PROSPECTS FOR THE SACRED GROVE Valuing lulic forests on Timor Andrew McWilliam · 2010-06-28 · PROSPECTS FOR THE SACRED GROVE Valuing lulic forests on Timor _____ Andrew McWilliam

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 2(2) 2001: 89-113 89

PROSPECTS FOR THE SACRED GROVE Valuing lulic forests on Timor

__________________________________________________________________ Andrew McWilliam

The long term history of forests and forestry on the island of Timor is

generally agreed to have been one of inexorable encroachment and conversion of

natural forest reserves into swidden garden lands and degraded secondary

bushland. The combination of rising rural population densities tied to near

subsistence agriculture, and the use of fire and cultural burning as a primary tool

for clearing, hunting and promoting livestock feed are put forward as the primary

causes of this long term transformation. As a result, much of what once formed

an extensive forested landscape has been reduced to remnant pockets of forest

vegetation and discontinuous monsoon vine thickets. The surrounding vegetation

thus presents a patchwork mosaic of high mountain grasslands, fallowed fields

and hillside gardens, hamlet clusters and degraded savanna rangelands.

This perspective on the decline of forest reserves and the continuing

degradation of Timor's natural environment has long been highlighted by local

governments and foreign researchers alike (Metzner 1977, Ormeling 1956, Fox

1977, Monk et al 1997 for examples). However, for a variety of complex reasons

the multiple strategies employed to encourage conservation, reforestation,

watershed protection, sustainable agro-forestry among other related programs,

have made only limited and partial contributions to overcoming this overall

picture of resource decline. Most of the efforts and expenditure to promote these

and related programs by the Indonesian government over the last 25 years in

Timor have met with little success. In both East Timor, and its more populous

counterpart, West Timor, the great majority of the rural population continue to

draw heavily on the existing diminishing forest resources for conversion to

upland cropping land, for firewood and building materials, livestock grazing

areas, as sources of natural medicines and supplementary hunting. In these

circumstances the need to develop conservation strategies to restore and maintain


sustainable forest and land resources is a pressing one. Continuing removal of the

forests in the watersheds will only accelerate erosion and eventually deprive local

people of the little remaining land that is of agricultural value (Metzner 1977:252-

53).

While these perspectives on the deteriorating conditions of forest ecology

across the Timor landscape would appear to have general validity, it is important

to recognise that they are not universally applicable across the island, and that

there remain significant, if limited, areas of forested land which have been

preserved and even regenerated over generations of continuous shifting

cultivation. The outsider 'discourses of degradation' (Fairhead and Leach

1996:113) which have characterised ecological perspectives on Timor, thus need

to be tempered with an appreciation of the role of local communities in the long

term management and reproduction of forested blocks and reserves.1

In this respect, across the mosaic of the ancient cultivated Timorese

landscape can be found a particular kind of remnant forest block, usually located

on isolated hilltops or clinging to mountain sides in the interior of the island,

which reflect local forest management practice. Varying significantly in size and

scope, these forest groves are characterised by their common cultural status as

sacred, or lulic forests by the local custodial communities. The term, lulic, is a

Tetum language word used throughout much of East and Central Timor to

describe, among other things, a protected or sacred forest area under the ritual

management of a local custodial community. The notion of lulic, however, under

a variety of names, extends to other language groups across the island where the

recognition of protected forest areas and hilltops remains a persistent if

diminished cultural value for the diverse ethnic communities of Timor. Among

Meto speakers of West Timor for example, the dominant language group which

includes the indigenous population of the East Timor enclave Ambenu-OeCussi,

the equivalent term is le'u, and a similar set of ideas and values about 'sacred'

1 I note in this respect that in recent discussions with Metzner about his observations of East Timor some twenty years after his original studies, he was struck by the absence of any significant change in the vegetation conditions over the period (Metzner pers.comm 2001). Thus highlighting the very gradualist character of environmental degradation over much of the island.


forest areas continues to be expressed, albeit in weakened form due to the lack of

effective government support for the concept or category. Ormeling's comments

about West Timor, though made many decades ago, still have contemporary

relevance. Namely that;

'of old there have been sacred lands or groves which may not be cleared. These groves are usually in the surroundings of springs and are considered particular gifts from the ancestors and therefore sacred' (1956:85). The continuing strong public need for the utilisation of extant forest

resources, the widespread failure of previous government initiatives to create

effective conservation forestry systems, and the persistence of an indigenous,

'common property' category of the 'sacred forest', all point to the need for new

ways of approaching an old problem of environmental degradation. This paper

explores some of the characteristics of the sacred grove on Timor and considers

the prospects for establishing effective conservation initiatives and the protection

of bio-diversity and economic resources within these remnant forestry blocks.

THE CONCEPT OF LULIC

The idea of lulic (sacred) in Timor is intimately associated with the origins and

ritual expression of pre-Catholic indigenous religion on the island. As Gunn

(1999:38) has expressed it:

'in traditional Timor it was the dato-lulic or rai lulic, community priest or ritual practitioner, who mediated the spiritual world otherwise manifest in such natural phenomena as rivers, mountains, forest and gardens. Animal sacrifices were directed towards ancestral spirits and other spirits who inhabit wood, stones and streams'.

