forests disappear so quickly?

Sumatra is home to a number of different tropical rain forest formations. They are characterized by their great species richness, high levels of endemism, and low densities of individual species. These formations are categorized on the basis of physiographic and structural characteristics that create unique habitats preferred by certain types of species.

Tropical lowland evergreen rain forest dominated by dipterocarp trees was once the most common formation found on Sumatra. These forests are what Whitmore (1984) calls "the most luxuriant of all plant communities" (p. 156). They have the largest trees and the greatest numbers of species of any Sumatran rain forests. Although once widely distributed on the island’s interior and on the western side of the island between the coast and the mountains, these forests have been decimated and likely exist today only in isolated remnant patches.

Tropical lower montane forest is found over 800m; it is characterized by a lower canopy and fewer emergent species (Whitmore, 1984, p. 245). This formation is most common on the island’s western spine, where tectonic uplift has created numerous mountains and volcanoes. On mountains above 1500m., upper montane forest dominates and is characterized by short, dense trees and "elfin woodland" (Whitmore, 1984, p. 243).

Three formations of swamp forests are found in Sumatra: peat swamp forest, fresh water swamp forest, and seasonal swamp forest. Under natural conditions, these are located on the eastern side of the island, sandwiched between lowland evergreen rain forests and the mangrove forests that grow along the coast in salt water. Peat swamp forests are by far the most common of these formations in Sumatra and also the youngest, with origins dating back 11,000 years to the end of the last glaciation (Whitmore, 1984, p. 183). As their name implies, they are rich in organic matter, which makes them susceptible to fire if dried out by anthropogenic activities. Many dipterocarps found in tropical lowland evergreen forests are also found in peat swamp forests (Whitmore, 1984, p. 183). Fresh water and seasonal swamp forests are usually found on river floodplains and are characterized in Sumatra by corky-barked Melaleuca cajuputi trees (Whitmore, 1984, p. 194).

Three other rain forest formations occur in Sumatra. Mangrove forest is found sporadically on the east coast and creates excellent riparian habitat. Forest over limestone occurs in small scattered patches along the length of the island but is most common in the province of Aceh. These forests contain high levels of endemism resulting from the mineral composition of limestone and the microclimates of karst towers (Whitmore, 1984, p. 175). Finally, towering pine forests of Pinus merkusii,unique to Sumatra in the Indonesian archipelago, occur naturally in Aceh and Kerinci Seblat National Park.

The extent to which these forests have been deforested or degraded depends on the sources one uses. The Indonesian government is infamous for grossly underestimating its forest cover figures. The bureaucratic apparatus suffers from institutional corruption and politicians often own or collude with logging interests. Using Geographic Information Systems technology and 1998 satellite imagery from the National Forest Inventory, Forest Watch Indonesia overlaid maps of current forest cover with known timber concessions to classify degraded forests. They concluded that Sumatra’s remaining forest cover included 10.4 million ha. of natural forest and 5.8 million ha. of degraded forest (FWI/GFW, 2002, p. 18). Citing Holmes (2000), FWI says 40 million ha. of forests were estimated to have existed in 1900 (FWI/GFW, 2002, p. 14). Only a quarter of Sumatra’s forest cover from 1900 thus remains. Sumatra’s lowland forests have undergone an even more precipitous decline, decreasing in area from 16 million ha. in 1900 to 5.6 million ha. in 1985. Only 2.1 million ha. remained by 1997 (FWI/GFW, 2002, p.14). Given the rapid rate of deforestation in the latter period, it is reasonably safe to assume that these lowland forests are now gone forever.

As with most major problems, the processes that have contributed to this deforestation are complex. Some of these processes are directly observable and easy to pinpoint, while others are indirect and often more difficult to comprehend.

Unsustainable logging has been by far the most destructive process contributing to deforestation in Sumatra. Under the thirty-year military dictatorship of Suharto, the central government declared that most of the forests on Indonesia’s Outer Islands belonged to the state, breaking with the historical tradition of adak, or customary law, wherein leagues of villages allocated forest resources on a local level (McCarthy, 2002, p. 874). After reorganizing the State Forestry Corporation, Suharto embarked on an economic development strategy that relied heavily on natural resource extraction (Peluso, 1992, p.129). Log exports quickly became one of the country’s prime income earners.

