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<Technology Needs for Lake Management in Indonesia - Investigation of Rawa Danau and Rawa Pening, Java> G. Present Land Use and Management of the Rawa Danau Caldera This refers to the area of the floor of the caldera, which is used in part for agriculture, in part has been abandoned, in part is a Strict Nature Reserve or Cagar Alam with a high conservation value, and to the adjacent catchment. 1. Lack of integrated management of the caldera Rawa Danau lies within a well-defined caldera, surrounded by a ring of steep hills. There is no integrated or coordinated management of the area of the caldera floor at present. Within the area of the caldera and its catchment all or any of the Government Departments may have a responsibility at some time, for a particular management issue. It is difficult to define the responsibility of particular Departments for management of the lake since the lake does not exist at present. The only realistic approach is to examine the role of the various Departments which have management responsibilities within the area of the caldera and its catchment at present. In most cases, this would involve the office of the Dinas of the relevant Department. The Dinas represents the Provincial Office of the relevant Department. The management of the areas of Cagar Alam and Hutan Lindung within the caldera is the responsibility of PHPA (Perlindungan Hutan dan Pelestarian Alam), the Directorate General of Conservation within the Department of Forestry. The role of the Forestry Department is so important here that it is dealt with in a separate section below. Management of the area of sawah is the responsibility of the land owners and of the village organisations. Advice may be provided as required by the Department of Agriculture. Where fish ponds have been created, these are managed by the owners, but advice might be sought from the Directorate General of Fisheries within the Department of Agriculture. Advice on livestock, such as water buffalo, would come from the Directorate General of Livestock Husbandry within the Agriculture Department. A number of kampungs lie within the area of the caldera. The responsibility for management of these kampungs again lies with the local kampung organisation and with the staff of Departemen Dalam Negeri, the Department of Home Affairs. The construction and maintenance of roads within the caldera are the responsibility of the Department of Transport, operating with the cooptation of the Department of Home Affairs. All other Government Departments are likely to have sectoral responsibilities within the area of the caldera. These will include organisations such as the Department of Education (with responsibility for initiation and staffing of schools), and the Department of Health (with responsibility for the establishment and maintenance of clinics). It would appear, from preliminary assessment of recent environmental legislation (Collier, 1997) that BAPEDAL (Badan Pengendalian Dampak Linkungan) would have direct responsibility for coordination of management of such areas as Rawa Danau. Certainly, under this new legislation, the office of BAPEDAL in the Kabupaten (when it is established), would have to be represented on the Board of Management of the caldera. Immediate responsibility for the management of an environmental problem within one Kabupaten may rest eventually with BAPEDALDA, Level II (Badan Pengendalian Dampak Linkungan Daerah, Tingat II), when the appropriate legislation is promulgated and offices established. This should not detract from the responsibility of other organisations involved in the management of the area. The role of the Department of the Environment, in this case, is much less clear. It has no direct involvement at present in the management of the caldera. Yet one would expect that this area, with its attendant problems, is exactly the sort of area which would benefit from a substantial input from the expertise available from staff of that Department. 2. Role of the Department of Forestry in management of the caldera The Department of Forestry has a defined responsibility for the area of Cagar Alam which occupies a large proportion of the area of the floor of the caldera. It is also responsible for management of the large area of Hutan Lindung (Protection Forest) on the hillsides to the north and east of the caldera. These form an important part of the catchment of the caldera. It is responsible for the conservation of vegetation and wildlife within the area of the Cagar Alam (which is a strict nature reserve). It is also responsible for the conservation and protection of any threatened, protected, or endangered vegetation or wildlife species, protected under Indonesian Law, which may occur elsewhere within the area of the caldera or its catchment. It is responsible, through one of its Directorates, for the control and restoration of any soil erosion and land degradation (Tanah Kritis) which may occur within the area of the caldera and its catchment, with particular reference to some of the very steep hillsides which ring the caldera. In practical terms, designation of an area as Cagar Alam means that the public is excluded from the area. Access to an area of Cagar Alam is restricted to staff of the Forestry Department and to research workers approved by the Forestry Department. The fauna and flora should be totally protected from human interference and abuse. An area designated a "Green Belt" has been created round the edge of the Cagar Alam to define a buffer zone which will serve to warn people that the area inside is protected. Trees have been planted within this Green Belt. In the past, the Forestry Department maintained a guard house near the Ci