Chieftain Ledjie Taq spoke about the destruction and attempted conservation of Borneo’s Wehea forest
By Alison Roach
Photos by Brent Loken, Integrated Conservation
On Sept. 13, SFU hosted an honorary Wehea Dayak delegation led by Ledjie Taq, chieftain of the Nehas Liah Bing village in East Kalimantan, the second largest Indonesian province of Borneo. The Wehea Dayak people are the natives of the biologically rich and culturally important Wehea forest, which is home to 82 documented mammal species, of which 22 are listed as vulnerable or endangered. These animals include the rare Bornean clouded leopard, the Bornean orangutan, the Bornean gibbon, and Miller’s Grizzled Langur, which was thought to be extinct until being rediscovered earlier this year.
The Wehea forest has been under siege ever since the arrival of logging companies in 1971, and later palm oil plantations in 1999. To date, 60 per cent of Borneo’s forests have been cut down, and the rest is in peril of being lost within decades. In 2004, the Wehea Dayak declared 38,000 hectares of the forest “protected land” under local law. Led by Ledjie Taq, they proclaimed that they would take it upon themselves to protect the forest their people have long called home. Since then, they have established the Forest Guardians, a group of approximately 45 men who are charged with reducing illegal logging and hunting in Wehea. For his efforts, Ledjie Taq was awarded the prestigious Bintang Jasa Pratama and Kalpataru Awards by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2009.
The visit to Canada was organized by Integrated Conservation, an NGO that has been working with the Wehea Dayak community since 2009 on conservation effort. Ledjie Taq and his delegation visited from Sept. 9 – 20, and spoke at UBC and Quest University Canada as well. The group was also invited by several indigenous British Columbian groups to visit their communities and discuss sustainable options for the future, meeting with the Sts’ailes Nation of the upper Fraser Valley, the Heiltsuk Nation of Bella Bella, and the Squamish Nation.
At SFU, Ledjie Taq’s talk centred around his personal experience as a Wehea Dayak watching the destruction of his native land, and his efforts to help halt that deadly progress. The presentation had to go through translation, as Ledjie Taq spoke in his native tongue. He painted a picture of a community under siege, saying, “We used to live in this forest, and we used to treat it like it was our life. . . . We as the inhabitants of this place, we do not actually enjoy the destruction of this place.”
He explained that the home of the Wehea Dayaks is now surrounded by logging companies and palm oil plantations, and the forest has undergone extreme degradation — the village of Nehas Liah Bing is now 70 km away from the forest, causing concern over the loss of cultural heritage. Whereas children used to grow up with the forest, the Wehea Dayak are now having to introduce programs to take children into the forest and teach them of their connection to it. Brent Loken, a doctoral candidate at SFU and the executive director of integrated conservation, explained, “In the past it wasn’t taught, it was just life. . . . There’s a generation of kids growing up without any connection to this forest, and it’s a huge problem.”
The talk also focused on several initiatives that the Wehea Dayak people and Integrated Conservation are working on, including the construction of the Wehea Conservation Center, programs of environment education for local children, and the development of an agroforestry industry. Ledjie Taq hoped to raise awareness of forest as a site of huge biodiversity, and one that needs protection. He stated, “We hope that university students who want to do research will come here, and we welcome you to do that.”
For now, there is a two-year moratorium on new logging concessions in the forest, but the Wehea Dayak people hope to create a more permanent solution, and a greater conservation area of upwards of 300,000 hectares. As Loken explained, “This is the only locally protected forest in all of Indonesia. The local communities have never historically had to protect the forest. That’s why this project is so significant. What Pak Ledjie Taq is doing . . . it’s a first.”