Suharto’s regime was characterized by nepotism and institutionalized corruption, with the result that his family, friends, and political allies wound up receiving many of the prime logging concessions and land conversion permits. Not only did they have a financial incentive to log the forests, but there was money to be made planting rubber and palm oil plantations. After several years of exporting logs, the concessionaires wizened up and realized that they could make even more money processing the logs in Indonesia and exporting processed timber as a value-added product. The logging concessionaires were thus involved in every step of the process; they owned the concessions, they owned the saw mills and pulp mills, and they owned the palm oil and rubber plantations that sprung up where the trees had been cut down (FWI/GFW, 2002).

This vicious cycle of ecocide continues to this day. The fall of the Suharto regime, hastened by the 1997 economic crisis in Southeast Asia, brought with it a new era of decentralization. Regions that had previously received a significant portion of their budgets from the central government were now forced to look locally for revenue. This vacuum was filled by illegal logging networks (Sayer et al., 2004, p. 125). Although illegal logging had occurred for a long time under the Suharto regime, the lack of central authority and a monetary squeeze at the regional level emboldened these networks to pressure local and regional administrators to unofficially sanction their activities in return for a share of logging revenues (McCarthy, 2002). Illegal logging is now so pervasive that it is estimated to be responsible for 50-70 percent of Indonesia’s wood supply (FWI/GFW, 2002, p.30). This illegal logging is encouraged by both the overcapacity of the country’s wood processing industry and the fact that forestry laws are simply not enforced.

The conversion of forested land to plantations is another direct cause of deforestation. Oil palm is the plantation crop favored by large-scale industrial estates, although to a lesser extent rubber, coffee, tea, cinnamon, and cocoa are also cultivated by small-scale landholders (Sunderlin, Resosudarmo, Rianto, and Angelson, 2000, p. 9). A boom in the oil palm sector has accelerated in recent years, fueled largely by demand from India, with a 36-fold increase in production since the mid-1960’s (FWI/GFW, 2002, p. 42). This trend is likely to continue, given the prediction by Oil World (2001) that demand for oil palm is expected to nearly double by the year 2020 (as cited in FWI/GFW, 2002, p. 46). When coupled with the fact that the owners of palm oil plantations are very often the same companies profiting from the exploitation of timber, the outlook for the remaining forests in Sumatra suitable for oil palm plantations looks bleak indeed.

Logging and conversion of forests to palm oil plantations are two of the major direct causes of deforestation in Sumatra, but the impact of small landholders is important as well. Swidden agriculture is still practiced in parts of Sumatra, but shifting cultivators often prefer to clear secondary growth rather than primary forest because it requires less work and the nutrient content is high if the fallow period has been long enough (Whitmore, 1984, chap. 20). If the fallow period is reduced or higher population densities put more pressure on the land, the system will break down.

Such is the case in Sumatra, but the problem lies less with the shifting cultivators native to Sumatra than the transmigrants or "shifted" cultivators who came to the island during the Suharto regime as the central government sought to relieve population pressures on the island of Java. These small landholders, many of whom have little or no ecological knowledge, view the forest as a resource to be exploited. They follow logging roads and highways, cutting the forest down for intensive agriculture and moving on to another plot when the nutrients have been exhausted and crop yields decline. In the absence of individual property rights, this cycle continues indefinitely until land shortages force farmers to plant perennial crops like rubber trees or coffee (Angelsen, 1995, p. 1724).

Indirect forces are also encouraging deforestation. Macroeconomic trends, particularly international commodity prices, play an important role in determining decisions that individual stakeholders make. In a compelling analysis of the 1997 Southeast Asian financial crisis, Sunderlin (2000) shows how currency devaluation and commodity prices increased deforestation by small landholders and caused them to rethink which types of crops they grew. McCarthy (2002, pp. 877-878) documents how the price of plywood plunged 40% during the 1997 crisis at the same time demand for patchouli oil, distilled from the leaves of nilam (Pogostemon cablin) sent the price soaring 3000%. These forces caused the closure of several sawmills and encouraged villagers in his case study to trade in their chain saws to plant nilam plants; unfortunately, a reversal of the same market forces meant that this trend was short-lived.

Transnational corporations, international lending agencies, and corruption on the part of the Indonesian government have also played important indirect roles in deforestation. Suharto looted millions of dollars in international aid during his time in office and actively encouraged deforestation by giving away logging concessions to his political favorites. The World Bank for many years funded road-building projects that carved paths through the rain forest, giving logging trucks easy access to timber and paving the way for transmigrants practicing slash and burn agriculture. Multinational corporations, with the help of their Indonesian counterparts, have long played an active role in the country’s forestry and mining sectors.

