By: Elisabeth Wetik

Putussibau (07/06)-As an effort for implementing Heart of Borneo (HoB) initiative in West Kalimantan, the HoB Working Group (WG) of Kapuas Hulu District in cooperation with WWF Indonesia and GIZ FORCLIME held a consolidation meeting on 7 to 8 June 2011. The meeting was conducted in the Hall of Kapuas Hulu District Office and was attended by a number of related local government offices HoB in Kapuas Hulu. Besides aiming for coordination between Local Government Offices that relevant to the HoB initiative in Kapuas Hulu, this meeting was also intended to build understanding of the concept of sustainable development in the HoB area, national HoB strategic plan outlines the action plan of the district and the discussion of existence and HoB secretariat function in Kapuas Hulu.

The meeting was conducted in Putussibau, the Capital District, and officially opened by the Kapuas Hulu District Secretary, Drs. M. Sukri, M.Si. It began with the presentation by the Head of Bappeda Kapuas Hulu, Drs. Antoni Rawing, M.Si as Secretary of Bappeda Kapuas Hulu, regarding the activities that have been run within the framework of HoB initiative in Kapuas Hulu. It was also presented the progress and implementation plan HoB initiative by the Secretary of Working Group of West Kalimantan Province, Ir. Wike Yolanda, ST. The HoB initiative and Kapuas Hulu as conservation district was presented by Drs. Alex Rombonang,M.Agr as the expert staff of Head of District on Natural Resources and Environmental Management. Then the current information on the HoB as a National Strategic Areas (KSN) is delivered by Sy Usmardan, MUD from Bappeda Kapuas Hulu.

Kapuas Hulu District is one of three districts in West Kalimantan that included in the HoB area. As Indonesia's first conservation district, Kapuas Hulu supports the efforts of to manage the HoB area based on the principles of conservation and sustainable development, which not only benefits the community, but also for sustainable management of HoB area. Moreover, overall Kapuas Hulu District area is in the HoB. Therefore, activities based on sustainable development become the main alternative in managing the areas outside the conservation area in Kapuas Hulu. In this regard, some sustainable development activities within the framework of the HoB were also presented, such as the plantation by Forest Conversion Program from WWF-Indonesia, the forestry by the Global Forest and Trade Network Program from WWF Indonesia, and aquaculture by the Fisheries Department of Marine and Fisheries from West Kalimantan Province.

At the end of this two-day meeting, the HoB Kapuas Hulu WG and all related local government offices successfully formulated four main tasks of WG and a number of action plans. Four main tasks of the HoB Kapuas Hulu WG are 1) conduct studies of spatial and land use in the HoB area, 2) conduct studies of economic, social and cultural aspects in the HoB area, 3) reviewing the legal, institutional and advocacy in the region HoB; and 4 ) implement socialization program with related parties of HoB. Based on these four tasks, HoB Kapuas Hulu WG has also devised a series of action plans by 2014. For instance, related to spatial and land use, some of the agreed action plan is to accelerate the establishment of Regional Regulation (Perda) regarding the Draft of District Spatial Planing, strengthening the capacity in policy working group of spatial and land use, preparation of spatial monitoring and evaluation per sector, and support the accelerated development of demonstration activity (DA) REDD +. Meanwhile, related studies of economic, social, and cultural, HoB Kapuas Hulu WG need to do capacity building, data center development and dissemination of socio-economic conditions of communities located in the upper Kapuas River.

From the legal and institutional aspects, the plan of action designed by the WG is strengthening the secretariat, the establishment of a forum or a team of important ecosystem management in conservation, development the reference of sustainable development, and consolidation of each member of WG activities. And for socialization HoB program, two action plans are socializing the concept of sustainable development in various sectors to a number of related local government offices and private parties as well as reporting progress of activities and monitoring-evaluation to the Head of District Kapuas Hulu and local government offices.