Topp, Lena and Christina Eghenter, eds., 2005, Kayan Mentarang National Park in the Heart of Borneo.

Topp, Lena and Christina Eghenter, eds., 2005, Kayan Mentarang National Park in the Heart of Borneo. Jakarta: WWF Denmark in collaboration with WWF Indonesia. ISBN 87-9915020-0-4, pp. 175.

This remarkable book, edited by Lena Topp and Christina Eghenter and published by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Denmark, charts an extraordinary and groundbreaking journey ending in the establishment of the Kayan Mentarang National Park.

The Kayan Mentarang National Park, the largest national park in Indonesia, has an area of 1.35 million hectares. This national park, a biodiversity hotspot, encompasses the headwaters of major East Kalimantan rivers. It also embraces places of cultural and historical importance for the surrounding communities, which consist of several ethnic groups including the Kayan, Kenyah, and Lundayeh. The Kayan River marks the park's southern boundary (approximately level with Belaga, Sarawak) and the Mentarang River marks the northern boundary which borders on Sabah.

In 1980 the area was designated as a nature reserve in which, in theory, human activities--for example collecting firewood or fruit--were strictly prohibited. This restriction ignored the intricate relationship between the people and the area that was later to become the Kayan Mentarang National Park. This is the natural world in which they lived and live, and hold in trust for the people of the future. WWF Indonesia and the communities documented, through tracing old longhouse sites, farming sites, fruit groves, and burial sites, megaliths and other cultural monuments, that the area has been populated for over 350 years. Therefore, it was through the efforts of the surrounding communities and WWF Indonesia, that in 1996 the area was designated a National Park. This paved the way for conservation and development.

The year 1996 also marked the start of Phase 1, supported by Danida, in which a management plan was developed for the National Park. The people of the surrounding communities were instrumental in establishing the National Park and were, as stakeholders, contributors to the management plan which was written between 1996 and 2000. The communities' intimate knowledge of their natural world enabled the creation of maps which documented a landscape in which man is part of the ecology. The mapping included areas of economic, historical, and cultural importance. The people are not isolated from the natural world, but are part of it. The management plan not only enables conservation of the natural environment and areas of cultural and historical importance, but, in addition, will help the surrounding communities to experience social and economic development.

Phase 2, from 2000 to 2005, saw the implementation of the management plan. This plan takes a holistic view of social (rights, duties, privileges, and regulation for sustainable management) and economic (small business, profit and reward from a sustainable managed area) benefits.

FOMMA, The Alliance of the Indigenous People of the Kayan Mentarang National Park, a nationally and internationally recognized non-government organization (NGO) has members from the communities surrounding the National Park. It acts as a voice for the communities and leads talks with government agencies. This NGO has been strengthened by WWF in its ability to problem-solve and to mediate conflicts. Support for the National Park is encouraged through awareness and education programs, and modules were developed with the teachers and educators of the area. Protection is a duty that the stakeholders have and so far the stakeholders have held off threats of illegal logging, a road, and an oil palm plantation. The stakeholders mobilized and protected the area.

The steps taken by the communities and WWF in the journey towards creating the National Park were a great learning experience, and the entire process can become a model for the establishment of other national parks. These steps show an appreciation that humans both obtain from, and owe much to, the natural environment.

The management of Kayan Mentarang National Park, like the organization of this book, is according to the traditional or customary areas, or wilayah adat, that are held under customary rights and reflect administrative districts. There are 11 wilayah adat areas: Wilayah Adat Kayan Hilir, Wilayah Adat Kayan Hulu, Wilayah Adat Pujungan, Wilayah Adat Hulu Bahau, Wilayah Adat Tubu, Wilayah Adat Krayan Hulu, Wilayah Adat Krayan Hilir, Wilayah Adat Krayan Darat, Wilayah Adat Krayan Tengah, Wilayah Adat Mentarang, and Wilayah Adat Lumbis.

The journey which we take through the Kayan Mentarang National Park in this book is from the south to the north. It is a journey exploring the people, the land, and the history and environment, the plants and animals. The communities surrounding Kayan Mentarang National Park have social rights and duties, including protection, but also obtain economic benefits. They are living as part of a natural environment; in a way that perhaps readers of this book may have forgotten. (M. M. Ann Armstrong, Kuching, Sarawak)