Sumatra’s diverse rain forests, which in their natural state once covered almost the entire island, have within the mere space of a century lost 75% of their original cover. The lowland evergreen forests have been effectively destroyed, and rates of deforestation have increased following the collapse of the Suharto regime. The processes that have caused this deforestation are numerous. They range from direct processes, such as logging, large-scale conversion of forests to plantations, and slash and burn agricultural practices of transmigrants, to indirect processes such as corruption, commodity price swings, myopic lending policies on the part of international donors, and insatiable lust on the part of transnational corporations for tropical resources. The trend does not bode well. Urgent measures and intelligent minds will be required in the years to come if what remains of Sumatra’s rich biota is to be saved from the brink of extinction.

References:

Angelsen, A. Shifting cultivation and "deforestation": A study from Indonesia. World Development 23 (10), 1713-1729.

FWI/GFW [Forest Watch Indonesia/Global Forest Watch]. (2002.) The state of the forest: Indonesia. Bogor, Indonesia: Forest Watch Indonesia; Washington, D.C.: Global Forest Watch.

McCarthy, J. F. Turning in circles: District governance, illegal logging, and environmental decline in Sumatra, Indonesia. Society and Natural Resources 15, 867-886.

Peluso, N. L. (1992). Rich forests, poor people. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Sayer, J., Elliott, C., Barrow, E., Gretzinger, S., Maginnis, S., McShane, T., & Shepard, G. Implications for Biodiversity Conservation of Decentralized Forest Resources Management. (2004.) In Colfer, C. J. P. & Capistrano, D. (Eds.) The politics of decentralization (pp. 121-137). Sterling, VA: Earthscan.

Sunderlin, W. D., Resosudarmo, I. A. P., Rianto, E., & Angelsen, A. (2000). The effect of Indonesia’s economic crisis on small farmers and natural forest cover in the Outer Islands. CIFOR occasional paper No. 28E. Retrieved September 20, 2006 from www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/OccPapers/OP-28(E).pdf

Whitmore, T. C. (1984). Tropical rain forests of the far east. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Impacts of Deforestation in Sumatra

ANDREW L. SANFORD

SEPT. 10, 2008

Sumatra's rain forests have suffered immensely from both direct and indirect processes. Proximate causes of deforestation and degradation include road construction, logging, large-scale plantation agriculture, and the slash and burn agricultural practices of shifted transmigrants, while indirect processes such as government policies, political corruption, commodity price swings, lending policies of international agencies, and the exploitation of tropical resources by transnational corporations have also played a major role in contributing to a vicious cycle of destruction. The impacts of these processes are manifold; deforestation and degradation have had serious negative environmental, biological, socio-economic, and cultural consequences that necessitate further examination. A full understanding of these consequences is essential if the errors of the past are to be avoided and meaningful preventative policies are to be implemented in the future.

The impact of deforestation on Sumatra's physical environment has been profound. Not only has deforestation altered the island's natural climatic, hydrological, and edaphic regimes within a remarkably short period of geological time, but it has also contributed to broader regional and global environmental problems.

Local and regional differences in climate on the island of Sumatra, coupled with the complexity of factors that determine climate regimes, make it hard to draw broad generalizations about changes that have occurred as a result of deforestation. It is well known, however, that microclimates exist in rain forests because closed canopy forests regulate heat, moisture, and wind regimes. When forests are degraded or deforested, increased sunlight, dryness, and wind can create conditions that lead to a gradual recession of the remaining forest edge (Gascon, Williamson, and da Fonseco, 2000.) On a regional level, large-scale deforestation can result in decreased evapotranspiration, reducing cloud formation and rainfall. In the case of Sumatra, this trend does not bode well. Aiken (2005, pp. 56-57) cites Epstein (2002), in noting that "the frequency, duration, and intensity of El Ninos have increased since 1976, possibly as a result of global warming." Given that carbon dioxide emissions from Sumatra's recurring peat fires are themselves a major contributor to global warming, it is possible that a positive feedback loop tending towards generally drier conditions on the island as a whole has formed.

