Kutai National Park Ecotourism Destination

A. Overview

Kutai National Park (TNK) is one of the mainstay tourism in East Kalimantan. TNK whole wide area is approximately 198,629 hectares. In addition to the tour as a natural event, TNK also can be used as research activities, perkemahaman, education and nature. TNK is a third national park in the land of water used as a rehabilitation center orangutans.

TNK quite hilly area and surging between heavy and light with a height of 0-398 m dpl. There are 60 units with mountain hill T42 as the most high, the range of ± 398 m dpl.
TNK has a tropical climate with an average annual rainfall ranges from 1543 mm per year, with the air temperature ranges between 27 ° -33 ° C. With such conditions, in a visit which is considered the best months are April to October each year.

B. Specialties

TNK distinction lies in the existence of various types vagetasi main, the coastal forest vegetation / mangrove, freshwater swamp forests, forest kerangas, pool lowland forest, forest Ulin / Meranti / lime, forest and mix. In addition, TNK also has some plants, such as mangroves, tancang, sea pine, simpur, Meranti, benuang, lime, Ulin, raflesia flowers, orchids and various types of forest. TNK also has a diversity of animals, such as orangutans, owa Kalimantan, bekantan, long tail monkeys, beruk, and lemur.

There are several natural tourist activities offered in this area TNK, namely:
1. Kaba Bay Estuary and Sangkimah, in the form of tourism and maritime observation animals, such as orangutans, sambar deer, kanci, birds, honey bears, and bekantan.
2. Lombok Bay and River Estuary Sangata, in the form of tourism and maritime observation mangrove forests that are still intact.
3. Prevab Mentoko, in the form of observation and research animals, such as orangutans, honey bears, clever individual, boast deer, and wild pigs.
4. Lobang Wind Cave, a cave tour.

Some plants in the national parks, such as mangrove (Rhizophora sp.), Tancang (Bruguiera sp.), Sea pine (Casuarina equisetifolia), simpur (Dillenia sp.), Meranti (Shorea sp.), Benuang (Octomeles sumatrana), calcium (Dryobalanops sp.), Ulin (Eusideroxylon zwageri), 3 types of raflesia and various types of orchids.

Ulin tree (Eusideroxylon zwageri) that are in high Sangkimah have free branch 45 m, diameter of 225 cm or 706 cm trunk circumference and volume 150 m3. This tree was a tree and the highest in Indonesia.

C. Location

TNK region located in the four administrative districts, namely North District Bontang, Bontang District, South District of Muara Badak, District Marang Kayu, East Kutai regency, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia.

D. Access

You can travel through the land. The distance from the Bontang Samarinda is 120 km with a time of the 2.5 hours. Or can also go from Balikpapan Bontang with the distance of 240 km or 4.5 hours of the time. From Bontang, and then travel to the Gulf of Bala proceed with the speed boat which takes about 30 minutes.

E. Accommodation and Other Facilities

TNK in the area there are lodging (hostel) that can be enjoyed by the visitors. In addition, TNK also has a number of other important facilities, such as earth camp, speed boat or ship, research facilities, and so forth.

Integrated Forest Fire Management Project

Integrated Forest Fire Management Project
in East Kalimantan

(IFFN No. 14 - January 1996, p. 29-30)

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The "Integrated Forest Fire Management Project" is a bilateral technical cooperation project between the governments of Indonesia and Germany. The project is administered by the Ministry of Forestry (MoF) of Indonesia through the forest authorities in the Province of East Kalimantan (Kanwil and Dinas Kehutanan) and assisted by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). It is scheduled for a period of six years. The first three-year pilot-phase began in April 1994. The second three-year phase as well as a financial grant will be negotiated in 1996 and executed in 1997.

