Eastern Indonesia has for a long time epitomized the problems of development in Indonesia, with the region having lower incomes, higher poverty and worse social indicators than most other regions in Indonesia. The challenge is to achieve economic development. But much economic development relies on more intensive use of resources, which places great pressure on the environment. In some parts of the region this could undermine the future sustainability of the economy. In others it threatens unique environmental systems that are of significance not just for Indo nesia but for the world.

This book brings together contributions from leading experts on eastern Indonesia. It provides comprehensive information on current economic, social, political and environmental developments in the region. The goal is to provide a framework for balancing environmental and social concerns against the need to promote economic development, particularly in areas where poverty is prevalent. Understanding the interactions, trade-offs and synergies between development and environment is a prerequisite for better policies to benefit both the people of eastern Indonesia and the environment.

The existing literature on eastern Indonesia—especially research on the nexus between resources, environment and development—is sparse. Earlier publications of note include Barlow and Hardjono (1995) and Pannell and von Benda-Beckmann (1998). The present book has its origins in a symposium held at the Australian National University in 2006, which brought together some of the leading researchers on eastern Indonesia.

BACKGROUND

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and one of the most spatially diverse nations on earth in terms of resource endowments, population settlements, locations of economic activity, ecology and ethnicity (Tomascik et al. 1997; Hill, Resosudarmo and Vidyattama 2008). Stretching across 8 million square kilometres of land and sea between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it links the continents of Asia and Australia (Map 1.1). Indonesia's 17,000 islands have a land area of close to 2 million square kilometres.

Recent scientific findings show that climate change is already taking place and that there is the risk of severe impacts if emissions of greenhouse gases are not cut back (IPCC 2007). Climate change is no longer seen as ‘just’ an environmental problem, but as a threat to economic development and prosperity (Stern 2006; Garnaut 2008). This perspective has greatly elevated the issue among policy makers the world over. In Indonesia, climate change rose high on the public and policy agenda with the UN climate conference held in Bali in December 2007.

Indonesia faces a variety of impacts from climate change, from sealevel rise to a changing hydrological cycle and attendant droughts and floods, to greater stresses on public health. These will require attention and corrective action if development is to be safeguarded in the face of changes in the natural world. Indonesia itself is a significant emitter of greenhouse gases, especially connected to deforestation. Reducing these emissions creates its own challenges, but also brings opportunities.

This chapter summarizes the expected climate change impacts for Indonesia, and eastern Indonesia in particular. It discusses the main sources of emissions and options to reduce or avoid them. Climate change research on Indonesia is limited, and is especially patchy for eastern Indonesia. Nevertheless, enough information is available for us to sketch some options for climate change policies that would support development in eastern Indonesia.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT: THE GLOBAL ISSUES

Causes and Impacts

Human-induced climate change occurs because of a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, trapping the energy from the sun to a greater degree than previously. The main greenhouse gas from human activity is carbon dioxide, which is released in the combustion of fossil fuels (especially coal, oil and gas) and in the conversion of forests to other uses. Other greenhouse gases include methane, from sources such as agriculture and waste dumps, and nitrous oxide from agriculture and some industrial processes.

INTRODUCTION

Developing a livelihood development policy that effectively alleviates poverty while protecting the environment has been the focus of much study and debate in developing countries for several decades. This issue is highly relevant for Indonesia, where problems of poverty, unemployment and environmental degradation remain pervasive. In 2003, around 16 million Indonesians, or 7.5 per cent of the population, were living on less than US$1 per day, the poverty line set by the World Bank (Kerstan et al. 2004; Kompas, 1 November 2004). But the number of Indonesians vulnerable to poverty, that is, living on less than US$2 per day, was far higher, at more than 110 million people, or around 53 per cent of the population (Kerstan et al. 2004). In the 2004 Human Development Report, Indonesia was ranked 111th out of 177 countries on the human development index (HDI), a widely used measure of the health, education and standard of living of a country's population (UNDP 2004: 141).

Since the mid-1990s, a number of livelihood development programs have been implemented in eastern Indonesia to alleviate poverty. They include the government livelihood development program for ‘left-behind’ villages (IDT), the World Bank-funded Sub-district Development Project (PPK) and the Poverty Alleviation and Support for Local Governance Program (PROMIS) implemented by the German government-sponsored agency, GTZ. This chapter assesses the performance and effects of PROMIS in East Nusa Tenggara to extract lessons for future livelihood development programs. Particular attention is paid to the impact of this program on poverty and the environment.

The next section of the chapter provides a brief overview of the local context in East Nusa Tenggara, and of the province's development policies. It is followed by a section describing the concept behind PROMIS and examining the strategic instruments applied in East Nusa Tenggara. The fourth section discusses the effects of the program on local livelihoods from the perspective of the local economy, the social setting and the environment. The last section contains the authors' conclusions.

