This project was started in 1997 by WARSI that aim to protect  the remnant forest ,especially to the area where the Orang Rimba  live in and to document the location, livelihood patterns, and development needs of the various groups of Orang Rimba (OR) living in Jambi Province, Sumatra. The forest is their resource for the non-timber production such as rattan, resin, dragon’s blood and etc. Especially the project was aimed to save the lowland rainforest. 

There area 3000 people of  Orang Rimba (identification result 1998). Most of them stay in hinterland area or the up stream some sub- rivers that empty to Batanghari river. Many OR groups are now physically and economically marginalized, living among the rubber gardens of transmigrate settlers.  Others have been able to largely maintain their livelihood patterns within the logged and highly-threatened forests of Bukit Duabelas (B12NP) in the center Jambi province.  Some groups have moved to the forests in the buffer zone of Bukit Tigapuluh National Park (B30NP) in the northern part of the province. Some live along the Sumatran High way.

Bukit Duabelas area – since  August 2000 – was  declared as A National Park – is the main center of Orang Rimba population and also a center of sub-rivers stream that empty  to Batang Hari River. The natural  forest in the area function as their life resources, same condition with the Bukit Tigapuluh buffer zone area.

The different condition is  along Sumatran High –way, The area is a transition zone between the lowland in the middle of downs stream area and the hill of Bukit Barisan. The Orang Rimba live in the inside part of inter-river area. Like most of the lowlands on the eastern side of Sumatra, this area has been transformed over the past three decades by trans-way opening , logging, wildfires, and forest conversion to oil palm plantations and rubber gardens, transmigration settlement.

The activities :
A. Orang Rimba Assistance
The activity , especially aimed to understand the socio – culture of Orang Rimba and assist them to get access to support their life in the future ;

• Carry out deep researches on the socio-culture and the change of Orang Rimba

• Develop alternative education cadres (literate, numerate) of Orang Rimba, to help them in interactions and transactions with outsiders.

• Connect them to public health service and make them realize to have the service regularly.

• Conduct legalization process on their land that are the remnant of plantation and transmigrates settlement along the Sumatran High-way.

B. Rural facilitation

• Discover potential and problem of the villages that relate to conservation and village development

• Facilitate government development  program in the villages around the Bukit 12 buffer zone.

C. Area Management

• Strove for protection toward the protected forest that is still exploited.

• Increase Orang Rimba participation in regime of Bukit Duabelas National Park management

• Support the area management that involve multi stake-holder

D. Campaign

• Develop strategies and organize a campaign for forest which is the habitat of Orang Rimba

• Spread information to the public and insist the government to sake the remnant natural forest and Orang Rimba’s future.

The activities are supported by highly power Geographical Information System (GIS) unit for spatial planning  that includes digitations and database processing and survey.

To implement  the project WARSI, in partnership with the Rain Forest Norway (RF-N), received a grant from NORAD in 1997 to develop a project to assist the OR.  WARSI and the NRF developed a proposal for the current five year project that was funded by NORAD beginning in 1998. The project involves 23 staffs including administration , financial, officers, facilitator, researchers, a doctor, surveyor, GIS specialist, etc.

The purpose of the project is to halt the marginalization of the OR by protecting the forests that they live in, ensuring their access to forest resources, and facilitating access to basic services.  Protecting these forests will also conserve biodiversity in the increasingly threatened lowland forests of Sumatra. 

The development objectives of the project as stated in the 1998 funding application to NORAD are:

• Permanent protection of as much rainforest as is realistically possible;

• Increased participation by the Kubu in the political and development processes of the wider society, especially in terms of advocating their own rights; and

• Development of government policies that enable forest-dwellers to gain substantial control over their natural resource base in the context of protected area management.

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