By: Syamsidar

A team from Commission IV of Indonesia Legislative Body conducted a visit to Riau to get first hand information related to forestry issues in the province among others issue on Kampar Peninsula and Tesso Nilo National Park. The result of the three day visit is revealed in Pekanbaru by the head of the team, Firman Subagio who also sits as the Deputy of Commission IV of Indonesia Legislative Body on Thursday, 10 March 2010. There are three main recommendations made by the team over forestry problems in Tesso Nilo National Park (TNNP) namely encroachers in TNNP must be handled soon, enforcing law against encroachment perpetrators in TNNP and closing logging roads of PT. Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper.
The existence of two roads owned by PT. Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper that is directly adjacent to Tesso Nilo National Park has provided access to encroachment and illegal logging in the national park. The Deputy of Commission IV of the Indonesia Legislative Body, Firman Subagio after visiting some forest areas in Riau said that the issue of the road has taken serious concern of the team as the road is assumed to trigger encroachment impacting the intact of the TNNP. “We will talk this on more serious way with the Minister of Forestry to determine alternatives for the company to close the road considering economy and social aspects,” Firman says.
Even though the team cancelled their visit to TNNP on Tuesday, 9 March 2010, the team obtained much information and data on encroachment in TNNP from the Head of Tesso Nilo National Park. One of them is the impact of the two logging roads owned by PT. RAPP namely Ukui Sector road and Baserah road on the trend of encroachment in the national park.
Encroachment in Tesso Nilo is done with some modes like trading the forest area to outsiders or to farmer groups on behalf of customary institution. Besides that the encroachment is also caused by the overlapping of license for palm oil plantation development with forest area. The team recommends that law must be enforced against the perpetrators that have disregarded the related rules.
The team also does not tolerate the coming of encroachers in TNNP therefore the encroachers that have occupied the forest must be handled in serious way. To anticipate encroachment in TNNP, government must propose budget to support intensive park security patrol at the national level.
In a discussion conducted previously with related institutions and community, the Commission IV obtained inputs that one of the causes of the encroachment in TNNP is the indefinite park’s demarcation in the field. The Head of Forestry Service of Pelalawan District, Mulyono explained that the TNNP delineation process cannot be completed yet as the activity has not been proposed in financial year of 2010 while in fact it is something urgent to be completed. To respond to this problem, the team agreed that Tesso Nilo Park’s delineation either in existing national park and the extension area must be completed soon. The team promise to discuss with the Minister of Forestry so that the delineation can be budgeted and completed in 2010.
In the discussion, the team also promised to take efforts to review the concession of Siak Raya Timber. Parts of this concession is actually planned for the TNNP proposed extension into 100,000 ha however until the decree for extension issued by Ministry of Forestry in 15 October 2009, the extension still could not be made over the area. In fact encroachment in the concession of Siak Raya Timber increases due to less protection efforts of the forest area.
Parts of the Tesso Nilo forest is designated as Tesso Nilo National Park in July 2004 with size of 38,576 ha through the Minister of Forestry Decree number 255 and is extended in October 2009 through the decree of Minister of Forestry number 633. According to data in 2009, about 1,553 households occupy the areas that have been designated as TNNP.