INTRODUCTION

Nowhere on earth is there a greater disparity in maritime environments than between northern Australia and the southern regions of Indonesia. Northern Australia's historically low population and its regulated fisheries management have—until now—provided relatively good protection for the rich and diverse marine resources of the Timor Sea. By contrast, the Arafura Sea, directly to the north of Australia, is among the most heavily fished regions in the world. As the marine resources of other Indonesian regions have progressively been overexploited, fishing ves sels—both local and foreign—have shifted operations eastward. Under a ruling of the Soeharto period, trawlers banned elsewhere in Indonesian waters are allowed to operate legally in the Arafura Sea. A plethora of these fishing vessels, some legal and others illegal, vie with each other to exploit available resources. The increasingly sophisticated operations of these large fishing fleets have disrupted and diminished the opportuni ties for the small-boat fishermen of eastern Indonesia to derive a living from the sea. As these fishermen have seen their capacity to operate curtailed, they, too, have been forced to extend their voyaging.

Many of these small-boat fishermen, especially from South and Southeast Sulawesi where pressures on sea resources are particularly acute, have shifted, either permanently or on a seasonal basis, to strategic locations along the coasts of the southern islands of eastern Indonesia. Limited by commercial vessels operating in the Arafura Sea, they have increasingly looked to Australian waters for key commodities that were previously plentiful in their own seas, particularly shark but also trepang and trochus.

As the number of small-boat fishermen has multiplied and the resources they seek in their own waters have diminished, the problem of illegal fishing in Australia's northern waters has become ever more acute. Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) concluded with Indonesia in 1974, Australia permitted ‘traditional fishermen’—those who relied exclusively on sail power—to fish within a demarcated sea area known as the MOU (or MOU74) Box.

INTRODUCTION: AFTER THE STORM

On 27 February 2002, two weeks after the signing of the Malino Peace Accord II (Perjanjian Malino II), a few hundred young Muslim and Christian men from the island of Haruku—one of the tiny Lease islands east of Ambon—rode together into Ambon and began marching through the town, disregarding the barricades that divided the war-torn city into ‘red’ and ‘white’ zones. They sang nationalistic songs, hugged spectators and urged them to join the procession. Police and military personnel joined in as the crowd circled its way towards the governor's office. Later that day, Governor Saleh Latuconsina told the cheering crowd, ‘From now on, Ambon is free from conflict’ (Böhm 2005; Jakarta Post 2002a).

Ambon remained partitioned for a few more months, and there continued to be occasional bomb explosions and sniper attacks. The most serious threat to peace came in April–May 2004, when rallies in celebration of the anniversary of the Republic of South Maluku sparked several days of fighting and arson in Ambon. But the people and government of Maluku had clearly had enough, and peace continued to deepen and solidify.

This chapter examines aspects of the conflict in Maluku, analyses factors contributing to the spread and perpetuation of the conflict, and looks at how it finally ended. This is followed by an examination of sociopolitical trends and developments in the province since the cessation of hostilities. The problems of recently returned or not yet returned refugee families merit special attention, along with the lingering segregation and tensions that still plague communities in many parts of the province. The chapter concludes with a discussion of attempts—by regional government agencies and various civil society actors—to revive and reform customary village (negeri) forms of government in an effort to build a more stable and resilient society.

With the implementation of decentralization in 2001 and special autonomy in 2002, Papua was given a historic opportunity to dramatically improve the living standards of the mass of the rural population. There are two factors in Papua's favour at present. First, the flow of funds to the province is substantially higher than ever before in Papuan history, including during the last years of the Dutch occupation and the period of United Nations administration in the 1960s. Second, decentralization has been more extensive in Papua than in any other province in Indonesia (or almost anywhere else in the developing world). This has brought regional governments much closer to the people than they were in the past, giving them greater freedom to implement their own programs.

The short-term challenges and costs are substantial, however. Most importantly, an astonishingly large number of new government structures needs to be put in place following the significant increase in the number of districts. Moreover, the extraordinary increase in the public budget has created opportunities for widespread corruption, especially given the weak, and sometimes nonexistent, governance structures needed to guide public administration and economic management. Another major challenge is that of dealing with transition: from a centralized regime to a decentralized one; and from local governments starved of funds and dictated to from outside, to governments with large surpluses, supported by the local population, with the potential to develop and implement local initiatives. The process of establishing and strengthening Papua's political and government institutions may take a decade or more, and should be a central goal of government efforts. In this respect Papuans have much to learn from some of the successful, and especially the less successful, development experiments in other developing regions in the Pacific, where the economic challenges related to demography and geog raphy are very similar.