Concepts of lulic permeated traditional social life, from the ritual management of

the agriculture and the monsoon rains, to life cycle ceremonies and the conduct of

warfare. A common key structure in Timorese society is the clan house which

forms a focus for the conduct of rituals among extended family members. These

impressive elevated thatched structures known as uma lulic (sacred house), or

local language equivalent, contain the inherited relics and assorted ancestral


objects of veneration. Membership to one or another lulic house, and the

prescriptions and observances of the house remains a vital element of social

orientation for Timorese individuals and groups into contemporary times.

Similarly, Metzner (1977:19) has noted that, 'because of the strong ancestral ties

which bind the Timorese peasantry to the burial grounds of their forefathers - a

place which is sacred (lulic) in the village compound - Timorese are usually

reluctant to abandon their hamlets'. Despite the significant disruptive relocations

of population across Timor under one or another Government programs, this

orientation to ancestral places remains persistently strong.

If one were so inclined to select a core symbol of Timorese indigenous

religion, it would be the ritually potent image of rock and tree. This pairing is a

leitmotif of Timorese ceremonial sacrifice and invocation to ancestors and the

unseen powers of the deity and spirit. Across the island, the rock and tree form

remains a highly charged symbolic cultural structure. It represents in different

contexts, the dualism and cosmic union of mother earth (rock) and father sky

(tree), the threshold of communication between the living and the ancestors and,

through ritual sacrifice, a focus for the articulation of social relations and more

generalised flow of life and death (for example, Traube 1986, Forman 1980). In

West Timor, among Meto speaking communities, a short-hand description for

their indigenous religion is the 'sacred tree and the sacred rock' (hau le'u faut

le'u). Although the great majority of ethnic communities across Timor are now

practising Catholics or support variants of the Protestant faith and ostensibly

worship under the cross of Christianity, the older form of ideas and symbolic

associations invoked by the iconic image of 'rock and tree' continue to resonate in

numerous cultural practices (McWilliam 1991).

In contemporary Timor, the extent to which 'rock and tree' ritual contexts

and associated lulic beliefs and practice inform and engage rural populations is an

empirical one about which there is little current information. It is likely that belief

in, and adherence to, the cultural practices surrounding this complex of ideas and

practices associated with the sacred, things lulic, have declined in importance

among Timorese communities. This is consistent with the weakening of the


authority of traditional leadership and the increasing importance of Christianity as

a nation-wide religion. In East Timor, changes initiated during Portuguese

colonialism in the administration of Timorese domains from 1912, the imposition

of the Pax Nederlandica in West Timor about the same time, the Japanese

interregnum during the 1940s and more particularly the establishment of secular

Indonesian systems of government (from 1975 in East Timor), have all

contributed to this transformation of former indigenous patterns of politico-ritual

authority. Similarly Catholicism, which is estimated to have had just 17% of the

population of East Timor as adherents to the faith at the time of Indonesian

occupation, had increased to upwards of 90% by the end of the Twentieth Century

(Boyce 1995:79).2 Other influences, including the widespread introduction of

secular education, the opening up of Timor through road communications in the

last 10-15 years, and the official disapproval by both Church and State of lulic

beliefs and practice, have all contributed to a disrupted or diminished importance

of the concept in every day life.

These transformational issues notwithstanding, it is also evident that

Timorese communities, particularly those living in more isolated conditions

distant from government services and administrative interest, have continued to

draw strength and resilience from ancestral knowledge of appropriate practice in a

difficult environment. Anecdotal evidence at least, suggests that particularly for

older generations of East Timorese, concerns of lulic, and maintaining a lulic

orientation of relations with the ancestors, the construction of clan cult houses

(uma lulic), ritual prohibitions in agriculture and hunting and so on, all continue

to thrive in variable degree across the island. This observation extends to the

continuing value placed upon traditionally protected mountains, hills and groves

where remnant forest blocks are maintained. Historically ignored by the

Indonesian Forestry service, and in some cases actively devalued and exploited,

the lulic forests and groves of Timor have nevertheless persisted as both spiritual

2 Having said this much of the significant rise in Catholicism, particularly post 1975, can be attributed to a combination of Indonesian ideological reluctance to recognize indigenous religion under the State moral code of Pancasila, and the fact that Catholicism became a political refuge for pro-independence resistance.


sanctuaries and as important symbols of cultural legitimacy, landed tradition3 and

political resistance.

THE CONTEMPORARY PATTERN OF LULIC FORESTS

There being no available survey or statistical data assessing the existence, let

alone the extent of lulic land in Timor, it is difficult to gauge the area of forested

land which is maintained under this unofficial status. Historically, it is likely that

all communities at the level of a traditional domain or cluster of settlements

recognised areas of land of varying extent and character in their jurisdiction as

'sacred' or protected against everyday cultivation or major modification. In

former times these areas were probably significantly more extensive than today.

