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Alue Dohong, Winner of the President's Medal for Staff Excellence

Wetlands International is pleased to announce that the Presidents’award has been made to Alue Dohong, head of the Central Kalimantan project office of Wetlands International’s Indonesia Programme, for excellence in wetland management and in
communications and public awareness.
For quite some time now Alue Dohong has been key to solving the problems in the huge area of degraded peatlands in Central Kalimantan, including the major disaster area of the ex-Mega rice project. In what was initially a hostile political environment
with daily negative press, the project he works on is now hailed by the provincial government as proof that development cooperation can work. The Central Kalimantan Peatlands project has rapidly gained international attention and acclaim.
Alue Dohong has been working for the Wetlands International Indonesia Programme for four years and currently is the local leader of the Central Kalimantan Peatlands project. This project involves a partnership between many different organisations and
has a very complex structure because it involves activities as diverse as fire fighting, development of health facilities, reforestation and campaigning for better nature conservation policies. Alue has helped the organisations to work together, plan together and share the lessons they have learned even though they had never been cooperating before.
Although Alue has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, England, he is a Dayak, born and bred in Central Kalimantan and speaking the local language. This is a big advantage in his contacts with the local community with which he has, among others, worked together to block large drainage channels in the ex-Mega Rice area.
Under Alue’s leadership 17 dams have been built in one of the most difficult areas to work in,using a community-based approach involving traditional techniques for dam building in sof soils. The drainage was causing huge fires and emission of greenhouse gasses. Large parts of the area have now been restored and reforested with indigenous tree species.
Alue also has a key role as Wetlands International’s liaison officer towards the provincial government and other local and international stakeholders. He has established very close rapport with the local authorities, among others by helping develop the Governor’s Green Government Policy, which is a first for Indonesia. He has facilitated numerous field trips for journalists and donors as well as the Governor’s travel to the Netherlands, which led to substantial additional financial assistance for the area. In all these missions those involved have been extremely positive about his role and capacity.
Without Alue Dohong it would have been impossible to achieve all these great results. He is a major asset to the organisation.

Saluran Primer Induk Perlu Dibendung

Kompas/Senin, 12 Maret 2007

Palangkaraya, Kompas - Saluran irigasi terbesar di kawasan proyek Pengembangan Lahan Gambut Kalimantan Tengah dinilai perlu dibendung agar tidak menguras cadangan air di daerah tersebut. Hanya dengan membendung saluran itulah, tata air di kawasan gambut dapat kembali normal sehingga program rehabilitasi dapat dimulai.

"Saluran primer yang dibangun di kawasan gambut tebal itu telah menguras air sehingga gambut kering, tidak cocok ditanami, dan rawan terbakar," kata koordinator program Wetlands International Indonesia di Kalimantan, Alue Dohong, di Palangkaraya, Sabtu (10/3).

Sebagai gambaran, ada dua saluran irigasi terbesar atau saluran primer induk (SPI) di kawasan proyek Pengembangan Lahan Gambut (PLG). Keduanya memiliki panjang 190 kilometer, lebar sekitar 30 meter, dan kedalaman tiga meter.

Kedua SPI membentang sejajar berjarak 100 meter satu sama lain. Saluran itu menghubungkan Sungai Kahayan, Kapuas, dan Barito. Semula SPI direncanakan untuk mengalirkan air dari ketiga sungai besar tersebut. Sejumlah kanal dibangun dan dihubungkan dengan SPI.

Air dalam kanal dimaksudkan untuk mencuci gambut untuk mengurangi kadar keasaman agar lahan bisa digunakan untuk pertanian. Total panjang saluran air itu sekitar 4.000 kilometer atau empat kali panjang Pulau Jawa.

Teori pencucian lahan gambut tersebut ternyata tidak menjadi kenyataan. Yang terjadi, kanal SPI justru menguras air dari lahan gambut. "Ini karena SPI dan kanal dibangun memotong kawasan gambut tebal, atau sering disebut kubah gambut yang merupakan penyimpan air," kata Alue.

Dasar kanal digali lebih dalam dari ketinggian air permukaan gambut sehingga hampir seluruh air mengalir ke SPI dan selanjutnya ke sungai. Gambut mengering dan rawan kebakaran.

