"Fortunately, it is now the rainy season. We are no longer anxious. We have burned the land in preparation for planting rice several months ago. Now we are going to plant the seeds and continue with the farming steps we usually do. At each stage we hold a ceremony to ask for God’s permission and pray for safety and successful harvest,” said Parlihan, secretary of the Pitap Dayak Customary Institution, Balangan District, South Kalimantan.
Parlihan understandably felt relieved. The rain, which is now pouring evenly in almost all areas of South Kalimantan, has prevented the smog caused by forest and land fires. A few months ago during the peak of the dry season, forest and land fires that occurred in some areas, such as around Syamsuddin Noor Airport in Banjarbaru City, were quite worrying. The smog came from peatlands in Guntung Damar, which is not far from the airport, and often interfered with flight activities. Forest and land fires also occurred in several districts in South Kalimantan, such as Hulu Sungai Utara, Banjar, Barito Kuala, Hulu Sungai Selatan, and Tanah Laut.
Although most forest and land fires occur on peatlands located in the lowlands of South Kalimantan, people who live in the uplands are also blamed for deliberately burning the land. In several cases, indigenous peoples were arrested because they were accused of burning land and causing smog. They actually burn their own land and on a very small scale, especially when compared to the scale of fires caused by land clearing activities that are commonly carried out by large-scale plantation companies in various regions.
This has made Parlihan and most of the Dayak communities in the Meratus Mountains in South Kalimantan worried. In the traditions and customs of the Meratus Dayak community, the clearing of agricultural land is carried out by manyalukut, the local term for burning land on a limited scale based on customary rules and regulations.
“Burning land in the mountains is very different from what they do in the lowlands. There is no peatland here. We only have mountain land. But when there is smog caused by burning peatlands, people in the mountains are also get blamed,” said Parlihan.
In general, Dayak people in the Meratus Mountains develop an agricultural system that is adapted to the nature of their surroundings. Since they live in the mountains, they cultivate farm crops. To cultivate the relatively dry but nutrient-rich soil, the Meratus Dayak people clear the land by burning. Then in the next stage, they sow seeds, weed the land regularly, and protect the growing rice from attacks by animals such as monkeys, pig-tailed macaques, and wild boars. Between every stage, they hold a ritual or aruh in the local language. The rituals end after they put the rice in the upak or granary.
According to the Pitap Dayak Chief, Ali Udar, this agricultural system developed by the Meratus Dayak people is often misunderstood by the outsiders who blame the Dayak community for the smog because Dayak people clear land by burning. They also accuse the Meratus Dayak’s shifting cultivation system of causing forest degradation.
Ali Udar has asked various parties to stop blaming the shifting cultivation system of the Meratus Dayak community.