Henry Forbes, the redoubtable English naturalist who undertook an extended

botanical collecting visit to East Timor during the 1880s provides one historical

perspective on this complex. He writes;

'whenever considerable patches of trees have attained the dignity of wood one may be sure that there the land is Luli - sacred territory- where, if he is permitted to enter, the botanist may not break or cut a single branch. These spots - often the highest peaks of mountains - have been lulied for generations, must be the richest store-house of all the most rarest plants and trees in their localities' (1885:454) .

Another more recent perspective on sacred ground is offered by Margaret King

(1963) in a somewhat romanticised perspective on lulic from the forests of

Lautem in the far east of East Timor. She writes of walking many miles through

thick forest and climbing mountainsides and entering deep caves, always visiting

new and varying kinds of 'lulics'. Sometimes a [statue of a] man and woman,

sometimes a man, woman and a dog; sometimes a ceramic plate, a flat stone; a

3 Over the last 15 years or so under Indonesian paternalistic government, many practices associated with the former ancestral religion have been re-interpreted as 'cultural tradition' (adat) and, particularly under Catholicism, are still performed and condoned by officialdom in the guise of cultural preservation and performance.


forked wooden pole and, in the depths of one forest, an enormous double alter

surrounding a giant banyan tree. Beside this alter, safely sheltered, were three

very ancient graves. This grove within the forest, was considered so ritually

dangerous, so lulic, that the Timorese assistants to Ms King would not approach

closer than about two metres, and then only with the greatest trepidation (1963:

148-150)

In the contemporary Timor environment significant areas classified as

lulic are likely to be found within the Indonesian government's official forestry

classification (kawasan hutan) across the island. Officially the area under

Ministry of Forestry jurisdiction covered some 40.6% of the land area of East

Timor (East Timor Dalam Angka 1992) and a comparable area (39.2%) in West

Timor (NTT Dalam Angka 1996). Currently in East Timor, the former Indonesian

administrative forest boundaries are still recognised as a de-jure classificatory

tenure which will be subject to amendment and modification over time.

Historically, the origins of the Indonesian forestry classification in both

East and West Timor derived in significant part from extant forest blocks which

are likely to have been residual protected forests under pre-existing indigenous

management systems. Ormeling notes for example that at the time of Dutch

transfer of sovereignty over West Timor to Indonesia in 1949, forest reserves

were fragmented into no less that 116 forest blocks (1956:123). While on average

the area of these reserves was 1,375ha, others were considerably smaller,

comprising no more than 'a few tens of hectares surrounding a hill or

mountaintop'. The very fact of their existence at the time points to a legacy, I

would argue, of local historical and cultural systems of protection and

preservation.

INSERT ORMELING p124- map Source: Ormeling (1956: 124)


Metzner's (1977:98) observations in the Baucau-Viqueque districts of East Timor

also support this contention where he notes in relation to the tropical montane

cloud forest above 1500m, which belongs to one of the few remnants of Timor's

primary vegetation, 'that this region is most likely to be largely untouched by

man, owing to its being lulic (sacred)'.4 Most land at this altitude would be

classified as 'protected forest' (hutan lindung) under the Indonesian system. What

is left of the forest today is restricted to the crests of a few mountains in the

central uplands (of the study area across Baucau and Viqueque) as well as to

swamps and patches around springs. 'Their survival has to be attributed (in) no

small degree to their lulic character' (1977:251). When the Indonesian forestry

classification system was transplanted to East Timor after 1975, it simply

subsumed extensive 'lulic' areas within its official State boundaries and thereby

effectively disempowered and legally disenfranchised the cultural communities

and their traditional rights in relation to these areas.

INSERT EAST TIMOR MAP OF KAWASAN HUTAN Source: East Timor Provincial Government Spatial Planning Map

For the most part however, Indonesian forestry classification is and was

not directly informed by considerations of local cultural values in relation to lulic

lands and therefore any apparent relation is largely coincidental. Across the

island, forestry land includes areas designated for production forestry and

conversion, both of which may have already been exploited and significantly

deforested since the period of administrative classification and review.5 In

addition, due to the official emphasis on slope, soil erodibility and rainfall

intensity as defining characteristics of the functional categories of 'forestry' land

4 The destructive bombing campaigns undertaken by the Indonesian armed forces in this area against Falantil resistance especially during 1977-79 supersedes this statement, but the principle remains as does its indigenous cultural status (see Taylor 1991:85, Niner 2000: 52-58) 5 The Tata Guna Hak Kesepakatan (TGHK) system of forest function classification was initially introduced in the late 1960's but was reviewed under Regional Spatial Planning programs (RencanaTata Ruang Wilayah Propinsi) and is likely to be modified again (at least for West Timor) under legislation devolving aspects of resource management to the Provinces (UU No. 22 1999).


rather than measures of extant forest cover (Monk 1997: 604, Fay et al 2001),

substantial areas of the forestry reserve (kawasan hutan), even so-called

'protected forest' (hutan lindung), may be completely denuded of tree cover and

composed instead of mountain grasslands in varying degrees of degradation.6 At

the same time, there are remnants and areas of important lowland forest which do

not fit the forestry slope criteria and lie outside the designated forestry zone. Their

continued integrity is likely to be related in some degree to their traditional status

as lulic land.

