As for Mark Van Den Berg, I’m so glad to know that you still exist in caring for Aceh…I know how much effort you have put in to it, I salute you for doing so. would love to hear from you to know a lots of new things has going on in Aceh.

Take care!!

Hope that you are still keeping yourself updated on the overly well-promoted Ulu Masen project.

I just had a look at the project area map in Carbon Conservation website and noticed that the subdistricts of Lhoong and Leupung (Aceh Besar District) are no longer a part of Ulu Masen. All this after FFI so strongly insisted that these two areas were part of the project area.

Seems the governor’s team has continued to prioritize the ongoing yet often-delayed construction of the virtually useless Jantho-Lamno roadway project, and our friends at the well-funded foreign conservation NGO were unable to convince the governor to stop it.

Alas, what can the small, well-intended and underfunded local players do? This apparent ‘shrinkage’ of the project’s target area raises yet another question: What exactly was the logic that was applied when FFI extended a small grant to an LNGO for the specific purpose of carrying-out a community mapping project in Leupung Subdistrict…. when the subdistrict is now no longer a part of the ‘Ulu Masen’ target area??

And what will FFI and that Tibetan-Aussie businessman do if their mate is voted out of the governor’s chair at the end of 2011? Ask their ex-combatant elephant patrol rangers to lobby for them, whoever they are? I’ve yet to meet even one of them! And the leadership of the KPA in Pidie District (former ‘heartland area’ of GAM) has no working relationship with FFI, whatsoever.

Perhaps you(Chris Lang) should come to Aceh to interview him and verify the facts about just how little interaction there really is between FFI and the MAJORITY of the ex-combatants in and around Ulu Masen. Please feel free to email me if you’d like to do so, I’m an environmentalist who is always ready to help get the truth out!

There was a time when I believed in the integrity of the world’s oldest conservation organization, but that time has passed; well at least until they are ready to accept LNGO’s as their equals.

Wassalam

Mark Van den Berg

I’m so very happy to see that someone is trying to keep track of what is REALLY happening in Ulu Masen! I have lived in Aceh since 1998 and helped found a local forest conservation oriented NGO there in 2000, along with the students and alumni of the local forestry school (STIK Banda Aceh).

Our LNGO, Yayasan Peduli Nanggroe Atjeh, has maintained a rapport with FFI for many years, but it would seem that there are many processes that have yet to be undertaken/respected by FFI, including the full involement of credible LNGOs in the planning process, and/or, engaging the provincial parliament, which is the official representative of the People of Aceh.

For the record in March 2003, following some 6 months of continuous lobbying prior to the Military State of Emergency in Aceh, I, as an individual, along with the Student Nature Lovers Association of the local forestry school campus, were awarded an official, and very much GLOWING, Letter of Recommendation by 58.2% of the membership of the Provincial Legislative Assembly of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Province(then known as the DPRD NAD), for a concept named the “Productive Buffer Zone Concept”.

I STILL maintain regular contact with the leadership of the now fully autonomous Provincial Parliament of Aceh (now called the DPR Aceh or DPRA). In 2008 Yayasan Peduli Nanggroe Aceh attended several meetings at the office of FFI Aceh, of which two were chaired by Mr. Robert Sillevis, who at that time was the Head of FFI Aceh.

After the first meeting at the FFI office our organization receieved an email letter from Mr Graham Usher(who is an affiliate of FFI and at that time, was also a consultant for either AFEP or Tipereska) in which he acknowledged the viability of what we are proposing as the solution to bring about an end to illegal logging in the Ulu Masen forest area.

At this point I should also like to mention that we were already well aware of the fact that what we are proposing is viable, because we had a very positive response from the Indonesian Minister of Forestry (Mr. Malam Sambat Kaban)when we made a presentation to him in his office in Jakarta on June 01 2005. That high-level meeting was attended by several director generals of his ministry, the UN-FAO and Mr. Mike Griffiths of the Leuser International Foundation. Sadly, the Minister never followed-up on his promise to help set-up a 200Ha trial or “pilot” PBZ project; but I’m quite confident that the meeting is on record (in the ledger of his personal secretary, a certain Mrs Sumi, if I am not mistaken).

Unfortunately, some months after making a short visit to the field in the Subdistrict of Leupung (Aceh Besar District) with Mr. Sillevis and the Head of the District Forestry Office of Aceh Besar (a certain Mr. Adil, now Head of the Fisheries Office in that same District)like his predecessors, Mr Sillevis’ contract with FFI was terminated; as were the 6 persons who held that same position at FFI Aceh before him!

Perhaps Mr. Sillevis’ termination had something to do with his willingness to support the PBZ concept? Again, the Productive Buffer Zone concept is clearly workable (especially in regard to its ability to keep chainsaws out of the protected forest and thereby assure that carbon credits can be ‘harvested’ indefinitely.

However, it would seem that there are certain influential persons in Aceh who feel that local organizations should be kept out of the planning process. This might also include the DPRD/DPRA parliament, whom until this day, have never been properly informed about the intention (agreement?!)to sell carbon credits to Merril Lynch and Mr Dorjee Sun’s “start-up company” (Carbon Conservation)!

I commend your efforts to keep track of what is really going-on in Ulu Masen, please do not stop……. for we intend to carry-on until this so very ‘foggy’ situation is properly sorted-out, by the DPRA. And hopefully, well before too much more of the forest is felled by the many-many illegal loggers that the much-expanded Forest Police Force in Aceh is so conveniently blind to.

As for the “heavily-armed former rebels” who are guarding the forest… just try to make a trip (by jeep on fresh logging roads)into the upper reaches of the Lamsujeun Valley in Lhoong Subdistrict, Aceh Besar, and see who is unwilling to let you in. Please understand that not all former rebels in Aceh are illegal loggers, but the fact is that there are quite a few of of them operating in Ulu Masen!

Why have things turned-out this way you ask? Quite simply, because FFI has failed to make an effort to open-up a meaningful rapport with “former rebels”, despite the fact that it is well within their mandate (awarded to FFI by the former-rebel governor himself) to do so (ie, create alternative livelihoods, such as tree crop farming). Is that not what LNGOs are for? I mean to build bridges between the Acehnese and INGOs with good intention.

May all of this FACTUAL information help you, and other well intentioned persons and organizations, to steer this messy situation in the right direction. Wassalam

*indonesia R-plan is rather incomplete and unclear
*large area of the project is within the boundary of the national park (which supposed to be managed by the department of forestry NOT the local acehnese government)
*our brilliant Mr. Irwandi barely have any idea on what is REDD and how it supposed to work, the idea seems awesome to him and when carbon conservation offered the plan on his desk he just jumped in, without consulting the expert or at least, asking for second opinion. (maybe Aceh’s special autonomy status contribute to this recklessness).

I think the results of interviews conducted was good and can provide information about the Ulu Masen in Aceh.

I want to suggest that the maximum possible result more simply indigenous interviews surrounding Ulu Masen area.

because I am the person I aceh may be helpful

regards

saya ingin menyarankan agar hasilnya lebih maksimal mungkin langsung saja wawancara masyarakat adat yang ada disekitar kawasan ulu masen.

karena saya adalah orang aceh mungkin saya dapat membantu

salam