The Forest Fire Problem in Borneo:
For more than two decades the island of Borneo has had a serious forest fire problem. In 1982/83 the largest forest fire of the century burned for several months through Kalimantan and Malaysia, affecting more than 5 million ha of forests. In 1987, 1991 and 1994 forest fires covered Indonesia and the neighbouring countries of Malaysia and Singapore with smoky haze. Most fires are caused by or related to human activities:

• The removal of primary forest and the dryer residual secondary vegetation make the forest area more prone to fire.
• Fire ignited by farmers using traditional slash and burn agriculture methods escape control due to lack of knowledge of fire control methods.
• Agricultural use and forestry plantations have left the forest areas more susceptible to fires.
• Increase of Alang-Alang grass (Imperata cylindrica) in disturbed areas raises fire susceptibility.

Some natural factors have a strong influence on fire risk:

• Normally, Kalimantan has a low-precipitation period from July to October. Every five to six years, drought periods occur as a result of an El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event.
• East Kalimantan has coal seams, that reach the surface in the forest regions. They are concentrated in the area of Bukit Soeharto National Park. Some of the coal seams have been burning for many years, and others since the last major fires. Many of the coal seam fires cannot be extinguished using practical methods but will require continued monitoring to prevent them from igniting the surrounding forest.

Consequences of Forest Fires:
Apart from the ecological damage which is very significant but difficult to quantify, the economic loss is considerable. It is estimated that damage of more than US$ 50 million a year occur to the forest plus a loss of 2 million m³ of timber. Additionally, the smoke adversely affects health and impedes aircraft movement and shipping throughout Southeast Asia.

History of the IFFM Project:
Following the 1991 forest fires and an extended smog situation all over SE Asia, the Federal Republic of Germany responded to a request for assistance by the Indonesian government. In June 1992 the National Planning Agency of Indonesia (Bappenas), assisted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), held an International Workshop on Long-Term Integrated Forest Fire Management in Bandung (more details about the Bandung Workshop: see January 1993 issue of IFFN). At this workshop, the core problem identified was that no sufficiently developed fire management system existed in Indonesia. A national Long-term Integrated Forest Fire Management System (IFFM) was proposed. The IFFM project, based on this workshop, began in 1994. It is a pilot project situated in the Bukit Soeharto area of East Kalimantan.

Integrated Fire Management is based on prevention, detection/presuppression, suppression, and application of prescribed or controlled burning. Uncontrolled wildfires are reduced by launching prevention campaigns for the public, rural villages and logging areas. Fire prevention also includes incentives and enforceable laws. In the project area fires are not only detected by observation towers manned during the high risk seasons and by mobile fire patrols. Additionally, a satellite receiving station will be established in Samarinda in 1996; it will show "hot spots" on a map covering all of the East Kalimantan Province.

Presuppression measures embrace infrastructure, logistics and preparedness in the event of a fire incident (e.g. maps, water supply stations, trained fire fighting units, etc.). Suppression is all of the activities used to extinguish or limit unwanted fire. Training will be furnished for government personnel as well as village volunteers. Controlled burning techniques will be introduced to reduce the escape of agricultural fires. Rural people frequently use fire in their agricultural activities. When uncontrolled, these fires can spread into and damage vast areas of lands. Controlled burning techniques include firebreak establishment, prescribed fires, and trained firefighters who can control the spread of fires.

IFFM Objectives and Results: The main objective is to establish an operational Integrated Fire Management System in the pilot region. The expected results are:

• The necessary infrastructure for the IFFM system is operative.
• An operative organization for the implementation of the IFFM system is implemented with participation by local government and PUSDAL (Provincial emergency committee).
• The fire management centre personnel, the advisory services and the mobile fire management teams are in a position to carry out their task.
• Within and around the Bukit-Soeharto region, the local populations, companies, and contractors cooperate with the IFFM system
• Post-phase I IFFM activities in East-Kalimantan are prepared.
• The internal project management is operational.
• The mechanisms of dialogue among participating organisations are established.

Implementation of IFFM:
IFFM is an Indonesian project with outside assistance. IFFM will be integrated into the Indonesian administrative system, aimed at developing a sustainable fire management organisation in cooperation with Kanwil and Dinas Kehutanan in East Kalimantan. The executing agency (field level) is Dinas, and the lead counterpart agency for GTZ is the Ministry of Forestry, Directorate of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation, represented by Kanwil Kehutanan at the Provincial level. The people living in and around the park will be integrated into the IFFM system. The project also seeks close cooperation with other related projects (ITTO, FAO, GTZ and EU).