In assessing the current distribution and pattern of continuing lulic land

and its forest cover, it is also important to distinguish between a lulic grove and a

lulic forest. In one sense these terms are simply different ends of a continuum

reflecting the extent of an area designated by the term. It may also be the case

that they reflect degrees of deforestation or gradual shrinkage of the forest

reserves surrounding spiritually charged locations and sites. Some lulic forests

are hardly worthy of the name in that much of the land has long been cleared of

its trees, leaving only a residual, albeit symbolically charged, wooded grove. In

her evocative presentation of Mambai rituals and myth from the mountain district

of Ailieu prior to 1975, anthropologist Elizabeth Traube (1980:295) described the

great ceremonial centres of the Mambai speaking communities of the central

mountains in the following way;

Seen from the outside, these truly majestic, isolated knolls look like dense circular groves of trees. The ceremonial entrance is through the eastern gate…that leads into a tree ringed circle. Huge cult houses are arranged in this circle around a round stone altar, in the centre of which stands a three pronged ritual post. Located at various points about the altar are the sacred rocks and trees of the particular centre.

Extensive areas of the heartland of Mambai territory are, in Traube's words,

'strikingly poor' with much of the territory of Ailieu showing signs of swidden

6 A comparative example of this mismatch between the forest reserve (kawasan hutan) and the extant forest cover is reported by Susila et al (1997) where they note that 35% of the land area for Nusa Tenggara Timur, of which West Timor comprises nearly one third, is designated as the forest reserve, yet only 10% of the area supports tree cover.


deterioration and erosion (1986:27). In the decades since her earlier field studies,

conditions have only worsened. Large areas of the central highlands (especially

the Maubisse valley, central Ainaro) are composed of massive grassland

mountains virtually devoid of trees, save for remnant stands of native casuarina

and bearing the signs of former occupation sites and old terraces high into the

mountains. Rock and tree in some respects becomes a literal rendering of what

once must have been extensive forested highlands.

The widespread occurrence of 'sacred groves' are also found across the

Fatu luku speaking communities of Lautem District in far eastern, East Timor.

Here the notion of the sacred forest (lata te'i or lata irin) is closely tied to the

mythic origin places of local clan groups, known by the designation 'ratu'. They

form the sites of annual sacrificial ceremonies celebrating the unity of the ritual

and kinship based community. Some of these sites lie deep within the forested

hinterland. Others appear as forest groves or forested islands in savanna

grasslands and heavily cultivated garden lands. They generally contain ancestral

graves and stone alters. In this respect they echo the observations of Fairhead and

Leach (1996:113) in relation to forest patches in the African savanna's, where the

groves represent 'archives of past habitation and sociality, as well as a landscape

feature necessary for and shaped to meet present-day needs'.

In West Timor the contraction of forested knolls and hills is evident in the

heavily populated region of South Central Timor (Timor Tengah Selatan, West

Timor). Here, former important sacrificial sites associated with the conduct of

agricultural ritual are now reduced to thinning patches of monsoon forest and vine

thickets on the top of hills, with gardens and open fallows encroaching the upper

slopes. The old cultural value that hilltops should remain forested to keep them

'cool' (manikin) and the land fertile has, in many areas been reduced to a token

gesture under the combined effects of a gradual and cautious agricultural

incursion and the weakening of customary spiritual sanctions constraining such

activities. The process is evident across the island, also observed by Metzner's in

his former study of the Baucau region (East Timor). There he noted that 'the local


population, in sheer despair because of the need to obtain enough food for

subsistence, see no alternative to encroaching upon the land that was hitherto

lulic' (1977:270).

In other regions, larger forest remnants are incorporated within the sacred

zone of a major hill or prominent mountain. An example of this type is the sacred

mountain known as Datoi by the local Bunaq-speaking community in western

Bobonaro district on the East Timor side of the border. Extensive forested areas

are found around the lower and middle slopes of the mountain, all of which are

designated 'po' or sacred (zobu po - sacred forest). In customary terms the leaders

of the four 'great origin' clan houses (deu po) of the area share the ritual

management of the land and forest area. As ritual mediators of sacred spaces they

are authorised to permit access and use rights to the lulic areas for hunting and

collecting forest foods and materials, on behalf of the communities which they

represent. They are referred to as the dato tasmil, and in traditional terms,

complement the political leadership (dato ebi) of the cult houses in the diarchic

pattern of politico-ritual authority which forms the common ancient basis of

indigenous governance in East Timor.

Of interest in this area of Tapo settlement, proscriptions against the felling

of sacred trees extend to all sandalwood that grows within the jurisdiction of the

political community. No cutting, burning or damaging of sandalwood is permitted

on pain of sanctions both spiritual7 and material. Unfortunately these cultural

values were not shared by the previous Indonesian administration which

legitimated the logging of most mature sandalwood in the area against the

expressed wishes of the community (McWilliam 2001). Nevertheless, Tapo

settlement, and nearby areas in the Leber district of Bobonaro where significant

forest blocks remain, continue to value and adhere to the restrictions laid down by

inherited custom.