Menurut Alue, pembuatan tabat atau bendungan akan efektif untuk mengembalikan fungsi tata air di kawasan itu. Wetlands sudah membangun delapan tabat di Blok A Utara, Kecamatan Mentangai, Kabupaten Kapuas.

Gambut di daerah itu tebalnya 10-12 meter. Dalam waktu dekat, Central Kalimantan Peatland Project (CKPP) akan membangun 12 tabat. Program itu dilaksanakan Wetlands International, WWF-Indonesia Kalteng, Yayasan Borneo Orangutan Survival, Care International Indonesia, dan Universitas Palangkaraya.

Alue menuturkan, hanya kanal di kawasan gambut tebal yang harus dibendung. Di kawasan gambut tipis (ketebalan kurang dari satu meter) akan diberi pintu air dan tetap sebagai saluran irigasi untuk mengairi kawasan pertanian masyarakat. (CAS)

Worldwide destruction of wetlands

Tribune/February 05 2006 at 01:54PM

by Myrtle Ryan

Wetlands - be they mighty river systems and deltas or peatland swamps - were on the agenda at a conference attended by international delegates.

The focus was on how wetlands could help alleviate poverty and how South Africa dealt with the problem through its Working for Wetlands projects.

Increasingly, though, these fragile sources of water are under threat as more and more impoverished rural people rely on them for a living.

To gain an impression of the problems other countries encountered, the Sunday Tribune spoke to several delegates, from a variety of conservation and development aid agencies.

The Niger delta is infamous
Forest fires raging in Indonesia often leave a pall of smoke over parts of south-east Asia.

Alue Dohong, a site co-ordinator for Wetlands International in Kalimantan, mentioned constant felling of millions of trees, draining of the peat swamps, and the construction of a gigantic system of canals. Trees had been wiped out in order to accommodate rice paddies, "but rice doesn't grow on peat", said Dohong.

Wetlands International is using locals to construct tabats, a traditional canal blocking system, using hardwood timbers. Aquatic plants are then planted on top of the tabats.

Wetlands International's Marcel Silvius said a very effective poverty-reduction measure in Indonesia had proved to be micro-loans to communities. In exchange the community planted trees; and in due course the loans became grants.

Kerala, in south India, is one of the most populated parts of the country. According to Dr Erinjery James, of the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, 75 percent of the population depends on open wells for their drinking water.

"With about 1 030 people per square kilometre, it is almost impossible to maintain the required 15m distance between wells," said James. As a consequence frightening levels of ecoli had been recorded. "Seventy-five percent of our wells are contaminated."

Traditionally medicinal herbs were added to drinking and cooking water; and the wood from the gooseberry tree used in constructing the wells, also absorbed pollutants.

Village communities were now taking responsibility for their own welfare, using the ancient Panchayat Raj system, said James.

In Ethiopia, Afework Hailu, of the Ethio-Wetlands and Natural Resources Association, said theirs was the first NGO to specialise in the sustainable management of wetlands and forests.

They had used a demonstration plot on the shores of Lake Tana to show the benefits.

"Instead of growing rice, then chickpeas, then grazing their cattle, we try to persuade them to grow just one crop, then rest the wetland. We also tell them to use the catchment area first, rather than the wetland."

The Niger delta is infamous for the problems posed by petroleum and mining exploration companies.

However, Ousmane Diallo, of the Niger Basin Authority, which comprises Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, C™te d'Ivoire, Guinea, Cameroon and Chad, said the inner delta, an area of about 30 000 square kilometres faced over-fishing, pollution, and invasive species.

Pointing to one of the negative effects of Egypt's Aswan dam, research scientist, Dr Wahid Moufaddal said the Nile River was no longer depositing such rich nutrient sediments in the delta. Farmers were using more artificial fertilisers, and fish stocks, especially sardines, were being depleted; erosion was setting in.

While developmental aid agencies were not heavily represented at the conference, they felt that with their experience on the ground, they had much to offer conservationists.

Mention was made that in Vietnam work was being done with local communities to re-establish mangrove swamps, which helped to act as a buffer against typhoons.

The Mekong, with the world's largest fresh water fisheries (two million tons of fish realising $2 billion annually) is under onslaught, as a result of China's developing dams. Dr Richard Friend of the IUCN (World Conservation Union) said farmers living along the banks of the river in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia established market gardens in the low season on the nutrient rich soil dumped by the Mekong.