Kalumpang river at the point where the Ci Kalumpang entered the Cagar Alam. This has now been abandoned, following the removal of a number of kampungs and their residents from the area and their transmigration to other islands within Indonesia. A large area of former sawah next to the swamp forest has been left to revert to natural vegetation following removal of the human population from the area. Many of these people were living illegally within the Cagar Alam. There are still a number of kampungs on the north bank of the Ci Danau river and in the east of the caldera, which may be illegal, in terms of the fact that they appear to lie within the present area designated as Cagar Alam. There is no occupied guard house to control or limit the activities of people from these kampungs. The literature dealing with Rawa Danau from the time of Endert (1932), through several biological surveys up to the present day, records a picture in which the staff of the Forestry Department have been unable to prevent a steady deterioration in the conservation values of the swamp forest within the Cagar Alam and of the adjacent hillsides. This has been recorded in the literature at frequent intervals. It is not clear from the literature why this has occurred. In one case (Wind, 1977) reference is made to staff of PHPA renting out land in the abandoned areas formerly used for sawah, within the Cagar Alam, to local villagers for rice production. In this illegal practice, Forest Guards allow villagers access to abandoned sawah next to the swamp forest to grow rice. This allows villagers easy access to the swamp forest itself, and the Cagar Alam, undetected by Forest Guards. Villagers can then remove firewood from the swamp forest and hunt for wildlife, thus destroying the conservation value of the Cagar Alam. There is little doubt that the swamp forest in the Cagar Alam would have deteriorated after the drainage of the caldera, and that there would have been a continuing loss of the conservation values of the trees and allied vegetation. Quite feasibly the staff of the Forestry Department would have been unable to prevent some illegal loss of wood. However it seems more likely that this is allowed to happen by Forestry Department Staff who may not realise the significance of their actions. (Frazier and Widjanarti, 1993; Postema, 1994). It is less clear why the staff of the Forestry Department have been unable to prevent the hunting of animals such as crocodiles in the swamp forest. The killing and effective extinction of crocodiles from the swamp forest have been documented by several visitors who appeared to be able to see what was going on and described and even photographed crocodile hunts. (van Steenis, 1936). During the present investigation local residents were seen on several occasions poisoning fish with pesticides in the channels in the Cagar Alam. These appeared to be habitual offenders who received a verbal reprimand from the Forestry Department staff accompanying the investigation team. No firm action was taken by Forestry Department staff to detain the offenders or to ensure that they would be punished in any way for breaking the law. There seemed to the observers that there was no reason why they should not resume activities next day, or indeed, as soon as the inspection party had left. It is worrying that as the fish were to be sold for food, they could make the purchasers ill as they had been poisoned with toxins which would also affect people. 3. Reasons given by PHPA for decline in conservation value of the Cagar Alam A number of reasons for the decline have been suggested by various authors. The 1993 Report by PHPA and AWB which is comprehensive and detailed, details a number of possible factors mainly based on indirect evidence. It is important to realise that PHPA is the organisation which is directly responsible for management of the Cagar Alam at present and in the past. The factors mentioned include - 1) Presence of enclaves (kampungs) within the Cagar Alam conservation area. There has been extensive illegal encroachment on the original area of the swamp forest, as described by writers such as Endert (1932). 2) Conversion of swamp forest to sawah. This is related to the illegal encroachment. After the transmigration of many of the illegal settlers much of the area of former padi fields within the Cagar Alam has reverted to grassland and ferns. The former swamp forest has not regenerated in the abandoned fields. 3) Cutting of timber for firewood. This is reported by PHPA/AWB as being widespread along the boundaries of the Cagar Alam and along the rivers within the Cagar Alam. During each visit to the Cagar Alam by the investigators in 1997, several boats were seen with bundles of firewood. This did not earn any comment from the PHPA guards present on the boats. 4) Forest fires. These are not a major problem at present, and have not been so up to this time. In the estimation of the present investigators in 1997 the area is now at risk of major losses due to uncontrolled burning during "El Nino" episodes. 5) Illegal gathering of fruit, both from the natural vegetation and from exotics planted in the reserve by previous settlers. 6) Fishing has unquestionably had a major impact on the aquatic fauna. During the 1997 investigation numerous individuals were seen fishing by hook and line within the Cagar Alam. Several individuals were fishing with poison (Thiodan) and numerous fish which had been killed in this way could be collected by the inspection team. The use of such a poison will affect many other species, particularly invertebrates, in addition to the fish actually caught. The invertebrate fauna is essentially unknown. 