Aketajawe Forest: Quiet Home of Tobelo Dalam Tribe

For nearly a month Mama Fani has been roaming through Aketajawe Forest, seeking the resin of the damar tree (Agathis dammara) and a wild boar or a deer. Empty-handed, she, her three children and her loyal dogs decided to go home.

The resin and deer are becoming increasingly difficult to find. The situation has forced the Togutil people, also known as the Tobelo Dalam tribespeople, to venture deeper into the forest. Mama Fani and her family walk every day. The longest journey they have taken lasted seven consecutive days.

She brought cooking utensils such as plastic pots and jerry cans for carrying water as part of her provisions for surviving in the forest. For hunting, they use bows and arrows, sharp spears and machetes. Traps for catching pigs or deer are laid in several locations in the forest. The family’s loyal dogs accompany them wherever they go. At the very least, they can rely on the dogs’ sense of smell to track prey.

They can sell the damar gum for Rp 6,000 (40 US cents) per kilogram, while pork or deer jerky sells for Rp 25,000 per kilogram. They use the money they make from selling the gum and meat to buy biscuits and milk for the children, or sometimes rice and vegetables.

"If there is no gum or meat to sell, we eat sago with roasted shredded coconut. Sometimes bananas, sweet potatoes, or fresh fish caught in the river," Mama Fani said when we met her at the edge of the forest at the end of March in Aketajawe Lolobata National Park in Halmahera, North Maluku.

Meshak Konoras, one of the tribal leaders of the Tobelo Dalam that live in Koli village of Oba district, laying within the Tayawi Resort area of Aketajawe Lolobata National Park, explained that the tribe also cultivated cassava, bananas and sweet potatoes as staple foods. If the yield was good, they sell the produce at the village market. However, because growing and processing sago takes a long time, some Tobelo Dalem people had switched to rice.

The book Etnokonservasi Keanekaragaman Hayati, Perspektif Konservasi Berbasis Kearifan Lokal Suku Tobelo Dalam (Togutil) [Ethnoconservation of biodiversity, a view to conservation based on the local wisdom of Tobelo Dalam tribe (Togutil), Plantaxia, 2016] by M Nasir Tamalene, Mimien Henie Irawati Almuhdhar, Endang Suarsini and Fatchur Rohman, mentions that it is feared that the local traditional foods are extinct. With them, the local knowledge of managing and using endemic food crops would

also vanish. In fact, local foods are more readily available and suit the cultural traditions of the Tobelo Dalam tribe.

Jamal Adam, a Aketajawe Lolobata park ranger, said at least 17 Tobelo Dalam families lived on the banks of the river. Even though they had settled down in the area, their houses still looked like those of a nomadic or migratory community: an open-wall structure with roofs made from woka (fan palm) leaves and a wooden floor.

"They were originally nomadic. The government gave them guidance and told to come out of the forest and settle down," said Jamal.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Mesakh Dorome, chief of one of the Tobelo Dalam Tribe groups

Even though he lives in a house, Meshak still calls on his people to protect the forest and not destroy or overexploit it or violate any customary rules while they are in the forest. This custom helps protect the environment where they live. However, violations still occur on occasion. Several tribespeople nearly lost their minds after they used poison to catch river shrimp.

Local wisdom

Sociologist Syaiful Madjid at Muhammadiyah University in North Maluku, who also studies the Tobelo Dalam tribe, said the Tobelo Dalam’s tribal customs was an example of how humans could live in harmony with nature. In the Tobelo Dalam custom, the birth of a girl is celebrated by planting five tree seeds, while the birth of a boy is marked by planting 10 tree seeds.

"Why is [the number of seeds] different? The Tobelo Dalam men are responsible for the family’s livelihood, so they have to plant more trees. Trees are viewed as sources of livelihood," said Syaiful.

For the Tobelo Dalam people, said Syaiful, the forest is an ancestral home where they live out their lives. They are prohibited from harvesting wood from living trees, so the Tobelo Dalam people only take fallen branches or the trunks of dead trees.

"What is necessary is for us, the people outside the tribe, and the government as policymaker, to respect the Tobelo Dalam tribe’s customary laws and way of living. They do not need to be taken out of the forest, because it will damage the tribe’s way of life," said Syaiful.

The forests in Halmahera and its surroundings, along with its natural wealth, fascinated British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. He was stunned by the beauty of the standardwing in Halmahera (Semioptera wallacii), which he identified as a species of bird of paradise. The forest in Aketajawe Lolobata National Park is home to 25 endemic bird species, including tree nymphs.

Forests should not only be seen as objects of exploitation. It is home to many living things, whether trees, animals or human beings. Like a house, if the forest is damaged, the lives of its inhabitants fall apart.