Community Development Program Tumbang Naan

Short Sumary:

The community development program in Tumbang Naan, led by the Eco Hapakat Foundation, has been active since 2010. It supports local communities in Borneo through initiatives like forest mapping, legal registration, clean water access, cooperative formation, and pastoral care. By empowering indigenous Dayak people to protect their land and rights, the program helps build resilience and self-determination in the remote Joloi Valley.

More Details:

Community Development

The community development program in Tumbang Naan began around 2010 and is, in essence, still ongoing. Its core mission is to support the local community in the Joloi Valley in various areas.

Tumbang Naan Village Forest (Hutan Adat Tumbang Naan)

Every village traditionally has a designated forest area known by the locals as a “customary forest”, in Bahasa Indonesia so called “Hutan Adat”. These areas are significant for religious (animist) practices and often combined with grave yards or worshiping places, clean water sources, hunting, fishing, and the collection of specific natural goods.

Such “customary forests” have always been defined orally and were never mapped, as the two-dimensional representation of nature on paper deeply contradicts the worldview of the indigenous Dayak and Punan peoples.

However, to defend themselves against aggressive logging, mining, and plantation concessions, communities must define and map their forest zones. Through community mapping, we help village residents build a case to assert their rights before authorities and companies. The Eco Hapakat Foundation supports this by providing technical tools like GPS, GIS (satellite image analysis), and physical boundary marking. We also advise villagers and village leaders on how to engage with government offices and companies, help draft letters, applications, and proposals, and support them during their visits to authorities in the city.

Resident Registration

For a village to organize itself, its people must first be officially registered. In modern states, this starts with birth certificates, followed by school diplomas, family books, ID cards, voter registration, marriage, and death certificates issued by civil authorities.

In the remote interior of Borneo, very little of this infrastructure exists. That’s why external support is necessary. One Eco Hapakat staff member, Dorius, a trained lawyer, lived in the village for 3.5 years and helped the residents obtain the necessary documents—a complicated task when the civil registry office is a day’s travel away in the city.

We organized for the civil registry to come to the village, and in a single day, dozens of marriages were officially registered! Great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and children of the same lineage got all married on the same day. With these marriage certificates, many children were no longer considered “illegitimate” and could receive birth certificates. This, in turn, allowed them to enroll in school and older individuals to apply for ID cards—some applied even on the same day.

Our staff member Dorius, had a computer and a printer (with ink!), which made his services highly popular for all kinds of letters and documents.

Founding of a Cooperative

After registration had made good progress, we worked to found the Naan Hapakat Cooperative, which at its inception had over 120 members. We brought key members to the city, arranged notarization, and completed all required permits.

The cooperative then applied for a nearly 20’000-hectare area to be officially recognized as the Tumbang Naan Customary Forest. Unfortunately, just three weeks before our submission, an existing logging company was granted an expansion of its already-large 48’000-hectare concession, leaving only a few thousand hectares of our desired land to the villagers.

Ironically, attendance lists from village meetings meant to support the cooperative’s founding were misused to convince the Forestry Ministry that the entire community supported the logging company’s expansion—right up to the edge of the village. After years of effort, the plan to establish a Tumbang Naan village forest had to be abandoned.

Improving Access to Clean Drinking Water

Most villagers still drew drinking water directly from the river. Some knew they should boil it—and did. Others either didn’t know or didn’t follow through.

To address this, we purchased a large number of simple ceramic drip filters and made them available for purchase through local shops in all three villages of the Joloi Valley. We also distributed plenty of replacement filter candles. How many are still in use today, around 10 years later, is unknown.

Support for Two Churches in the Village

Dorius’ wife, Riziki Indriana, an ordained pastor in Kalimantan’s largest church, served for 3.5 years as the village pastor. Together with Dorius, they nurtured a church community that had previously existed only as a building without regular activities.

Pastor Riziki held services, Sunday school, youth programs, and taught religion at the secondary school. She also handled all rites in the valley: baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals.

Since Riziki’s departure, the Evangelical Kalimantan Church has continued running the parish. The second vicar is currently in place, and a third successor is expected soon