Dayak Tamambaloh Tribe

Dayak Tamambaloh is a tribe lives as a group, stays along Tamambaloh river and Labian river, across the north Kapuas Hulu. The tribe still alive relies heavily on nature and people always keep the closeness with vicinity.

Unlike Dayak Iban tribe or Dayak Taman tribe which still reside in long houses, the people of Dayak Tamambaloh tribe live in single house gathering nearby a river or a road.
Nowadays Dayak Tamambaloh is rarely found dwell in the long house. A culture of living in a long house has decreased as government suggested local people to build single house because of healthy reasons.

Indeed, there are some villages that still retain the tradition of this unique and old culture, such as Bukung and Bakul village. Besides, many traditional rituals have been unpreserved. It happens because of no regeneration.
Along with old age, the old culture is also getting older and eventually lost, while trust in the spirits of the ancestors and the supernatural, have been replaced by "modern" belief named religion (Catholic) which has come more than a hundred years ago.



There are so many cultures that have not been conducted by Dayak Tamambaloh tribe or rarely carried out nowadays.
For instance, the traditions of taking a bath in a river at downstream of a human's cranium, at the time of traditional ritual called “Buang Pantang” (Buang Pantang is the last death traditional ritual to release the sorrow of families who have died). A human's cranium that was used in the ritual is an enemy's skull.(Long time ago, ingenuous people hunted heads of their enemies. The head-hunting is called Mangayo).

Now, the head of the human's cranium is replaced with the head of buffalo or pig. Moreover, prominent figures decide not to conduct the ritual by using a human's cranium anymore as it is not appropriate with modern era, and it's totally against human rights.

Another example is Baranangis.
Baranangis is a kind of an old oral literature. It's a hum of Dayak Tamambaloh ancient literature language that is mostly not understood by its young generation. Previously, Baranangis was often used not only to traditional ceremony for talking but also to chat or to tell story to children, like this present, as little ingenuous people can do Baranangis. It happens because of transitional era and language.

Nevertheless, this tribe still maintains the inheritable tradition of their forefathers. For instance: farming, weaving mats, making farm and catch fish equipment, making trinkets and clothing accessories of traditional beads.

In the past, Dayak Tamambaloh used bark to their house walls. Now they don't use it anymore as it's taken from tree in forest. They are aware of the importance of forests for life.

Nowadays almost of all Dayak Tamambaloh can read and write.
One interesting culture about the tribe is Gotong Royong (working together. Such as: work together in farming and cleaning the environment).

Rumah Lanting, Living On the Floating House

No matter how hard the wind blows, it keeps standing on its shelf. Often ripple shakes, it feels like a beautiful dance of an earthquake. Such a long unbroken swell from a speedboat rushing past through the river, it stands still, tough and rough along-side the river.

It looks like a house, because, yes, it is. It’s a floating house, an unique abode which also can be found on several canals in Amsterdam, Netherlands that’s called woonboot; but for people of Kapuas Hulu, it’s called “Rumah Lanting”.

Lanting refers to some large logs bounded together on the water that is used by local people as a quay for their dinghies to be moored. Besides, lanting is also utilized as a “floating bathroom” in where they take a shower, wash clothing and other household stuffs with the water from river. People live next to the river side still use “lanting”.

But rumah lanting, is a dwelling. It also has several bedrooms, dining room, kitchen, a small toilet, and of course, a rather wide of porch in front and terrace. Rumah lanting is allowed to take electricity current from house on the upland, and the owner is also obliged for electric bill. From four directions: two in front side and remains in rear of the building, there are ropes tightly holding the house from breaker therefore it won’t be drifted.

On Kapuas rive, in towns of Putussibau, Kalis, Embaloh Hulu, Bunut Hulu, Jongkong, Suhaid and Semitau we find some “Rumah Lanting” are still use as residence by natives (mostly for them who are acquainted as Non-Dayak).

Instead of permanent house on the land, some people live in Rumah Lanting with the reason of efficiency that they don’t have spend more money and energy for cutting grass on the yard. You don’t have to buy a land to build that house, and you also do not have to pay any kind of tax due to the presence of rumah lanting nearby the river. But when the dry season comes and river goes subside, the owner should slack the rope so the house could reach sufficient level of water to keep it floating.

Surprisingly, floating house is not only in Kapuas Hulu, but also can be found in Netherlands. I looked at some canals in Amsterdam.