7 Spiritual sanctions are not codified or specified in detail. The is a high degree of indeterminacy in the lulic sphere. Sanctions typically emerge in the form of sickness or ill-fortune which befalls the transgressor or their immediate family as a consequence of their actions.


A comparative example of these indigenous perspectives from West

Timor are the extensive 'sacred' forests found in the Mutis mountain region of the

central west. Here ritual leaders from the origin community of Pit'ai recognise a

series of protected zones of forest that are still subject to sanctions and ceremonial

rights. They distinguish between the 'sacred forest' (nais le'u) in the uppermost

regions, traditionally under the control of the 'Raja' of the domain, and

'prohibition forest' (nais talas) under the jurisdiction of allied subsidiary clans

(Fina 1990:94-5, Djami et al 1996). Customary protocols and differential

sanctions apply to activities undertaken within these zones through the informal

control of designated ritual leaders, even though they are not officially recognised

under the legislative framework of the Indonesian forestry reserve system. As in

Tapo, the local authority to manage activities and ritual observance within

protected zones, is the prerogrative of prior settler groups or origin houses, which

claim precedence8 of settlement and overall custodial responsibility and

attachment to the land. To the extent that use rights are permitted for hunting,

firewood collection, food or medicinal plants extraction within lulic space, they

form part of the reciprocal obligations of related kin and alliance groups to the

resident origin houses.

The point here is that anecdotal evidence from both West and East Timor,

strongly suggests that the concept and existence of blocks of land set aside from

everyday exploitation with strong and continuing conditional access, and

accorded the status of 'sacred ground', continue to inform a widespread cultural

value over the island. Although this set of indigenous institutions has come under

significant pressure during the last century in the face of varied challenges to its

integrity, many of the principles and values which give meaning to these cultural

sites remain intact. They form components of a customary complex of common

property traditions in which rights of access and use rights are shared exclusively

by a defined group or groups of people (McCay and Acheson 1987:8). Lulic land

8 Precedence here is used in a particular analytical sense defined by the principle of recursive asymmetry in which claims and assertions of status pre-eminence and priority are determined to a significant degree by settlement origins, legitimated through oral narrative and ritual authority. (Fox and Sather 1996, Vischer: forthcomng).


is, by definition, an indeterminate abode of spirits and unseen forces which are

potentially malevolent and capricious for the unwary and incautious. Any clearer

picture of the extent and pattern of lulic lands and forest beyond this general

perspective, requires a process of formal mapping in both physical and cultural

terms. As far as I am aware there are no programs of this type being undertaken

nor considered in either West or East Timor, nor has the concept of the 'sacred'

forest been specifically integrated in any formal way within regional conservation

planning.9

STEPS TOWARDS A CONSERVATION FORESTRY

The persistence of lulic land and forest across the whole of Timor, albeit in

varying degrees of degradation and diminished integrity, combined with the

typical location of these zones of sacred space on prominent hilltops, mountain

peaks and incorporating remnant forest blocks, presents an opportunity for

developing regional approaches to conservation forestry and watershed

management across the island. It suggests a way forward in land management that

moves beyond the State based, one system fits all, agency management styles of

exclusion and control.

This alternative approach is one that needs to look to the diverse and

dispersed Timorese rural communities for partnerships and mutually beneficial

co-management arrangements of identified critical lands. It supports the creation

and transference of formal mechanisms of local authority and conditional land

management rights to appropriate 'custodial communities' over designated sacred

lands and forest reserves. Moreover it does so on the basis that indigenous

cultural traditions of ritual land management and protection, which have been

neglected and undermined for so long, provide a powerful source of moral

9 Recent efforts by NGOs, and the World Wildlife Fund in Nusa Tenggara Timur working on participatory planning and multi-stakeholder analysis with the involvement of government agencies for the improved management of forest reserves including the Mutis Mountain nature reserve notwithstanding (Fisher et al 1999:64-5).


authority and ecological knowledge on which to promote sustainable forms of

conservation and environmental management.

Under this scenario the need for partnerships or co-management

arrangements is vital in order that economically disadvantaged forest

communities have access to knowledge, resources and the legitimating

mechanisms of State authority to underpin their enhanced role in forest

protection. As Fox (1993:xii) has noted, 'few communities can manage forest

resources in a sustainable manner through a simple transfer of use rights and

responsibilities' (see also Poffenberger 1990:282). Typically their lack of political

power and marginality within the State administrative system leaves them and

their task exposed to exploitation by economic elites, and opportunistic

entrepreneurs, both local and external, creating conflict and mismanagement (see

for example, Kusworo 1999).

It almost goes without saying that a shift towards devolving significant

responsibilities for local land management to local communities, is one which

requires a major change in approach and shared responsibilities both on the part

of local 'custodial communities' as well as State agencies charged with natural

resource administration. As Tyler has commented recently in relation to global

aspects of State interests in natural resource management, '[the] challenge for

governments is to create opportunities for new institutions and processes

supportive of mutual solutions and joint responsibility, (to) redefine their own

roles and foster new ones in these processes...' (1999:279). For both East and

West Timor the significant historical changes in processes of governance

currently underway provide an ideal opportunity to move in this direction. In East

Timor, the opportunity arises in the emergence of the territory as a newly

independent nation and the requirement to implement new policies for forestry

and watershed management. In West Timor processes of reformation and

decentralisation of central government policy responsibilities to the regions offer

unique opportunities to address precisely these issues.