They also relied on frogs, snails, and shrimps to supplement their rice crops, and farmed fish in their rice paddies. "Their livelihoods are fragile. We must sit down to find out how best to meet the needs of all," said Friend.

The conference called for greater co-operation between government, NGOs, and those living in or near wetlands. This partnership should, inter alia:

recognise the important role of healthy wetlands in poverty reduction;

empower socially and economically excluded stakeholders to share in planning and decision making with regard to their wetlands; and

improve access to funding for the poor through small-scale schemes that support alternative livelihoods as incentives that enable wetlands to be managed sustainably.

Masyarakat Cegah Kebakaran

Kompas/Nusantara

Sabtu, 18 November 2006

Palangkaraya, Kompas - Konsorsium beberapa lembaga swadaya masyarakat dan Universitas Palangkaraya berinisiatif mencegah kebakaran lahan dan hutan di Kalimantan Tengah. Mereka memperluas kanal di lahan gambut, membentuk regu pemadam kebakaran, dan membuat sumur bor.

Konsorsium tersebut, Central Kalimantan Peatland Project (CKPP), juga membuat bor di lokasi yang jauh dari sumur. Sementara regu pemadam kebakaran dibentuk di 26 desa yang rawan kebakaran.

"Kami juga akan membuat peta daerah rawan kebakaran di Kalimantan Tengah," ujar Koordinator Wetland International di Kalimantan, Alue Dohong, di Palangkaraya, Jumat (17/11).

Konsorsium CKPP beranggotakan Wetland International, WWF-Indonesia Kalteng, Yayasan Borneo Orangutan Survival, Care International Indonesia, dan Universitas Palangkaraya. Pihak CKPP sudah membentuk regu pemadam kebakaran tingkat desa di Palangkaraya, Kapuas, Pulang Pisau, dan Katingan.

Konsorsium membantu biaya operasional tiap regu pemadam yang beranggotakan 15 warga setempat. Regu itu diberi mesin pompa, alat penyiram, pakaian tahan panas, dan beberapa perlengkapan lainnya.

"Kami berharap, lambat laun timbul kesadaran bahwa pencegahan kebakaran merupakan kebutuhan mereka sendiri. Apabila tidak ada kebakaran, lahan perkebunan karet atau rotan tidak rusak, tidak ada gangguan kabut asap," kata Alue.

Sedangkan sumur bor sudah dibuat di Tumbang Nusa dan Taruna, Kabupaten Pulang Pisau, serta Mentangai, Kabupaten Kapuas. Sumur air memudahkan pemadaman di kawasan gambut yang kedalaman air tanahnya turun atau jauh dari sumber air. Selama ini tim pemadam tidak mampu mengatasi kebakaran di kawasan gambut yang lokasinya jauh dari parit atau sumber air. Dampaknya adalah munculnya kabut asap.

Libatkan masyarakat

Sementara itu, di Lampung, masyarakat sekitar kawasan akan dilibatkan dalam penyelamatan dan pencegahan kebakaran di Taman Nasional Way Kambas (TNWK). Hal itu dilakukan karena hampir tiap tahun terjadi kebakaran di TNWK.

Kepala Subdinas Perlindungan Hutan Dinas Kehutanan Lampung Sutono, Jumat, mengatakan, pelibatan itu untuk mencegah adanya jarak antara masyarakat dan TNWK. Masyarakat boleh masuk ke kawasan dengan surat izin khusus. Langkah ini dinilai efektif karena tahun 2004 tidak terjadi kebakaran di kawasan itu.

Catatan di Dinas Kehutanan Lampung, kebakaran terluas terjadi 1991, membakar habis area 36.247 hektar (ha). Adapun kebakaran 2005 meliputi 341 ha. "Kemungkinan, kebakaran 2006 ini lebih dari 2005," katanya.

Kemungkinan, tambah Sutono, masyarakat yang sakit hati karena anggota keluarganya ditangkap tanpa ada alasan yang jelas, telah sengaja membakar lahan.

Kepala Balai TNWK Mega Haryanto secara terpisah mengatakan, pelibatan masyarakat untuk mengelola kawasan sudah dilakukan sejak tiga tahun lalu. Namun, sekarang hubungan TNWK dengan masyarakat sekitar perlu ditingkatkan lagi. Dilaporkan, kemarin pagi hingga sore tidak terlihat lagi. (CAS/HLN)

Sichuan Province-China

Provinsi Yala - Thailand