7) Many of the fish species have been introduced. The impact of these introductions on the indigenous aquatic fauna is unknown. 8) Turtles, frogs, mouse deer and snails are all consumed by local residents. Porcupines, squirrels, bats, and monitor lizards are also consumed regularly. 9) Monkeys (macaques) are caught for sale outside the area. 10) In an effort to increase rice production by cutting down losses to pest species, all possible methods are used to hunt and kill potential pests. This includes shooting, trapping, and poisoning. A wide variety of poisons are used, including organophosphate pesticides and insecticides. These will have long term effects on the overall ecology of the area, as well as on any people who eat poisoned meat or fruit. During the 1997 investigation the almost complete lack of waterfowl was noticeable. On one visit two herons and one duck were seen during six hours in the swamp forest on the Ci Danau, and on smaller rivers. There was a general lack of terrestrial bird life on the rice fields of the caldera floor. There were no "scare" arrays of plastic bags or tin cans to discourage birds from coming to the rice fields. It appeared that the villagers did not consider these to be necessary. As birds are near the top of the food chain they are often most affected by the quantities of insecticides in circulation in an area. The nature of the food chain can lead to bio-magnification of the concentration of pesticides in the tissues of some species of insectivorous or omnivorous birds. 11) The possible threat from eutrophication, siltation and waste water input is considered, but not given any particular prominence. The importance of the input of fertilisers from padi fields is mentioned as is erosion from hillsides in the catchment. 4. Need for reassessment of management of the caldera If it is accepted that the primary management objective in the Cagar Alam should be to maintain and reinforce the conservation value of the area, then one has to consider how best this can be achieved. It has already been suggested that one of the main factors leading, for a variety of reasons, to the decline of the swamp forest, is the loss of the former lake and the consequential effects on the hydrology of the caldera. If the swamp forest is to be rehabilitated, then the water levels associated with the original lake should be restored as far as possible. However, it may not be possible to do this effectively in the area of the Cagar Alam by itself. It may be appropriate to consider the construction of a dam which would create a lake in the caldera as a whole. Such a lake would also serve to meet some of the needs of industry at Cilegon for increased storage of water. Against this background, it would seem inappropriate to continue with the present management of the Cagar Alam by itself as such a lake with defined management objectives would be far outside the limits of the Cagar Alam. The boundaries of the Cagar Alam are not based on any functional ecological attributes. The boundary of the Cagar Alam represents the line where it was considered that it would be feasible to protect the swamp forest, which mainly lay inside that line, from casual destruction and decline in conservation values. This is now seen to have been ineffective. Therefore, if it is proposed to manage the Cagar Alam successfully in the future, the boundary of the management area must be revised to allow for new management approaches. These include raising the water level in all or part of the caldera. It might be appropriate to designate the entire floor of the caldera up to a height of 100m as a special management area. Such a management area would include all of the swamp forest. It would also enable PHPA to have a direct input to the control of the water regime in the caldera. This appears to be essential. It would also enable Krakatau Steel to have a direct input to the control of the water regime in the caldera. To achieve this it would be necessary to create a new type of management body, responsible for the management of the caldera as a whole. 5 Administration and management The Rawa Danau Management Area could be administratively under a management group or committee established in the office of the Bupati/Regent. All parties interested in and concerned with the management of the area should be represented on this management group. While the Management Board or Group should be established in the offices of the Bupati it is not entirely clear from the wording of the proposed legislation whether or not the Office of BAPEDAL (under the Bupati) would assume responsibility for coordination of the management of areas such as the caldera, while responsibility for implementation of management decisions might rest with BAPEDALDA, Tgk II. There do not appear to be any Ministerial Decrees clarifying this point. The Management Group would also have to be able to influence the management of water in the rivers coming into the caldera. They would have to be involved in control of pollution by chemicals and by sediments in the incoming water and would have to be able to ensure that appropriate measures were taken to allow incoming water to be of good quality. This could involve such things as sediment traps on incoming rivers. The management objectives for the area should be defined prior to the establishment of the management group. The objectives should be established with the cooperation of the relevant Government Departments. These should involve positive interventionist management of the area as a whole. The most important new aspect of management should be to decide to flood some of the area of the caldera which was drained during the last century. There are several ways in which this could be done.
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