There’re some woody floating houses with some greeny plants decorate as if they’re not ordinary houses. But those were built on deck of the metal ships, while rumah lanting is purely from wood.**

Mercury Pollutant in Kapuas River Basin

In the last few years, the concerns on mercury pollutant of Kapuas River awareness have grown from the environmentalist groups as well as the whole stakeholders. The sources of mercury pollutant are from small scale gold mining which is considered as illegal.

So far, the efforts to prevent water pollution and environmental destruction are in failure as a result, the damage is continuous with no promising solution.
Kapuas River, which criss-crosses west Kalimantan province, has long been recognized supporting either conventional or non-conventional activities. Mostly, it has been utilized for domestic use and industry.

However, in 1998, since the economic crisis hit Indonesia along with the claims of reformation era, have made the local people considered that the gold mining activity in Kapuas River as the most promising sector to support their economy. As a result in the last ten years, the illegal gold mining has been dramatically bloomed.

In the gold mining process, mercury is used as the chemical agent to perform amalgam, which facilitates the separation of gold from the unwanted materials. Hence, Kapuas River is undergoing environmental and social problems due to poor mining practices and lack of economic alternatives.

Kapuas River is found crisscrossed the West Kalimantan and constructed from many tributaries, some of them, Embaloh, Manday, and Kapuas Hulu are located in Kapuas Hulu. Kapuas Hulu is the regency whereby the upstream of Kapuas River is located, while the downstream regencies of Kapuas River are represented with Sanggau regency and the city of Pontianak.

Hence, most of the mercury assessments were designed to cover such regions. According to the research of Mardan Adijaya (Centre for Freshwater and Coastal Studies, Tanjungpura University, West Kalimantan) and Takao Yamashita, based on data from the time periods from 1995 to 2003, the monthly discharge of Kapuas River ranges between 1964-9432 m3/s. It is seen that the flow is dropped during May, June and July, and its highest ranges appear on November and December.

This trend is crucial not only to plan mercury content monitoring periods but also to generate a reliable assessment of pollution load.Small scale gold mining by the indigenous mineral exploitation of the rivers is known as the common practices in developing countries. Bugnosen (1998) suggested that the small scale gold mining is mostly labour intensive which engages a large number of men and women, over six million world-wide.

It has been believed as a safety net in the current economic crisis. Most of small scale mining is unregulated and illegal. It is called PETI (Penambangan Emas Tanpa Izin) in Indonesian.The mercury pollution from gold mining and processing plants causes the contamination of aquatic and terrestrial resources by inhalation and uptakes.

The mercury is used in the amalgamation of gold. The contamination is come from the amalgamation process wastes and from the evaporation of the roasting process. No proper protection and care is adopted to guard against poisonous mercury.
Commonly, the mercury pollution of gold mining is viewed as the emission halo. The survey on the parties contributed in illegal gold mining which is conducted in 2001 reported that there are more than 449 labours and 100 investors involved in Kapuas Hulu.

The mining took place in Bunut Hulu river; Banut river, Nanga Suruk Village, Bunut Hulu sub-district; Tebaung river, Nanga Sebilit, Bunut Hulu sub-district, Mentebah river, Selaub, Bunut Hulu sub-district, Embau river, Mentawit Village, Hulu Gurung sub-district; and Embau river, Mentawai Village, Hulu Gurung sub-district.

