Indigenous communities have warned the government they will reject the implementation of a planned carbon credit scheme unless the government guarantees their rights to livelihood in the forests. The Alliance of Archipelagic Indigenous People (AMAN), which claimed to have 1,163 community members, said the international scheme — which is designed to reduce deforestation — could trigger new conflicts if land tenure disputes remained unsettled.

“Our stance is clear — no rights, no REDD. It is what we have told AMAN’s members across the country,” AMAN secretary-general Abdon Nababan told a discussion on climate change Wednesday, referring to the international policy.

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Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan Feature

Sharing a roof: Sungai Utik long house spans 100 meters. The width varies depending on the owners’ plan to their individual houses. JP/Evi Mariani. There is a long house on Embaloh river bank in West Kalimantan. The house has 28 doors, which lead to 28 individual houses, home to about 40 Dayak Iban families. The families share the veranda, the front space and the living room, which is a huge space 100-meter long and about 5-meter wide. The floor is made of the finest wood in Kalimantan, called kayu ulin. They get the woods from the reserve forests inherited from generation to generation. They will never let their forest bald. On the communal spaces, the children run and play, the adults weave mats from bemban grass and the dogs lie around.