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Photo 1: Shifting cultivation by the indigenous community

Photo 2: Oil palm plantations

Photo 3: Honey from Tesso Nilo

Under common conditions in rural areas of Riau, Sumatra, it was observed that most villagers engage in some sort of natural resource management system. Tesso Nilo is an interesting site for research into the potential for sustainable interactions between a designated protected forest area and surrounding stakeholders. The Tesso Nilo forest is a newly declared national park surrounded by various types of land use and communities. This area presents a good example of efforts at harmonization between conservation and the population pressures and industrial interest in adjacent areas. Previously, the indigenous community made use of a shifting cultivation system of agriculture. However, as the area for cultivation become more and more limited, they began to practice more settled agriculture, and plant-cultivating plantations plants crops such as oil palm and rubber. These days, the indigenous community practice shifting cultivations only for their daily consumptions, depending on forest product gathering, fishing and other activities for extra income. Some of the stronger income generators observed during the survey are as follows: - honey collection (limited to villagers who own sialang trees), generating about IDR 3 million annually; rattan collection, generating about IDR 9 million annually: and fresh-water fishing, generating about IDR 4 million annually. Migrant people in Tesso Nilo manage a private small-scale plantation. They cultivate oil palms and rubber. From a two-hectare oil palm field, villagers can earn approximately RP 1,5 to 2 million monthly. Only a few of the migrant workers engaged in forest product harvesting activities such as logging and fishing.