Deforestation has also played an important role in altering Sumatra's hydrology. Rain forests regulate stream flow by facilitating infiltration and enhancing water storage capacity (FAO, 2005). Deforestation therefore results in increased runoff and stream flow. Contrary to popular misconceptions, however, deforestation does not increase the frequency or the severity of flooding (FAO, 2005). Flooding is a natural occurrence, and the most severe floods tend to occur when forest soils are already waterlogged (FAO, 2005.)

Deforestation has important implications for water quality as well. Sedimentation from soil erosion can degrade drinking water and destroy aquatic ecosystems. Inputs of herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and fertilizers pollute local waterways in areas that have been converted to large-scale plantation agriculture. Where mining activities have led to deforestation, runoff contaminated by heavy metals can have severe repercussions for human health and riparian habitats.

Rain forest deforestation and degradation are major contributors to soil erosion as well. The effects of soil erosion are especially acute where logging and road construction have taken place. Mechanized extraction of high value timber creates skid trails that severely disrupt topsoil, particularly on steeper slopes (Riswan and Hartanti, 1995). When buffers are absent around logging areas, this topsoil is washed away during periods of heavy rainfall, clogging streams with sediment and disrupting riparian ecosystems. It often takes several years before vegetation becomes reestablished and soil erosion is reduced (Riswan and Hartanti, 1995).

Sumatra has more mammal species than any other island in Indonesia, including nine endemic species and twenty-two other mammals found nowhere else in the archipelago (USAID/Indonesia, 2004). It is home to the last viable populations of some of Indonesia's well-known large animals, including the Asian elephant, tiger, clouded leopard, Malaysian sun bear, Sumatran orangutan, and Sumatran rhinoceros. The latter two are headed for what Wilson (2002) grimly calls the "Hundred Heartbeat Club," species whose planetary populations number one hundred individuals or less.

These charismatic megafauna attract the attention of conservationists and the general public because of their size and beauty. Underlying this reality is another unfortunate truth: these animals represent a mere fraction of the endangered species in Sumatra. Many more birds, trees, plants, insects, reptiles, and fish are teetering on the brink of extinction, the vast majority of whose names will never be known to science.

Habitat loss due to deforestation is the primary cause of this ecocide. Many of these plants and animals once inhabited Sumatra's tropical lowland rain forests, which exist today only in degraded remnant patches. The remaining dipterocarp forests on Sumatra, now confined mostly to peat swamps on the eastern side of the island, will soon succumb to the chainsaw and be set aflame by the one species that learned to master fire, Homo sapiens.

After the land is burned repeatedly, cultivated for several years, exhausted of its nutrients, and abandoned, Imperata cylindrica will spring up where a forest once grew. This grass, found in environments subjected to frequent cycles of fire, is difficult to eradicate, has few uses, and supports a mere fraction of the biodiversity found in tropical rain forests. Although it is possible to cultivate and rehabilitate land dominated by Imperata, intensive labor inputs are required, rendering these activities unfeasible to most people (Brookfield, Potter, and Byron, 1995). The process of ecological transition is thus complete, with dire consequences for the rich diversity of life that once existed in the tropical rain forest and little tangible benefit to its destroyers.

Deforestation in Sumatra has a variety of negative socio-economic impacts, many of which are only felt after the process of destruction is complete. While forests still stand, employment opportunities are available with logging gangs and plantation owners and there is plentiful land for the cultivation of cash crops. It is only afterwards, when the land is completely altered by human actions, that the repercussions are often felt.

McCarthy (2002, p. 876) describes an interview with a village schoolteacher in Menggamat who estimated that "one chainsaw led to the employment of two hundred people." This included the logging gang, the people involved with transporting the logs down the rivers and overland to the sawmills, and others providing ancillary services. Given that logging usually occurs on the frontiers of human settlement in places with poorly developed market economies, many of the people driven to these frontiers are driven by desperation and have opportunistic attitudes and little or no ecological knowledge. The result is that short-term profit from resource extraction trumps long-term social and environmental sustainability. It is only when the finite resources are exhausted that the full magnitude of the damage is clearly understood.

The damage manifests itself in many ways, almost all of which are related to the greater problem of rural poverty. Sanitary conditions tend to be poor, leading to high rates of infant mortality and disease. Schools, health services, electricity, and other signs of public infrastructure are few and far between. Many workers are burdened by debt obligations to the very logging networks and plantation owners that used to employ them (McCarthy, 2002). In sum, the cycle of poverty continues to get worse for the vast majority of frontier settlers, and the members of entrenched elites are the only people who reap any tangible benefit from the destruction of the rain forest.

