Hopes fade for Sabo village after resettlement plan fails

National News - July 19, 2006

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Tojo Una Una, Central Sulawesi

Sabo village is located in a remote coastal area of Ampana Tete district in Tojo Una Una regency, some 400 kilometers east of Central Sulawesi's capital of Palu. It has a population of 965, 98.3 percent of whom are farmers.

Sabo village chief Yakob Rahman recently expressed concern about the welfare of his people, two-thirds of whom live in poverty. Some are evacuees from a natural disaster on Mount Colo, Una Una island, in 1983, and the others are new arrivals.

According to Yakob, who teaches the Koran, residents were looking forward to a transmigration program offered by the government due to high poverty rate in the village. They were hoping that the program would pave the way for a better future.

However, nearly three years after the plan was announced, hopes began to fade. Then PT Persada Bahari Aditama (PT PBA), the company appointed by the government to execute the program arrived in the area, reviving people's hopes.

A year passed, but PT PBA had not begun work on the allocated transmigration site. Residents began to suspect that the company was using the proposed transmigration program as a smokescreen to appropriate timber from Sabo.

Since it was evident that the company had been carrying out logging outside the transmigration site, residents reported the matter to the Tojo Una Una Forestry Office which then halted the logging activities and seized some timber.

"We have stopped the company from conducting logging beyond the transmigration area because we deem it illegal," office head Ramang Muslaini told The Jakarta Post recently.

It was later learned that the forestry ministry had not issued the company a forest conversion permit. However, the company continued to carry out logging outside the transmigration area.

When problems were to arise later, PT PBA would simply leave the area and take the logged timber with it.

However, Tojo Una Una Police soon caught on and have put an end to the illegal exploitation of the forest and seized the timber.

Sabo residents can forget about their hopes of working in a cacao plantation now.

Ecologically, the prospective transmigration site is deemed unsuitable as it borders Mount Lumut forest reserve and the upper reaches of the river which is a catchment area. It also lies between Balingara river to the south and Balanggala river to the north.

Campaign director of environmental group Merah Putih Foundation, Badri Djawara, said that five villages stretching along the coast of Tomini Bay could be submerged if the rivers suddenly burst their banks due to the impact of illegal logging, with Sabo and Padauloyo villages likely to bear the brunt of flooding.

The Sabo transmigration program is a development project using the cacao plantation cooperative scheme, which would utilize 2,463.5 hectares of the 5,000 hectares reserved for the transmigration site.

However, it has not yet been approved by the forestry ministry. A study in 2004 indicated that 1,300 ha of the 2,463.5 ha could hold as many as 600 transmigrant families, and a survey in 2005 indicated that the remaining 1,156.5 ha could accommodate another 400 families.

The Central Sulawesi Manpower and Transmigration Office expressed interest in the plan, which the company claimed would provide training for villagers to manage the cacao plantation, and appointed PT PBA as project executor.

A staffer of PT PBA told the Post that the company had submitted a proposal for the project to the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration and had received positive response from the manpower minister.

In response, PT PBA later submitted a proposal for a timber exploitation permit for a 700 ha area of the 2,463.5 ha area, which had been issued by the Tojo Una Una regency administration.

It was based on this permit that the company had carried out logging and timber processing activities in the area and beyond the allocated area, drawing criticism from a number of circles and environmental groups in Tojo Una Una and Palu.

Based on observations, the company has built a road stretching 15 km long and 10 to 15 meters wide passing the transmigration site. At least six logging paths used to transport timber from outside the transmigration site with a width of three to six meters and 100 meters to 1 km long can be found, as well as hidden timber gathering points on each of them.

Residents and environmental activists in Palu and Tojo Una Una have reported the findings to the Central Sulawesi Police. Police are still investigating the case but have not yet named a suspect.***