Kutai was once covered in dense tropical forest. These forests were described by the Norwegian naturalist and explorer Carl Bock, who was commissioned by the Dutch colonial government in the 1880s to travel halfway up the Mahakam River. In a report on the journey, Bock wrote:
Enormous trees, with massive straight stems rising sixty or eighty feet from the ground before throwing out a single branch, overshadowed the rank vegetation beneath, the thickness of which rendered it impossible to penetrate into the forest more than a few yards from the riverside (Bock 1985: 51).
Since the Suharto government opened up Indonesia’s outer island forests to large-scale cutting in the late 1960s, most of the forest described by Bock has been cleared (Bupati Kutai 2000). Potter (1990) estimates that around forty per cent of Indonesia’s log production originated from East Kalimantan during the period 1970–79. A large proportion of this timber came from the area now known as Kutai Kartanegara, just west of Kutai Barat, because the largest stands of commercial species, such as meranti, keruing and agathis, could be found there. The Mahakam River also provided a well-developed transport system (Manning 1971).
In addition to the impact of large-scale logging, extensive areas of forest land have been converted to plantations or agriculture (Bupati Kutai 2000). A large proportion of Kutai Kartanegara’s forest cover was also severely burnt during the 1982–83 and 1997–98 forest fires (Brookfield et al. 1995; Hoffmann et al. 1999). In 2000, the landscape consequently bore little resemblance to that described by Bock. Few trees could be seen on a journey up the Mahakam River and large sawmills dominated the landscape between Samarinda and Tenggarong.
Before Kutai was divided into three districts it had 1.8 million hectares (ha) of forest land classified as ‘Protected Forest’; 270 000 ha of ‘Parks and Reserve Forest’; 2.6 million ha of ‘Limited Production Forest’; 3.3 million ha of ‘Production Forest’; 3.1 million ha of ‘Conversion Forest’; and 22 724 ha of ‘Research Forest’ (BAPPEDA and BPS 1998). While these categories do not necessarily correspond with actual forested area, the Forest Land Use Consensus Plan (Tata Guna Hutan Kesepakatan) was developed to show definitive boundaries between the various categories of land under the Forestry Department’s control. The plan was revised in the mid-1990s to reconcile provincial and district needs, including a desire to convert production forest to conversion forest in order to facilitate oil palm developments. This revision resulted in the development of Provincial Land Use Plan (Rencana Tata Ruang Wilayah Propinsi) classifications in the mid-1990s. A District Land Use Plan (Rencana Tata Ruang Wilayah Kabupaten) was also drawn up for the original administrative boundary of Kutai, but had not been completed for Kutai Barat when fieldwork for this study was undertaken. However, the district government estimated that approximately 50–60 per cent of Kutai Barat was still forested in 2000 (Bupati Kutai 2000).
Before Kutai was divided into three districts, the Mahakam Ulu branch office of the Provincial Forestry Service monitored forest activities and production in the area now known as Kutai Barat. The forest area monitored by this agency has remained more or less the same since the partition of Kutai. According to its own statistics, the Mahakam Ulu area produced approximately 3 million cubic meters (m3) of logs during the period 1994–98. This made the area the fourth largest producer of logs within the province after Mahakam Tengah (now known as Kutai Kartanegara — 7.3 million m3), Berau (3.9 million m3), and Bulungan Utara (3.6 million m3). According to official statistics, log production in the Mahakam Ulu area had gradually declined between 1995 and 2000 from 818 324 m3 in 1994/95 to 619 426 m3 in 1998/99 (Kalimantan Timur 1999). However, many suspected that there had been an increase in illegal logging in the area during the same time period (interviews with various NGOs based in Samarinda and staff at the district forestry office in Melak, Kutai Barat, July 2000). Official statistics were therefore likely to understate real timber production from the area. Growing volumes of timber were expected to come out of the Kutai Barat area in the near future because much of Kutai Kartanegara has already been logged out and badly affected by the 1997–98 forest fires (Hoffmann et al. 1999).
In 1998/99, 22 companies had been granted timber concessions known as Hak Pengusahaan Hutan (HPH) within the Mahakam Ulu region, covering a total area of approximately 2.6 million ha. However, by the time that Kutai Barat was established as a kabupaten, there were only 10 active HPH concessions in the region, covering a total area of approximately 1.6 million ha. Most of these companies were operating in the far reaches of the district where there was very little physical infrastructure and few people. Two of the 10 active HPH companies — PT Kemakmuran Berkah Timber and PT Daya Besar Agung — were working together with the state-owned forestry companies, Inhutani I and Inhutani II respectively. In 1998, these 10 HPH-holders produced approximately 346 000 m3 of logs. This was roughly half of Mahakam Ulu’s total annual log production for the year 1997/98 and approximately 15 per cent of Kutai’s annual log production.
In addition to these 10 companies, five HPH companies had requested extensions of their concession licenses and were expected to become active within the next few years (BAPPEDA 1997; Kalimantan Timur 1998b).These five companies were expected to operate over a total area of 442 500 ha. Four of these companies were working together with Inhutani I. It is possible that much of this area may also be logged before other districts with high timber potential, such as Berau, because timber originating from the Kutai Barat region can more easily be transported to one of the many mills that line the Mahakam River between Tenggarong and Samarinda.
Seven companies had also been granted concession licenses in Kutai Barat to develop industrial timber estates, or Hutan Tanaman Industri (HTI). Areas allocated to these seven plantation companies covered a total area of 119 827 ha (Kalimantan Timur 1998a). Most of these plantations were located in the southeastern region of Kutai Barat. Two of these HTI companies — PT Riau Timas and PT Marimun Timber — were private timber estate companies, which operated independently. The remainder were participants in the government’s HTI-Trans program, initiated by the Suharto government to provide employment for transmigrants from Java and other more populated parts of Indonesia. These estates were established on areas formerly managed as HPH timber concessions. Most of the HTI plantation companies were run by timber companies operating in the area; however, PT Alas Cakrawala was managed by Inhutani I. In 2000, only 23 914 ha had been planted to timber estates in Kutai Barat, amounting to 20 per cent of the total concession area allocated. Most of the planted area fell within concessions managed by three companies: PT Anangga Pundinusa, PT Hutan Mahligai and PT Kelawit Wana Lestari.