Accompanying the socio-economic drawbacks are related cultural losses. These have been particularly severe for indigenous peoples operating within traditional usufructuary land use systems. On Sumatra, the hunter-gathering Kubu of Jambi Province have been affected by the encroachment of transmigrant populations. Numbering less than six thousand and living on lands highly prized for their timber, the Kubu are particularly vulnerable to displacement and cultural assimilation (Sanbukt, 2000). The future of their spiritual traditions, language, and way of life are closely tied to the fate of the rain forest itself.

The Talang Mamak, practitioners of traditional swidden agriculture in Riau Province, are similarly threatened as a people, although they are more numerous and have been more successful at adjusting to a market-based economic system. With this adjustment have come changes in values and attitudes, however, and the traditional view of land as communally "owned" has been replaced by a new system where land rights are increasingly asserted by permanent cultivation (Angelsen,1995).

Deforestation of tropical rain forests in Sumatra has had devastating environmental, biological, socio-economic, and cultural impacts. Major climatic, hydrological, and edaphic changes have been triggered by human alterations of the physical environment. Much of Sumatra's biota, once some of the richest in the world, has been extirpated or pushed to the edge of extinction by habitat loss and the decimation of the island's lowland dipterocarp forests. These biophysical impacts have been accompanied by equally negative repercussions for humans living on the land. Abject poverty and poor social infrastructure continue to plague people who have already been pushed to the margins of society. The few indigenous groups with extensive ecological knowledge of the rain forests are on the verge of cultural disappearance at a time when their voices need to be listened to and their values need to be embraced. A dramatic and unprecedented effort will need to be undertaken if Sumatra's rich natural heritage and irreplaceable cultural traditions are to survive for future generations.

References:

Aiken, S.R. (2004). "Runaway fires, smoke-haze pollution, and unnatural disasters in Indonesia." The Geographical Review 94 (1), 55-79.

Angelsen, A. (1995). Shifting cultivation and ÒdeforestationÓ: A study from Indonesia. World Development 23 (10), 1713-1729.

Brookfield, H., Potter, L., & Byron, Y. (1995). In place of the forest: Environmental and socio-economic transformation in Borneo and the eastern Malay peninsula. Hong Kong: United Nations University Press.

FAO/CIFOR [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/Center for International Forestry Research]. (2005). Forests and floods: Drowning in fiction or thriving on facts? RAP publication 2005/03: Forest perspectives 2. Bogor Barat, Indonesia: FAO/CIFOR.

Gascon, C., Williamson, G.B. & da Fonseca, G.A.B. (2000). "Receding forest edges and vanishing reserves." Science 288 (5470), 1356-1358.

McCarthy, J. F. (2002). Turning in circles: District governance, illegal logging, and environmental decline in Sumatra, Indonesia. Society and Natural Resources 15, 867-886.

Riswan, S. & Hartanti, L. (1995). "Human impact on tropical forest dynamics." Vegetatio 121, 41-52.

Sanbukt, O. (2000). "Deforestation and the people of the forest: The Orang Rimba or Kubu of Sumatra." Indigenous Affairs 2, 39-47.

USAID Indonesia [United States Agency for International Development]. (2004). Report on biodiversity and tropical forests in Indonesia. Retrieved October 4, 2006, from www.usaid.gov/our_work/environment/forestry/pubs/forestry_118_fy03.pdf

Wilson, E.O. (2002). The future of life. New York: Vantage Books.

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Biodiversity Conservation in Sumatra: Current Practices and Future Alternatives

ANDREW L. SANFORD

SEPT. 10, 2008

The basic human needs of people living near protected areas must be satisfied if biodiversity is to be successfully conserved. Nowhere is this more evident than on the island of Sumatra, where people have steadily encroached upon lands set aside as national parks. The implications for Sumatra's biodiversity are profound, considering that these areas contain some of the last remaining suitable habitats for many of the island's endangered plant and animal populations. It is therefore necessary to address some of the problems associated with conservation strategies that insufficiently account for the needs of people living near park boundaries and to examine ways of mitigating pressures on the ecosystems that still remain intact within these protected areas.

