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Land dispute endangers Ujung Kulon's rhinos |
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Indonesia
The critically endangered Javan rhinoceros does not rely on the existence of mankind for its food, water and daily living. The Javan rhino also does not exist chiefly to cause disturbance to human surroundings and is not looking to be disturbed by species outside of its own kind. Today however, the matter of protecting these endangered 5-ton animals forms the crux of a heated land dispute involving humans, at Banten's Ujung Kulon National Park.
A year-long dispute has been raging between the residents of Legonpakis in the Ujungjaya village of Sumur, and the park management. The subject of the dispute is a 20-kilometer-long fence surrounding one section of the 123,000-hectare national park. Plans are that all the existing rhinos shall be placed within this fenced section for their own security and breeding purposes. The fence will be put up around the Javan Rhino Study and Conservation Area, or Jarhisca, and will serve as a new sanctuary and breeding ground.
Senior park official Mohammad Haryono said that ever since portions of Mt. Honje were converted into the protected Ujung Kulon National Park in 1979, villagers continue to occupy parts of the land within the region illegally. "Now within the Ujung Kulon complex alone, there are only 35 rhinos left, and all of them are spread across nearly 123,000 hectares," Haryono said. "This makes it difficult for them to meet and mate. We hope that by placing them within a single, protected site, they will mate."
"This site which will have the largest concentration of rhinos in Ujung Kulon shall be promoted as an eco-tourism site. It will serve as an alternative means for economic growth among the local communities." The government's plans however have not been accepted by locals in the region, who have complained that since the clearing of the land within Ujung Kulon, 31 households have lost their farming land. These families who have lost their daily livelihoods are being assisted in their protests by a group of students from Banten, who plan to make a formal presentation of their protest to the Directorate General of the Forestry Ministry. A spokesman for these students, who call themselves the Group of 10, is Dedi Supriyadi. Dedi said that the land the villagers worked on was customary, traditional land. "Villagers have worked on this land since before it was converted to a national park," Dedi said.
By Dianing Sari
Tempo
No. 44/12, June 26, 2012
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