Why the Moon Lies in Kapuas Hulu

Once, farmers in Kapuas Hulu in West Kalimantan looked at the position of the moon to determine when to look for land for cultivation, when to clear and when to burn. But in the face of climate change, such timeless practices are increasingly less reliable.

Many communities of Kapuas Hulu still practice a system of shifting agriculture, whereby the cultivated area is regularly relocated and organize their lives around the sowing and harvesting seasons.

But now, their seasonal rituals are in disarray.

In recent years, the seasons have become increasingly unpredictable and local farmers need to rely on guess work to decide when to sow and when to harvest.

“During what should be the harvesting season, we’re seeing unpredictable changes in weather,” says Hermas, a Putussibau farmer in Kapuas Hulu. “So right now, the signs of nature that are ancestors once relied on to carry out their daily activities are being abandoned.”

Drought, insect infestations, failed plantation -- calamities have been piling up faster than flash floodwater in Kapuas Hulu, and for those living in the more isolated parts of the area, the going can get tough.

Hermayani Putera of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recalls when at the peak of the dry season in 2006, river water dropped to such low levels in Tanjung Lokang and Dusun Nanga Hovaat villages that it became almost impossible to navigate by boat. Meanwhile, their crops had failed and there was no food. When outside traders were eventually able to reach the villages, locals had no choice but to buy rice at a considerable steeper price than normal.

Fields are not the only places that are suffering from an unpredictable climate. Around Lake Sentarum National Park, a vast protected area of lakes, wetlands and freshwater swamp forests, increasingly violent flash floods have wreaked havoc on floating fishponds and honey cultivation areas.

That’s a streak of bad luck (or ill-intended divine intervention), starting from the global warming-linked 1997/98 forest fires that blanketed the forests of Kalimantan and Sumatra.

“For three years following the fires, there was no flowering and so no production of honey in the area,” says Valentinus Heri of Yayasan Riak Bumi, a local foundation. No flowers, no bees – and no money for locals.  

In the surrounding area, increasingly dry conditions have led to increasing frequency of swamp forest fires since the early 1990s. Local people have seen a major increase in fires from 1991 onward, topped by the 1997/98 fire rampage.

Local changes in climate are just adding to several existing problems. Clear-cutting for oil palm plantations and illegal logging, which have become part and parcel of any major forest block in Indonesia, have already caused major headaches, both for locals and their environment.

That’s bad news for two stunning examples of Indonesian nature, Lake Sentarum and Betung Kerihun national parks, both of which are found in Kapuas Hulu. Betung Kerihun, a hilly, often mountainous protected area with hundreds of streams and rivers, and a smorgasbord of rare species, covers a sizeable chunk of Kapuas Hulu (about 27 percent).

Along with neighboring Lake Sentarum, they are the habitat of some 1,000 endangered orangutans, one of the largest populations on Borneo. But both parks remain vulnerable to degradation, wildlife poaching, encroachment and, especially in the case of Sentarum, fires and illegal logging.

“Run-off from cleared land has affected the quality of the water, sending once abundant freshwater fish stocks plummeting,” says Valentinus. “This is why locals have resorted to drastic measures, using stun guns and poison in a scramble to get the remaining fish.”

Locals show surprising candor when it comes to pointing fingers for the environmental problems afflicting their area: they point at themselves. With populations growing, shifting agriculture cycles rotating quicker and quicker, they realize that their land use needs are cranking up and that this is straining the environment.

But when it comes to big damage, the usual suspects of course are the lawless oil palm plantations and logging concessions that bore into the forests with unwavering zeal. In this, the enthusiasm of local authorities for handing out extraction permits plays a catalyzing role.

That still doesn’t explain the gone-askew weather patterns. But what’s happening in Kapuas Hulu seems to be generally in line with climate change predictions around the world, namely a growing intensity and irregularity of weather events.

Locals need to adapt to a changing world. According to Hermas, areas that are prone to flooding are now carefully avoided for cultivation and the lakes are relied on less and less for fishing. “Lake Sentarum cannot be used anymore for fishing because of the water quality, hence there is a need for support from the national park to develop aquaculture in pools,” adds Valentinus.

Will such adaptations be enough considering the magnitude of the climate changes that are predicted for Indonesia? Unlikely. But it should certainly be a strong enough incentive to crack down on illegal logging and forest clearing.

+ Marc-Antoine Dunais

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