Precious Kalimantan Wetland Losing Ground

Lake Sentarum National Park, frequently called the heart of Borneo, is the largest wetland ecosystem in Asia, covering 132,000 hectares of swamp and marsh. The park’s existence is so vital that the zone has held a place on the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance since 1994.
Located in West Kalimantan’s Kapuas Hulu regency, the park is facing a gloomy future, threatened by a plan to permit oil palm plantations, water-greedy and homogeneous, to develop on its perimeter.
The giant sponge serves many purposes. It retains water coming down the Kapuas River during the rainy season, then supplies that water to the area in the dry season, preventing aridity, and serves as West Kalimantan’s major source of freshwater fish.
Although people find little direct use for wetlands — un-navigable, swampy, and unfit for cultivating standards food crops — this terrain contributes a high degree of biodiversity of land and water biota. Wetlands also serve as a breeding ground for many species significant to humans.People who rely on fishing and fish farms for their livelihoods living near the park are concerned about the proposal to open up oil palm estates near the preserve.
Hari Sudirman, a resident of Sungai Lalau village in Suhait district, said he feared it could put an end to his 15-year-old fish breeding business. “Now we have problems regulating our water needs,” he said.He said he was aware the regent had not yet issued licenses for the project, which could turn over 18,000 hectares in Suhaid sub-district.
Some of the eighteen companies in the plan, however, have been bold enough to already start reclaiming land, he said.Premature development has also been observed in nearby Semitau sub-district, Kapuas Hulu.
A Selimbau community leader, Walidad, said he had been asked to attend a stakeholder meeting with residents, Selimbau district head Aband Sudarmo and employees of the oil-palm company. refused to put my signature because I disagree with the plan,” he said. “It’ll spoil the natural conditions and threaten the rare orchids near the Selimbau royal cemetery.”
Abang confirmed some 3,000 hectares in his district could host the new project. He said he was unaware of the size of the total area affected by the project across the regency and was only carrying out the regent’s instructions to mediate between the company and residents.“The outcome here depends on the residents,” he said.
The national park’s administrative head, Himawan Gunadi, said he had received letters from community groups opposing the oil palm plantations. He also said he would examine a map of the area affected by this plan, adding the park should be located far from any planned plantations, particularly as oil palm trees are water-consuming plants that should not be grown around the park.
“Since oil palm plantations will only harm the environment, I hope the plan will not be implemented and be further reviewed,” Himawan said. An ecologist from CIFOR, Elizabeth Linda Yuliani, who has been conducting research in the park for four years, said physical changes on the park’s perimeter — its contours, topography and spatial plan — could alter Lake of Sentarum’s role in the water cycle.
She warned such changes might reduce the rate of water flow, causing more mud to accumulate, and in turn lead to declines in the fish population. Mono-cultural plantations and intensive agriculture practices rely on pesticides and chemical fertilizer, which will also detract from the lake’s water quality.
“Based on our research, pesticides could harm at least 95 fish species in Sentarum Lake and then accumulate in the human population through water and fish consumption,” Linda said. Changes to the water system, especially sedimentation and reduced water flow, could lead to the extinction of 89 indigenous fish species.
The lake hosts 200 species of high economic value, including the super-red arowana (dragon fish) — a freshwater species which lives in black-water rivers, slow-moving waters that flow through forested swamp, peat-land and marsh. The water appears black because of the underlying peat, but it is clear and relatively free of sediment. If oil palm estates are opened around the park, 965.2 million hectares of peat-land and 128 million tons of peat might be affected, a low estimate based on the regency’s estate location map.
Peat-land provides efficient carbon reserves in addition to its role in mitigating the rate of water flow. Despite its role, peat-land appears unproductive. Industrial developers see advantages to making peat-land more productive by harvesting the peat and converting it to cropland.
“The local forestry office has announced that eight of the 18 locations planned for oil palm estates have been granted survey permits,” Linda said. She warned the Rp 34.7 billion annually earned by the community through fishing would be lost if the park’s surroundings are turned into single-crop plantations which rely on intensive farming practices.
A similar fate could also affect arwana breeders, who currently earn collectively between Rp 70 billion and Rp 145 billion annually. “Any mono-cultural plantation undertaking will change the natural setting, while oil palm and acacia trees are among the plants that cause the greatest water exhaustion.”
Source: http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20090113.Y04&irec=1

Kapuas Hulu to Conservation District

The idea of determining Kapuas Hulu district to be a conservation district is based on fact that there are various conditions of the existing condition of Kapuas Hulu and other external factors which can be integrative support to establish conservation district. It’s declared with the Decree of the Head District of Kapuas Hulu, No. 144/2003.
These factors include firstly, total area of Kapuas Hulu is 29,842 km2 in where 1,686,318 ha (56.51%) of it is a protected area (conserved area); secondly, there are two national parks in Kapuas Hulu; Betung Kerihun national park (800,000 ha) and Danau Sentarum nasional park (132,000 ha). Betung Kerihun national park is located directly adjacent to the conservation area in Sarawak, named Taman Negara Batang Ai and Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary.
It becomes the first trans-frontier reserve in Asia. Further this can be developed in the form of area-based development cooperation for natural conservation border in the region, for instance ecotourism and cultural tourism.
Biodiversity of Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum is a very valuable asset for scientific research and development.The responsibility of forestry management is important to be noticed. Geographically, Kapuas Hulu in the upper-stream area is important as a hydro-ecologically function for the downstream area as Kapuas river flows through five districts in West Kalimantan.
Protected area and buffer zones for the half of conservation area in Kapuas Hulu are included in the protected forest management unit IV with the total area 677,090 km2. It’s divided into two sections of protected forest management units, 12 resorts if protected forest management unit and 25 units of protected forests.