THE FISCAL IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION AND SPECIAL AUTONOMY

Before Indonesia's decentralization policy was implemented in 2001, most of the government revenues from mining and other natural resource extraction activities (in the form of royalties, taxes and so on) accrued to the central government.

The biodiversity of eastern Indonesia is globally important from both an evolutionary biology and a socio-political perspective. An estimated 12 million Indonesians east of the Wallace line depend directly on biodiversity and ecosystem services for their livelihoods and well-being. Those resources are under increasing pressure as global demand increases, as comparable resources in western and central Indonesia are depleted and as population expands due to in-migration and local economic and population growth. In order to protect food security, sustain livelihoods and conserve critical biodiversity habitat such as coral reefs and forests, we must plan for appropriate use and conservation of biodiversity. In this chapter, we describe some of the challenges to biodiversity conservation in eastern Indonesia, and the innovative approaches being used in North and Central Sulawesi, Komodo and West Papua to conserve biodiversity and secure sustainable livelihoods for local communities.

INTRODUCTION

Eastern Indonesia is remarkable for its biological differences to western Indonesia. The line that Wallace drew between the islands of Bali and Lombok, continuing between Borneo and Celebes (now Sulawesi), has become a hallmark of modern biogeography. While there has been much debate subsequently about where that line ought to be drawn and why (Wickramanayake et al. 2002), recent analyses of terrestrial and marine biogeographical patterns (Briggs 2005) have confirmed that, from an evolutionary biology perspective, there is clearly something very special about the flora and fauna of eastern Indonesia.

The so-called Coral Triangle (Djohani et al. 2003) that represents the global epicentre of marine biodiversity covers a larger area than just eastern Indonesia, but the centre of that marine diversity stretches from the Banda Sea to Papua New Guinea, as indicated in Figure 6.1.

INTRODUCTION

The vision for health development in Indonesia was formulated by the Ministry of Health in 2000. Called ‘Healthy Indonesia 2010’, it aims to create an environment conducive for human beings to achieve their optimal health status, a community with proactive behaviour to promote health and prevent disease, and a heath care system with sufficient capacity to provide quality health services. The principles on which Healthy Indonesia 2010 are based include equitable and even development, with priority to be given to remote areas (Ministry of Health 2000).

Papua, the easternmost province of Indonesia and often regarded as the most culturally distinct, is most in need of priority. Despite the province's abundant natural resources, Papuans are poorer than other Indonesians. Papua has Indonesia's highest poverty rate, with 41.8 per cent of the population living on less than US$1 per day, more than double the national average of 18.2 per cent (BPS, Bappenas and UNDP 2004: 187).

Papua continues to face problems of poor quality and uneven provision of health services, local political instability, the emergence of new diseases and persistence of old ones, and low levels of education. Although vital indicators show that there have been some improvements, the province still lags behind the western part of Indonesia. It ranked 29th out of Indonesia's then 30 provinces on the 2004 human development index (HDI), which measures longevity, educational attainment and standard of living (BPS, Bappenas and UNDP 2004: 109). Malaria continues to be the most frequent cause of mortality and morbidity, and a serious AIDS epidemic is emerging.

This chapter discusses the current health problems facing Papua and reviews the capacity of the province to improve the health status of Papuans. Will Papua achieve the aims set out for it in Healthy Indonesia 2010?

STRUGGLING FOR HEALTH

Under the Dutch administration, health care services in Papua were managed by the Public Health Service (Dienst van Gezondheidszorg), a very active government department providing health care services down to the village level.

The development challenge is joined by humanity in many different environments. Small and isolated communities face many special challenges. This book describes and analyses those challenges in an important and interesting context: three eastern provinces of the Republic of Indonesia.

Small and/or isolated economies face unusually large costs in participating in trade and specialization. They find it difficult to catch the attention of owners of capital in all its forms. They are at a disadvantage in the supply of public goods of all kinds that are necessary for development—from governance, to transport, to communications infrastructure—because costs fall with scale.

These and other disadvantages of small size and isolation are well represented in the stories presented in this book about development and the environment in Papua, Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara. Budy P. Resosudarmo and Frank Jotzo present a set of chapters that brings out in rich detail the nature of the development challenge in these provinces, the response to it and the lessons from experience so far.

These are relatively poor regions within Indonesia, in income, health, education and other ways. Poverty has so far been impervious to development efforts.

In these three eastern Indonesian provinces, limitations on scale are even more acute below the level of the province. In each of them, internal integration is blocked by ocean, swamp or mountain, so that the effective economic size of communities for purposes of development is smaller again.

These characteristics of scale and location are as old as human society in these regions. This means that populations have not expanded as close to the limits of resource availability as in places that are better located for trade, specialization and economic growth. As a result, natural resource endowments tend to be large relative to population. The three provinces are all rich in natural resources relative to population, with Papua being exceptional on a global as well as a national scale.