This research will attempt to fulfill several objectives. By drawing upon case studies of human-environment interactions within and around Sumatra's three largest protected areas, it will examine what is currently known about human activities in Leuser, Kerenci Seblat, and Bukit Barisan Selatan national parks in order to show how current management and land use policies are insufficient to protect Sumatra's biodiversity. Sustainable methods of agroforestry currently practiced on the island of Sumatra will then be investigated in order to show how human pressures on these parks can be alleviated. Finally, by highlighting the policies that need to be implemented if the dual goals of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation are to be achieved, a course for the future will be plotted.

Sumatra's national park system is relatively new, and the drawing of park boundaries has created tensions between conservationists intent upon protecting biodiversity and villagers dependent upon forest resources for food and income. Of the six national parks containing tropical lowland rain forests in Sumatra, USAID (2004) considers Gunung Leuser, Kerinci Seblat, and Bukit Barisan Selatan to be of the highest conservation priority. These parks contain lower montane rain forest formations that provide suitable habitat for many lowland plant and animal species threatened by human activities (USAID, 2004). In recent years, they have become vulnerable to human encroachment because they contain high value timber and mineral-rich volcanic soils suitable for agriculture.

Gunung Leuser National Park, located in the provinces of North Sumatra and Aceh, encompasses 890,000 hectares of land and is one of Southeast Asia's largest parks (McCarthy, 2002). Vast tracts of state-claimed land adjacent to the boundaries of the park enclose what is known as the "Leuser Ecosystem," an area of 2 million hectares of forest that constitutes one of the largest rainforest reserves in the world (McCarthy, 2002). Human encroachment has increased in recent years with the growth of illegal logging networks, shifted agriculture, and the establishment of sandalnut gardens within park boundaries (McCarthy, 2002). Griffiths and Van Shaik (1993) observe that most large mammals in Gunung Leuser have moved away from areas where human presence has increased. Elephants, tigers, and Sumatran rhinoceroses are most likely to be adversely affected, as habitat fragmentation by human encroachment results in suboptimal habitats for large mammals with large ranges.

After studying the complex socio-economic and political processes at work in case studies from Menggamat on the park's western side and the Alas Valley on its eastern flank, McCarthy (2002, p. 104) concludes that "where state laws contradict local understandings, they lack legitimacy" and that "extraction by district logging networks proved to be compatible with forest pioneering by villagers; as these two groups of actors shared interests, they formed a tacit growth coalition" (2002, p. 105). This situation has not been helped by Indonesia's decentralization policies, which have encouraged local governments to raise revenues by extracting natural resources from state lands. Until these policies are changed, biodiversity in Gunung Leuser National Park will remain under threat and critical habitat for most types of lowland flora and fauna will become increasingly fragmented or eliminated altogether.

Similar factors are at play in Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra's largest protected area and the subject of much scholarly literature. Located in central Sumatra along the spine of mountains on the island's western edge, the park's boundaries lie directly adjacent to logging concessions in some places and are not clearly marked. The annual deforestation rate in the Tappan Valley along the park's western flank was measured at 3.1 percent between 1992 and 1999, with most deforestation occurring in lowland rain forests accessible by roads (Linkie, Smith, and Leader-Williams, 2004). The repercussions for Kerinci Seblat's fauna are particularly severe since the greatest concentrations of animal taxa are found at lower altitudes (Gillison, Liswanti, and Rachman, 1996). Logging and land conversion force these animals into sub-optimal habitats at higher elevations, leading to increased vulnerability of certain species and greater competition for finite food resources.

The director of Kerinci Seblat National Park says in an interview with Stone and D'Andrea (2001, p.131) that his greatest concern is "the degradation of the park from large plots of cinnamon trees- the cinnamon is creeping in, diminishing biological diversity and wildlife habitat." Given that 116 people patrol a park 13,300 square kilometers in size, the task of halting this activity is daunting (Linkie et al., 2004). It is clear that current policies do not discourage people from appropriating park lands and that park management in its current form will be insufficient to conserve the rich biodiversity of this area.

Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park is located in Sumatra's southwest corner and is the island's third largest park. Deforestation within this park's boundaries has been extensively documented by Kinnaird, Sanderson, O'Brien, Wibisono, and Woolmer (2003), who calculated that the rate of forest loss on park lands averaged two percent per year between 1985 and 1999, with a marked acceleration of deforestation towards the end of the study period. Forest cover within the park declined from 80 percent in 1985 to 52 percent in 1999, with only 30 percent expected to remain by 2010, most of it montane forest. Less than one percent of the lowland forests in the buffer zone around the national park still remain (Kinnaird et al., 2003). The major proximate cause for this deforestation has been clearance for agriculture resulting from population pressures. Illegal logging has also played a role, but the authors note that sawmills and the paper and pulp industry are notably absent from Lampung Province (Kinnaird et al., 2003). Bukit Barisan Selatan's forests are poorly managed and its biodiversity is severely threatened. Kinnaird et al. (2003) estimate that tigers, elephants, and rhinoceroses, already on the brink of extirpation in this park, will no longer contain viable breeding populations by 2010. Although these are large mammals requiring large ranges for survival, it is reasonable to assume that many other plants and animals in this park will be eliminated outright or face severe population declines resulting from widespread habitat destruction in the near future.

The scale and rapidity of ecological transformation in the humid tropics has made the urgency of implementing alternative methods of land use a priority. This has led to a focus on sustainable forestry and agriculture that is both sustainable and more productive. Agroforestry is a form of land management that involves the growing of trees in association with agricultural production. When referred to as sustainable, it is a form of management that provides for the environmental, social, and economic needs of future generations. Sustainable agroforestry holds considerable promise in alleviating human pressures on Sumatra's national parks if it is adapted to serve the needs of local people.

It is important to point out that the practice of agroforestry is insufficient to preserve the natural biodiversity that is found in undisturbed primary rain forests in its entirety. Thiollay (1995), in a study of bird biodiversity in three different types of Sumatran agroforest tracts, found that only half of the bird species present in primary forest were also found in agroforests. There were significant reductions in the numbers of insectivores and frugivores and an increase in the number of omnivores in agroforests, suggesting that agroforests are better suited to generalist bird species, whereas rain forests are the domain of specialists. These results are important, given that birds are major seed dispersers in tropical rainforests and that co-evolved insects often form mutualistic relationships with certain plants and fungi. Nonetheless, Thiollay (1995) observed up to twenty times more bird species present in agroforests than he found on monoculture tree plantations and other agricultural plots. Additionally, although animal species were not the subject of his research, he noted through personal observations (1995, p. 338) that in all three types of agroforests he studied, "the density, or at least conspicuousness of primates, squirrels, and fruit bats often seems higher in agroforests than in primary natural forests, except for the orangutan." He found that wild pigs, leaf monkeys, macaques, gibbons, and siamangs were particularly abundant and also encountered barking deer, civets, and small cats during the course of his research. For conservation purposes, agroforestry is therefore probably best adapted to buffer zones created around protected areas of primary rain forest.

Several case studies illustrate the positive effects that agroforestry can have on communities living near protected areas. On the northeastern periphery of Kerinci Seblat National Park, Murniati, Garrity, and Gintings (2001) studied the relationship between dependence upon national park resources and ownership of land used for agroforestry. They found that families without mixed-garden forests were far more dependent upon resources within national park lands for food and income than families whose holdings included both paddy land and mixed-garden forests. Those families whose land was used for several uses had higher incomes than those who only owned paddy land. A study of agroforests at another site on the periphery of the park led Aumeeruddy and Sansonnens (1994, p. 133) to state that "such systems, as well as being economically sustainable, also contribute greatly to in situ conservation of biological diversity and to diminution of ecological and economical risks."

Another illustrative example comes from agroforests of the Krui region adjacent to Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park where villagers have been growing damar (Shorea javanica) trees for generations. These dipterocarp "gardens," known as repong, are intercropped with coffee, pepper, fruit trees, medicinal plants, rattan, and natural vegetation, and their forests are closely tied to local social hierarchies and group identities (Wollenberg, Nawir, Uluk, and Pramono, 2001). Similar to Thiollay's findings on bird diversity, 100 meter transects of a primary rainforest and a repong were made and approximately half of all plant species were present in both forests (De Foresta and Michon, 1997).