The Provincial Fire Management Center is located in Samarinda, with a district fire management office in the Bukit-Soeharto area. Four additional district fire management centres will be set up in Phase II (1997-2000). They will serve as an example for all of East Kalimantan as well as other forest fire prone areas throughout Indonesia.

http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/iffn/country/id/id_3.htm

Natural Resources in East Kalimantan

Agricultures
East Kalimantan province has potential areas that can be developed as food crop farming. The area was about 2.6 million ha, consisted of 856,194 ha wet rice field and 1,743,885 ha dry field. The areas have not been optimally cultivated and have been reserved as potential areas for food crop farming. These areas spread out in many regencies/cities. The large reserved area is expected to be potential farming areas that can be developed not only to fulfil the regional and national needs but also to provide export commodities. East Kalimantan province has adequate infrastructures to support this program. In addition, it is benefited by its strategic position in international trade lines. The main farming commodities are rice (wet field and dry field), soybean, corn and mung bean that are cultivated in large area as follows:

Plantation
In 2001, from the available area of 300,943.50 ha, there were only 292,139.50 ha area cultivated. This activity has absorbed about 188,622 farmers. The plantation areas increased approximately 6.88%/year as shown at the following table:

The development of plantation has been executed through the implementation of the Plantation Implementation Unit (UPP) pattern, the People Nucleus Plantation (PIR) pattern, Self-supporting/partial pattern and the large plantation both owned by the Government (PTPN XIII) and private companies.

Animal Husbandry
The cattle's population in this province is potential to be developed, due to its large areas and the market demand that continuously increased. In order to meet the demand of cattle and poultry meat, it must be brought into East Kalimantan province from the outside region such as South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, East Java and Bali. In spite of the declining population of many kinds of cattle's, its population has developed in such a better figure during the recent three (3) years (2000-2002) as indicated in the table below:

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Fisheries
Seawaters potencies cover 4,484,283 ha, spread out along Makasar Bay and sea of Sulawesi Which have a large potential fisheries. The total potential production is about 341.000 ton/year, however, the beneficial rate reached only as much as 133,273 ton/year or 30% from the existing potencies. There is a big opportunity to develop fisheries sectors in this province. The sustainable production of fisheries sectors (sea, public waters, salty waters and fresh waters) reach about 339,998 ton/year. While the real production was 154,341.3 ton. The following table presents fish production for three years (2000-2002).

Forestry
East Kalimantan province has a total forest area around 20.62 million hectare, comprises 6 types of forests namely protected forest, natural conservation and tourism forest, limited production forest, converted production forest and educational/training forest. The forest productions hold the important role to the regional development. Besides its importance function as a forest, it has a high economic value come from commercial valuable plants such as timber trees, lime trees, kerning trees, bangkirai trees, nyatoh trees, ulin (very hard wood) trees, apathies tress, mangrove trees, perupuk trees etc. In addition, many commodities are also produced from East Kalimantan forests such as resin, bees honey, orchid flowers, crocodile leather, bird's nest, eaglewood, tengkawang trees (Dipterocarpaceae sp), tunjuk langit roots and shingle roof. Up the end of 2001, the existing production forests in East Kalimantan province which have been managed by the third parties converted 83 Forest Management Concession (HPH) with area of 5,815.776 ha and 16 Industrial Plant Forests (HTI) with the area of 814,803 ha. The log production in the period of 2000/2001 reached 1,511,026.4 m3 TPTI and 3,196.420.8 m3/IPK.

Mining
Mining sector in East Kalimantan province covers oil and gas and non-oil and gas. Oil and natural gas contribute an important role to the economic development especially of East Kalimantan and for Indonesia in general, because these become the main export commodities. Other main commodities of mining sector are available in this province such as coal, gold, silver, nickel, kaolin, limestone and quartz sand.
In the up coming years, oil production is enable to be increased as resulted from the operating of the new operational area. From the offering of 6 operational areas, 4 areas are affordable for the investors. In addition, there many potential mining that investors can process and develop.