Under the Indonesian forestry management system, calls for greater

recognition and involvement of local communities in forest management have

been made by many people over many years. (Poffenberger 1990, Moniaga 1991,

McWilliam 1994, Padoch and Peluso 1996, Kusworo 1999, Fay et al 2001 for

examples). Dramatic inequalities between the massive economic benefits

extracted from forest exploitation through State concessions, and the continuing

impoverishment and marginalisation of indigenous forest communities have

become increasingly apparent over the last two decades in Indonesia to both

critics and government alike. In response the government, and particularly the

Ministry of Forestry (Department Kehutanan) under the presidency of Suharto

made some accommodations to the needs and existing claims of indigenous

custodial communities, but in practice actual benefits and the recognition of the

historical claims of local communities to the forest reserve have been meagre.

Local concessions in the form of harvesting or hunting rights were heavily

constrained or closely circumscribed.10 These problems reflected weakness in

forestry legislation as much as a continuing centralist reluctance to cede territorial

control. As Michon et al (1999) have noted, 'the legal mechanisms for

acknowledging local peoples rights over forest lands and resources remain

dramatically under-developed'. They formed theoretical possibilities under the

Basic Forestry Law (1967) but without practical substance (Moniaga 1991:15).

With the decline of the 'New Order' government and the beginnings of

reformist democratic processes in Indonesia, including the quickening process of

decentralisation, significant changes in policy direction and the relation between

centre and regional autonomy are underway. Within the forestry sector official

State recognition of customary or adat rights to forest management is emerging in

the dynamic new political environment and with it a growing acceptance that

past policies have (however inadvertently or otherwise) systematically denied the

rights and interests of a myriad of indigenous forest communities across the

archipelago.

10 For instance, the law covering hunting rights in forest reserves which permitted limited access to forest dwelling communities. Undang Undang Nomor 13, 1994 tentang Perburuan Satwa Liar.


The recent promulgation of a Ministerial forestry decree providing full

management rights to local village communities over defined blocks of forest land

is a case in point (Keputusan Menteri Kehutanan Nomor 31/Kpts-II/2001). This

decree entitled, 'The Organisation of Community Forestry' (Penyelenggaraan

Hutan Kemasyarakatan) is designed to 'empower' local communities over forestry

management. It seeks to develop partnerships between levels of government and

local organisations and communities directed towards the conservation of forests.

It also provides for a legal right of management (hak pengelola) of forest areas

through the mechanism and supervision of local (district) government permits

(izin) to defined local communities for up to 25 years.

While highly prospective in terms of the emerging shift in policy direction

towards recognising the needs for and opportunities of promoting local people in

forest management, it remains to be seen how far policies such as these are

translated into action. Indonesia has a long history of poor implementation of

principled policies, even more pronounced in eastern Indonesia where conditions

are very different from those in the west, and administrative management capacity

tend to be weaker. In this case the incremental emergence of policy towards

greater community involvement in forest management and the creation of a new

Ministerial Directorate of 'Community Forests' (Hutan Kemasyarakatan) suggest

that practical reform is nevertheless underway (see Direktorat Hutan

Kemasyarakatan, 2000).

Furthermore, legislation such as this is usually careful not to acknowledge

or accept any 'native title' or co-existing traditional (adat) rights to forest reserves

held by custodial communities. The emphasis is on a kind of generic notion of

'local communities' (masyarakat setempat) which have historically utilised the

forests and harvested its resources. Rights of management are designed to be

issued to a 'cooperative' community based organisation accredited through local

administration. While in practice this is likely to incorporate members of a

'custodial community', which is to say, groups with an historical and mythico-

ritual tie to particular areas, it does not specifically recognise this category of

community. To do so would represent an additional step in policy development


that may require further concessions on the part of the State to recognise the legal

basis of pre-existing or underlying customary law. Arguably this step is necessary

in order to ensure the establishment of effective local authority structures over

forest management; structures that carry a persuasive political authority and

legitimacy. However, it means a shift away from the undifferentiated 'public'

property status of State forest classification managed and 'owned' through State

administrative structures, to a recognition of the common or communal property

land rights associated with specific 'custodial communities' (McKean 1992) where

a priority or precedence of rights and responsibilities is acknowledged.

Recognition of local indigenous rights to manage and supervise defined forest

conservation need not undermine the States administrative authority but it will

modify the degree to which the State can act and benefit independently of local

custodial concerns. The challenge of negotiated partnerships and co-management

type arrangements between government and custodial communities, represents, in

many respects, a radically new approach to practical resource management in

West Timor, and the difficulties and potential pitfalls should not be

underestimated.