The success of agroforestry is highly dependent upon the implementation of rural land reform policies and a shift in priorities at the Ministry of Forestry in Jakarta. In a case study of fire reduction near a protected forest in southern Sumatra, Suyanto, Permana, Khususiyah, and Joshi (2005) found that political decentralization following the Suharto era led farmers to feel more secure about squatter rights to their smallholder plots and made them less likely to encroach upon surrounding forests. The result was a rehabilitation of Imperata grasslands and the establishment of coffee agroforests. Given that 4 million hectares of land in Sumatra are currently designated as agroforests and that other than the rain forests themselves "agroforests probably represent the widest reservoir of animal and plant species in the lowlands of Sumatra," (De Foresta and Michon, 1997, p.115), reforming land tenure laws would probably be the most effective way of ensuring sustainable development and conserving biodiversity.

We humbly suggest that if Jakarta truly wants political stability within the archipelago it should start to close down sawmills, annul forest concessions, crack down on corruption, and institute policies that progressively give back to the Indonesian people the lands that it has taken. It should spend more time and money investing in the development of ecotourism and markets for non-timber forest products. It should make efforts to rehabilitate Imperata grasslands, to build what Myers (1994, chapter 12) refers to as "forest-industrial complexes," and to promote the development of emerging technologies like fast pyrolysis in order to synthesize sustainable biofuels. It should encourage the preservation of the vast ethnobotanical knowledge of the planet's richest and most culturally diverse human population in order to find and develop new medicines that will otherwise be lost forever. It should use the carbon credit trading system established after the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol to its financial benefit instead of contributing to the problems of air pollution, transboundary smoke-haze, and global warming by letting its forests go up in flames.

This is a tall order, indeed, but the status quo is no longer morally, socially, economically, culturally, ecologically, or environmentally acceptable. An institutionally corrupt political system that has committed forty years of ecocide at the expense of its citizens and the planet as a whole is no longer fit to govern. The needs of current and future generations are simply too great, and the future of many forms of life hangs in the balance. Indonesia's biodiversity, to the extent that it still remains in poorly managed, poorly funded national parks that are increasingly encroached upon by people driven by greed and poverty, quite frankly deserves better.

References:

Aumeeruddy, Y. & Sansonnens, B. (1994). Shifting from simple to complex agroforestry systems: an example for buffer zone management from Kerinci (Sumatra, Indonesia). Agroforestry Systems 28 (2), 113-141.

De Foresta, H. & Michon, G. (1997). The agroforest alternative to Imperata grasslands: When smallholder agriculture and forestry reach sustainability. Agroforestry Systems 36 (1-3), 105-120.

Gillison, A.N., Liswanti, N, & Rachman, I.A. (1996). Rapid ecological assessment: Kerinci Seblat National Park buffer zone. Working paper no. 14. Center for International Forestry Research: Bogor, Indonesia. Retrieved October 4, 2006 from http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/WPapers/WP-14.pdf

Griffiths, M. & Van Shaik, C.P. (1993). The impact of human traffic on the abundance and activity periods of Sumatran rain forest wildlife. Conservation Biology 7 (3), 623-626.

Kinnaird, M.F., Sanderson, E.W., O'Brien, T.G., Wibisono, H.T., & Woolmer, G. (2003). Deforestation trends in a tropical landscape and implications for endangered wild animals. Conservation Biology 17 (1), 245-257.

Linkie, M., Smith, R.J. & Leader-Williams, N. (2004) Mapping and predicting deforestation patterns in the lowlands of Sumatra. Biodiversity and Conservation 13 (10), 1809-1818.

McCarthy, J.F. (2002). Power and interest in Sumatra's rainforest frontier: Clientelist coalitions, illegal logging, and conservation in the Alas Valley. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 33 (1), 77-106.

McCarthy, J.F. (2002). Turning in circles: District governance, illegal logging, and environmental decline in Sumatra, Indonesia. Society and Natural Resources 15 (10), 867-886.

Murniati, Garrity, D.P, & Gintings, A.N. (2001). The contribution of agroforestry systems to reducing farmers' dependence on the resources of adjacent national parks: A case study from Sumatra, Indonesia. Agroforestry Systems 52 (3), 171-184.

Myers, N. (1992). The primary source. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Stone, R.D. & D'Andrea, C. (2001). Tropical forests and the human spirit. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Suyanto, S., Permana, R.P., Khususiyah, N., & Joshi, L. (2005) Land tenure, agroforestry adoption, and reduction of fire hazard in a forest zone: A case study from Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia. Agroforestry Systems 65 (1), 1-11.

Thiollay, J.-M. (1995). The role of traditional agroforest in the conservation of rain forest bird diversity in Sumatra. Conservation Biology 9 (2), 335-353.

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