The Last Warrior of Tesso Nilo National Park

Every time Hamencol, 54, talks about the encroachment on Tesso Nilo National Park, the tone of his voice rises.

KOMPAS/SYAHNAN RANGKUTI

Hamencol

Every time Hamencol, 54, talks about the encroachment on Tesso Nilo National Park (TNTN), the tone of his voice rises. The traditional leader of Lubuk Kembang Bunga village in Ukui subdistrict, Pelalawan regency, Riau, acknowledged he is very angry at the tremendous destruction of the village forest in his homeland.

He said the destruction of the area that serves as a sanctuary for the Sumatran elephant could be prevented if the government had not allowed the encroachment on the forest.

Hamencol is considered the last warrior protecting the TNTN. His voice always gets louder whenever he talks about the fate of his once-mighty village forest. Now, the destruction of the forest is getting even worse.

"The government is not fair. Why are the encroachers allowed? There is a law prohibiting [regular] people from destroying forests, but why aren\'t they prosecuted?" Hamencol asked.

He was talking to Kompas during a trip to several TNTN locations in Lubuk Kembang Bunga village, along with some members of the TNTN and Pundi Sumatra Foundation last weekend.

The number of people who illegally occupy the forest area has reached tens of thousands.

Hamencol\'s outrage about the destruction of the TNTN forest conservation area is understandable. In 2009, the government allotted about 83,000 hectares of forest area as conservation area of the TNTN. The size has now been reduced to 20,000 has. A total of 63,000 has of the forests area have turned into palm oil plantations. The encroachers range from local villagers to large businessmen.

For comparison, the size of the forest area encroached is almost the same as the total area of ​​Jakarta (66,100 has). The number of people who illegally occupy the forest area has reached tens of thousands. There are now nine villages in the conservation area, which was barely inhabited in 2002.

According to Hamencol, a father of three sons, in 2004 when the TNTN conservation park was formally established (before being expanded in 2009), there were only 10 families living in the Toro Jaya hamlet (administrative area of ​​Lubuk Kembang Bunga village). However, within 13 years, the population illegally occupying the TNTN has reached 2,500 families.

"Imagine how the government allowed them. No one prohibited or expelled [the encroachers] when there were only a few. The government is not fair," Hamencol said angrily.

The government should prevent such actions by enforcing the law. Hamencol never hesitated to raise TNTN encroachment issues in various government forums.

Hamencol often confronted the encroachers directly. In 2004, he reported a key figure of the operation, Jas, to the police.

He reportedly expressed his disapproval to a number of senior government officials such as the regent of Pelalawan, a member of the Pelalawan legislation, and to a director general of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Hamencol had asked the regent of Pelalawan, Muhammad Harris, not to issue identity cards (KTPs) for the encroachers.

"Squatters are destroyers of the forests who do not deserve KTPs," he said. However, the local government ignored the request. Now almost all illegal residents in TNTN have already obtained KTPs, just like other citizens across the country.

Hamencol publicly showed his disapproval of the forest encroachment when he was named the secretary of the village head election of Lubuk Kembang Bunga in 2007. He insisted that all the encroachers should not be allowed to join the elections. In fact, the head of the district had firmly asked all citizens to take part in the elections. "I was against the district head. During the village elections, no squatters were allowed to cast a vote,” said Hamencol.

Face to face

Hamencol often confronted the encroachers directly. In 2004, he reported a key figure of the operation, Jas, to the police. Thanks to Hamencol\'s report, Jas was jailed for 3.5 years. Jas had illegally issued a grant letter allowing the sale of the forest area.  Such a letter should be issued by a bathin (traditional leader) in the community. Jas was not a bathin at all and was not even a resident of the village.

However, Jas was working with the previous head of the village to issue the so-called grant letter. “In 2004, I forcibly grabbed Jas\'s handbag from his hand. In the bag I found dozens of TNTN land grant letters, which were signed. I reported him to police with the grant letters as evidence, and he was imprisoned,” Hamencol said. However, after getting out of jail, Jas repeated the same offense. He was again allegedly involved in the illegal sales of the forest areas on a larger scale. However, Jas no longer acted alone. He also used bodyguards that protected him. "Jas\'s assistants were very hostile to me. Once his men threatened to kill me," said Hamencol. However, despite the threat, Hamencol was even harder to fight.

He claimed to be unable to fight with his own men against an increasingly large group of forest encroachers, which have large funds.

He once thwarted the sale of 400 has of TNTN land to a businessman. Hamencol warned the businessman not to buy land within the TNTN area. The businessmen then canceled the purchase of TNTN\'s land. Unfortunately, Hamencol\'s action against encroachers was not fully supported by the government and law enforcement agencies.

He claimed to be unable to fight with his own men against an increasingly large group of forest encroachers, which have large funds. He had to relent. "A few years ago, I was only able to report incidents of encroachment, but it was never addressed. I was active again against encroachers in early 2016 after the TNTN Foundation established a village patrol team [funded by the Tropical Forest Conservation Act].

“When we patrolled the forest area, no new encroachment could escape from our surveillance,” Hamencol said. The patrol assignment ended around late October or early December in 2017 but he continued to report the incident of TNTN encroachment to various related parties. After awhile, the government finally established a team comprised of TNI members, forest police and activists as well as residents to jointly fight against the forest encroachment.

"To reach the location of the encroachment, we went by car for almost an hour. Then, we crossed the river by boat. We spent the night by the river. The next morning, we walked for an hour to get to the location. There were three encroachers, but they managed to escape, "said Hamencol.

Hamencol said as long as he is still alive, he will always support TNTN conservation. He still hopes that one day his village forest will recover to the condition it was in before.

HAMENCOL

Born: Lubuk Kembang Bunga village, April 21, 1963

Wife: Layur

Children: Rihas Mandiaras (college student in semester V); Mandala Hijratullah (third grade in SMK vocational school); Hami Analisa (fifth grade in elementary school)

Education: Elementary School, Sorek; Junior High School, Sorek