Case Study for Kalimantan

Location

Kalimantan takes up 2/3 of the island of Borneo.

The northern section of Borneo is taken up by the East Malaysian states of Sarawak
and Sabah

Kalimantan is divided into 4 provinces namely the West, South, East and Central
Kalimantan
Status of Deforestation

- In 1985, about of the forest cover was removed due to deforestation

- By 2010, more than half of the forests were removed.
Causes of deforestation in the Kalimantan:

1. Increase in demand for agricultural landuse

- Increase in agricultural activities brought about by population pressure in Kalimantan

o Population increase due to the Population Resettlement Program
o Many new settlers permanently clear forests to establish small holdings,
which are small farms where crops such as rice, vegetables, coffee and
cocoa are grown.
o As some of the crops cultivated are grown for sale. Some of the new settlers
are motivated by profit to extend their farmland by clearing more forested
areas
- Another demand comes from the plantation companies
o Oil palm is the common plantation as it is relatively cheap to grow and is
highly profitable
o Has brought high export earnings into Indonesia
o Growth of oil palm plantations has resulted in the massive clearing of
extensive areas of the Kalimantan rainforests (usually by burning to make
way for the plantations
o Between 1998 and 2003, about 10 000 km of rainforest were cleared and
converted into oil palm plantations
2. Growth of settlements, urbanization
- The increase in population will lead to more land being cleared for housing
o in parts of Kalimantan, people are moving from rural settlements to urban
settlements to live and work
o increase will lead to rainforests being cleared for the expansion of towns or
cities
- Growth of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, it is one of the largest cities in Kalimantan
and has a population of 400 000 in 2005
o a business centre for many national and international companies dealing with
logging, mining and oil extraction
o due to the growth of the city, the Balikpapan settlement has expanded into a
protected forest adjacent to it, which is the Sungei Wain Rainforest
o despite the forest being protected, its area was reduced by a third from
98.7km in 1997 to about 35km in 1998
3. Improved transport network
- Transport networks like roads and railway tracks are constructed to link settlements
in Kalimantan
- The Trans-Kalimantan Highway, which is 230km long, cuts through rainforests to
improve accessibility between the two cities of Banjarmasin and Balikpapan
- The transport networks give access to previously remote forested areas in
Kalimantan although the improved accessibility made it easier for people to destroy
more areas of the rainforest

4. Growth of industries
- Parts of the rainforests have been cleared to support the industrial activities
- Logging
o Over the past 30 years, the rainforests in West Kalimantan have suffered
from heavy logging. An average of 1656 km of forest, is estimated to be lost
annually through logging
o Heavy logging is the result of the rapid pace at which wood is processed and
exported.
o The timber companies speed up the pace of logging to ensure that their wood
processing facilities are fully utilized.
o Rapid deforestation is also worsened by illegal logging
- Mining
o A number of minerals such as gold, silver and copper are found in the ground
underneath the Kalimantan rainforests
o The minerals are extracted through mining and transported via roads that are
built by clearing more forests

5. Forest fires
- Between 1997 and 1998, more than 23 750 km of rainforest was destroyed by forest
fires
o Most of these fires were deliberately set by people
o Plantation companies start the fires to clear large areas of rainforests for
growing oil palm as it is a cheaper method than employing labourers to clear
the forests.
- Vegetation debris left on forest floor such as tree stumps and branches can also
catch fire easily during the dry season and can spread very fast