Recent studies in West Timor of the Mutis Mountains forest reserve, for

example, highlight the complexity of issues surrounding the development of

effective management procedures (Fisher et al 1999). The Mutis Reserve National

Park covering 12,000ha contains one of the few remaining pure and impressive

stands of Eucalyptus urophylla and lies at the headwaters of all major river

systems in West Timor. A series of custodial community settlements have for

generations utilised portions of the reserve including two enclaves within the park

that are formally excised from the Park by the Provincial government. Studies of

the results of participatory attempts to resolve differences and seek consensus on

a range of management approaches have highlighted the diversity of inter-related

problems and constraints (Djami et al 1996). Results of a World Wildlife Fund

program to facilitate improved participatory management of the park, for

example, highlight the conflicting policies and jurisdictions among key

(government) agencies, problems with free-grazing cattle within the reserve,


continuing disputes over reserve boundaries, and tension over land tenure

between indigenous local communities and immigrant groups (Fisher et al 1999:

66, see also Wiendiyati and Kharisma 1990).

Despite these difficulties in developing a consensus over the management

of forest resources in West Timor, the fact is that there are limited options

available for government other than continuing to incorporate the variety of

stakeholder interests, especially the rights and claims of custodial communities as

the effective basis for a long term solution. To date, the Indonesian government,

is yet to formally accept any management rights of these communities over the

Park, nor to prioritize the historical authority and claims of the custodial

communities in the Park. Arguably, official reluctance to take this further step

contributes to continuing public uncertainty over the legitimacy and clear

authority of the de-facto forest managers.

Prospects for initiating innovative arrangements for protected forest and

land management policies in East Timor would appear to be better, although not

without their own set of challenges. Following the successful ballot in 1999

against further integration with Indonesia, and the move towards full

independence, East Timor now has the opportunity to pursue entirely new policies

and strategies across its territory. Under the current interim transitional

governmental in place through the United Nations (UNTAET), formal policies

and programs directed towards natural resource management have been slow to

develop. However, as a preliminary step UNTAET has recently promulgated

Regulation No 2000/19 which provides a broad interim regulatory framework for

the protection of designated areas of natural significance within East Timor.11 In

the first instance the regulation establishes 15 areas of land as protected wild

places within the country, mostly covering prominent mountains above 2000m

and existing forest reserves. These sites are based on areas originally proposed for

protection under Indonesian law but which were never formally established.

11 This was preceded by an interim Regulation 17/2000 which prohibited logging and the export of timber from East Timor with specified exceptions including the cutting of timber for traditional or cultural uses.


Regulation 19, does make allowances for a variety of extractive activities

within the zones of protection where they are conducted in accordance with local

law and tradition of local communities living in or adjacent to these areas. Six

categories of activity are detailed, namely;

a) harvesting of non-forest products

b) selective grazing of animals

c) use of non-endangered animals and plants for religious and cultural

ceremonies

d) traditional hunting of non-endangered species

e) traditional cutting of trees at elevations below 2000m provided the

extraction is conducted in a sustainable manner and without the use of

machinery

f) any traditional purpose consistent with the intent of the regulation.

While these measures go some way towards recognising the range of indigenous

custodial rights which persist across Timor, precisely what the conditional

activities mean in practice is by no means clear. They fail to define in any

meaningful way, for example, the rights of custodial communities whose

historical claims and responsibilities cover defined areas of land. There is no

definition of the term 'traditional' and there is evidently considerable leeway and

uncertainty over the matter of defining customary access and permitted extraction

rates. At the same time there is as yet no clear administrative program in place to

undertake any management or policing of these areas.

Given the financial constraints that any future East Timorese national

government will inevitably face, and therefore the limited resources that may be

available to undertake forestry management in any meaningful sense,12 it would

seem logical to extend the participation of local people in protected area

utilisation well beyond limited rights of exploitation. Such a shift, however, may

12 Planned core staffing of a future National Forestry service is just 21 under the planned interim budgets for East Timor compared to 153 under Indonesian rule. Similarly just 8% of the development budget (2000-02) of around US$300m is allocated for agriculture of which forestry makes up a small portion (Saldhana 2000:274).


well have to wait until a national Timorese government is elected in order to fully

explore the policy and legislative options.

Without predicting the kind of policy directions that future government

policies in West and East Timor might take, it is evident that in both regions a

similar set of constraints or challenges to innovation and joint management

arrangements remain apparent. On the question of improved management of

sacred lands two aspects of indigenous interests are specifically highlighted.

The first of these constraints revolves around the identification and formal

recognition of what I have termed 'custodial communities'. In both East and West

Timor, although particularly pronounced in the east, the sustained Indonesian

government policy promoting re-settlement of isolated mountain communities

into more accessible concentrated settlements, often far away from origin lands,

has significantly disrupted connections of contemporary members of the

community with ancestral lands. In the post-Indonesian era of East Timor, it is

likely that a substantial reversal of these programs is likely to take place, with

many people relocating to former mountain settlements. However, the continuing

contemporary dispersed nature of these communities makes identification and

coordination particularly difficult. Problems and issues over land management

rights, claims and responsibilities, inter and intra-group rivalries are likely to be

heightened in these circumstances. At the same time one feature of custodial

communities in relation to lulic lands which facilitates identification, is the

likelihood of a significant degree of consensus about who or which local groups

are accorded precedence in terms of custodial authority. This is unlike other

resource areas such as range-lands or extensive common-access hunting grounds

where rights are invariably contested and multi-layered. Lulic lands are

constituted in myth and history of settlement, and in this context the core 'houses'

of the custodial communities, if not the extent of their membership, will

frequently be beyond dispute.

