Indigenous Ngata Toro community pushes for expanded participation in Indonesia's national park management
In the heart of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, the Ngata Toro Indigenous community is making strides in sustainable land management and biodiversity conservation within the Lore Lindu National Park.
The Ngata Toro, who reside in a valley surrounded by mountains and forest, have been granted official recognition by the regional government in 2018. This recognition guarantees legal protection and access to their customary land. The community manages their territory by dividing the land into several zones, prohibiting exploitation and farming, apart from in secondary forests or less steep foothills.
Indonesia, one of the world's most biodiverse countries, has the world's third-largest area of rainforest. However, the province of Central Sulawesi has lost more than 140,000 hectares of forest between 2013 and 2022 due to mining and farming. The Lore Lindu National Park, spanning over 300,000 hectares, is an important ecosystem for animals and plants like tarsius, babirusas, hornbills, and various orchids.
Andreas Lagimpu, a 70-year-old elder who sits on the Ngata Toro Indigenous Council, stated that the centuries-old practices of the Ngata Toro could provide a model for sustainable land management and protecting nature. The community also imposes moratoriums on certain commodities to give trees the time to regrow and encourage crop diversification.
Said Tolao, a 76-year-old member of the Ngata Toro Indigenous community, has been a forest guard for more than half a century. Tolao patrols the Lore Lindu National Park, reporting illegal logging and farming to his Indigenous Council. Despite the challenges, the park's Director, Titik Wurdiningsih, acknowledges the need for more resources to effectively guard the park, with only 18 forest rangers in almost 300,000 hectares.
In 2021, 170 delegations, including Indonesia, agreed on an expanded role for Indigenous peoples to protect biodiversity during the United Nations COP16 conference on nature and biodiversity. The long-awaited Indigenous Peoples bill in Indonesia must be passed to grant legal protection for Indigenous peoples for their involvement in conservation.
The Ngata Toro are still campaigning for the return of the remaining 7,300 hectares of their requested forest area. Only 1,747 hectares of forests were handed over to the Ngata Toro from the Lore Lindu National Park in 2021, despite a request made in 1995 for 9,000 hectares.
This year marks the fifth of an eight-year moratorium on growing rattan in the region, a commodity that the Ngata Toro have imposed a moratorium on. The Ngata Toro's forests store nearly 300 billion metric tons of carbon, making their conservation efforts crucial in the global fight against climate change.
The story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charitable organization that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women's rights, trafficking, and property rights.