Secondly and assuming the possibility of mapping clear traditional rights

and custodial authority over identified 'sacred' lands, (a challenge which should


not be underestimated), the issue of what kinds of activities might be permitted

within them, remains to be resolved. The nature of lulic land is basically

protectionist and non-interventionist in character. That is to say, modification,

extraction or exploitation within the sacred sphere or area is customarily heavily

proscribed or at least restricted and regulated with attendant spiritual and secular

sanctions. Collaborative programs which seek to re-plant, re-afforest, ban

firewood collection or hunting and otherwise change the existing conditions of

these protected areas, may well meet with community resistance. This potential

constraint, however, only underscores the need to pursue forest and land

conservation programs with full consultation, and indeed under the planning and

direction of custodial communities. The likely high degree of variability in the

persistence and strength of customary proscriptions and possibilities within lulic

land across East Timor, also suggests that a range of reactions and agreements

about conservation approaches is likely to emerge. Communities in areas where

'sacred lands' have been converted to cropping land over time, or deforested in

living memory, may well be more amenable to exploring collaborative re-

forestation, augmenting small forest groves, or other active interventions.

Adaptation and transformation of what constitutes lulic land and how this might

be incorporated within a broader government forestry policy represent potential

negotiated outcomes between local communities and State or non-government

mediating agencies.

It is evident that in East Timor, like the counterpart government in the

west, conventional State managed approaches to conservation and bio-diversity

are unlikely to form the basis for sustainable forest conservation. At the same

time the capacity for local custodial communities to effective supervise and

manage conservation zones of jurisdiction is constrained by their lack of

resources and formal authority to undertake a supervisory role in this area. The

logical solution appears to lie in forms of joint partnership and co-management.

The great opportunity for government in relation to lulic land is the existence of a

legitimating cultural basis for pursuing bio-diversity conservation and land

protection. Collaboration on the basis of this common set of shared land


conservation priorities can form the starting point for new approaches to land

management on Timor.

CONCLUSION

In contemporary Timor there are multiple constraints facing the development and

re-vitalisation of anything approaching conservation forestry and sustainable land

management across the island. The whole of colonial history including the not

inconsiderable efforts of the Indonesian government to promote re-forestation and

watershed protection, have singularly failed to reverse processes of deforestation

and land degradation which have been the hallmark of Timorese agriculture for

generations. In the absence of effective new approaches and initiatives the

outlook remains pessimistic for Timorese farming communities.

The main purpose of this paper, apart from shedding some light on a little

known aspect of pan-Timorese cultural land management, is to suggest that the

prospects for developing successful conservation forestry in both East and West

Timor, may well be found in the existence and persistence of sacred forests and

groves found across the Timorese landscape. At these locations there is a

fortunate co-incidence of conservationist objectives. On one side is the cultural

and historical values shared among multiple Timorese communities towards

protecting and managing sacred groves and forest blocks. This is complemented

by the objectives of State land management agencies which, to date at least, have

struggled to convince farming communities about the benefits of conservation

forestry and farming. Developing a set of common conservationist practices and

understandings covering the recognition, re-evaluation and re-vitalisation of lulic

forests may well provide the basis for more extensive transformations of agro-

ecological practice, but it requires formal recognition and support on the part on

the State to empower local communities and provide the necessary legislative

authority on which to assert responsibilities.

Adopting this focussed approach is no panacea for arresting the continuing

decline and de-forestation of land in Timor. Programs supporting improved

production and productivity of dryland cropping as well as more sustainable


patterns of cattle husbandry are essential complementary strategies. However, it

does offer a prospective avenue for creating more effective forestry based project

implementation in a land which is littered with failed attempts at rural

development. Specifically it has the significant benefit of focusing on areas of the

landscape that already are afforded a conservation status, however diminished, by

locally resident communities. In this context, negotiated re-forestation initiatives

have the benefit or at least, hold out the prospect, of gaining effective sanctions

against illegal timber extraction, unrestricted grazing by livestock, fire, clearing

and sabotage. These are all factors that have undermined and constrained previous

attempts and represent key challenges to the management of protected areas.

Recognition by the respective governments of East and West Timor of the

importance and necessity of community-based partnerships in the management of

forest resources is a necessary step towards their effective protection.

Recognising and supporting forest custodial communities provides an entry point

for developing a broader consensus of community interests and more sustainable

conservation.

NOTES

__________________________________________________________________

Fieldwork supporting information reported in this paper was undertaken during the period 1999-2001 under the auspices of the Resource Management in the Asia Pacific Project, Australian National University. Andrew Walker and an anonymous reviewer have provided constructive critical comment on earlier drafts of this paper.

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PROSPECTS FOR THE SACRED GROVE Valuing lulic forests on Timor Andrew McWilliam · 2010-06-28 · PROSPECTS FOR THE SACRED GROVE Valuing lulic forests on Timor _____ Andrew McWilliam