Rudi Syaf

Rudi is working to ensure the cultural survival of marginalized indigenous groups throughout Indonesia, using powerful, innovative advocacy tools to lobby the government for the creation of forest reserve areas. He couples this effort with flexible, culturally specific programmatic responses to barriers to societal well-being.

Rudi’s goal is to protect Indonesian indigenous groups threatened by widespread forest destruction and degradation. He believes that the loss of these peoples’ forest homes has devastating consequences for their cultural integrity and individual livelihood. In response to a critical need unmet by the Indonesian government, Rudi has created “Warsi,” an organization whose primary goal is the legal recognition of the land rights of indigenous groups through the creation of national forest reserves.
Part of Rudi’s unique vision involves the use of innovative technology, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), to more effectively lobby the government. He also concentrates on minimizing local resistance to the creation of forest reserves by working with neighboring communities. Using these techniques, as well as more traditional strategies, Warsi is the first citizen sector organization in Indonesia to have successfully advocated for the creation of an official forest reserve dedicated to an indigenous people, the Orang Rimba in Central Sumatra.
Along with protecting indigenous peoples’ rights to their forests, a critical component of Rudi’s strategy is a corresponding on-the-ground program tailored to specific problems in their communities. Working with some Orang Rimba, Warsi has, for example, designed a school curriculum appropriate to their background in oral tradition.
Having worked successfully with the Orang Rimba, Rudi is now spreading his approach to other threatened indigenous groups throughout Indonesia.

In the early seventies, the Indonesian government started to clear-cut forests in which indigenous groups have lived for generations. In the name of development, the government gave concessions to logging companies and opened up forested area for highways, transmigration, and plantation projects. Deforestation has only worsened since the fall of the Soeharto regime, with legal and illegal logging, or “agricultural expansion,” taking place at the village level. Many such practices are still out of legal reach. The destruction of these forests has drastically increased the marginalization of indigenous peoples across Indonesia, whose identities and ways of life are linked to their forest homes. Loss of the forests threatens both their cultural integrity and their ability to sustain themselves.
For the past three decades, social and political systems in Indonesia have not effectively worked to guarantee indigenous peoples’ survival. Government programs, focused on modernizing their ways of life, have been largely unsuccessful. The Social Welfare Ministry has initiated schemes such as a resettlement program to move indigenous peoples to government housing outside the forest. This plan failed when the forest-dwellers refused to live in such an environment and returned to their homes. Nongovernmental organizations have made similarly misguided attempts to help indigenous peoples, donating rice, for example, without taking into consideration the fact that many such cultures do not eat rice. All of these approaches are made on the premise that indigenous peoples are “primitive,” and that their survival involves adopting modernized lifestyles.
Environmental conservationists, rather than helping, have only worsened the disenfranchisement of indigenous peoples. Policy is often based on the belief that forest biodiversity conservation requires the absence of forest-dwelling peoples. The Indonesian Forestry Department, in accordance with the Social Welfare Ministry, advocates for resettlement of indigenous groups to small enclaves within forest reserves. These policies have sparked conflicts, as yet unresolved, with indigenous peoples over access to natural resources in protected areas.
The Orang Rimba provide an illustrative example of the fate of forest-dwelling groups across Indonesia. Four-fifths of the Orang Rimba’s ancestral forest has been converted to oil palm plantations, transmigration areas, industrial timber plantations, the Sumatran highway, and other development projects. The loss of their forest has resulted in dramatic changes in the lives of the Orang Rimba. Those without land to cultivate turn to alternative sources of generating income, such as tapping trees on rubber plantations or begging along the highway. Others, left without a choice, live in the resettlement housing, forsaking their values and cultural identity. While a few still survive in the remaining one-fifth of their forest, they are seriously threatened by agricultural invasion, illegal logging, and government plans for a timber plantation.

Having successfully worked for the protection of the Orang Rimba, Rudi is ready to spread his strategy to other forest-dwelling indigenous groups throughout Indonesia. His plan includes a multi-tiered advocacy campaign to convince the Indonesian government to set aside official forest reserves expressly for indigenous groups, as well as the implementation of flexible, culturally sensitive solutions to critical problems in indigenous societies.
Warsi has successfully lobbied the national government for the creation of a protected forest reserve area for the Orang Rimba. This involved advocating for the legal recognition of this forest as the Orang Rimba’s home, along with the cancellation of an industrial timber plantation expansion plan. Rudi began by conducting a participatory mapping of land tenure, resource management, and forest-based community needs. He transformed and managed this information using technology systems such as GPS (Global Positioning System) and GIS (Geographic Information System), a technique he found to be effective in convincing policymakers from local to national levels. Rudi then spread his idea through publications, the mass media, and a large network of citizen sector organizations. These techniques resulted in a strong pressure group advocating for policy change.
A critical aspect of Rudi’s strategy involved minimizing local resistance to the creation of a national reserve by garnering support from the surrounding villages. He started by conducting awareness-raising campaigns about the importance of forest resources for the Orang Rimba, as well as more generally for public well-being. Based on information gathered from the community mapping, Rudi also introduced economic alternatives to activities that destroy the forest. One of his successful efforts involved bringing back thousands of peasants to cultivate paddy fields untended because of a broken irrigation system. He accomplished this by convincing the local government to fix the irrigation system. Despite these successes with the neighboring communities, Warsi continues to work towards a more widespread respect of Orang Rimba land rights. While legal status has been pledged by the authorities, many people from the buffer zone areas still try to encroach on the park’s boundaries.
Finally, Rudi and his organization have worked with the Orang Rimba to develop grassroots initiatives addressing economic, health, and education issues. First, Warsi has introduced alternative sources of income through agro-forestry cultivation along the buffer zone. In the arena of health, Rudi is encouraging traditional practices that forge a strong link between the natural environment and human beings. Rudi is also introducing medical treatments for diseases that cannot be cured by traditional herbs, collaborating with the local government to provide free medical treatment for the Orang Rimba. In education, Warsi has recruited teams of teachers to create a relevant curriculum for the children, designing a learning methodology based on their background in oral tradition and subsequent strong memorization skills. Children are now able to prevent their families’ being cheated by outsiders by helping their parents in trade calculations and in reading important documents.
Rudi is now spreading the strategies for positive change that he has successfully applied to the Orang Rimba. Warsi is opening an environmental education center based on the example of the Orang Rimba. This center will be open to civil society activists, bureaucrats, and community members. Warsi is also establishing a technical assistance unit to support other organizations in, for example, the use of GIS technology as a powerful advocacy tool. To broaden its impact, Rudi has opened Warsi to membership throughout Indonesia and the Asia Pacific region. Regionally, Rudi has established the Sumatran Marginal Groups Forum, and introduced his ideas at a national level in the National Alliance of Indigenous Peoples

Rudi learned much about working for the common good from his mother, who worked as a midwife, receiving in-kind payment for her services. He developed an interest for environmental issues from an early age, joining the Boy Scouts in primary school. In high school, Rudi was actively involved in an environmental club. On a climb with his schoolmates, he was inspired by the sincere hospitality of a woman at the foot of the mountain, who gave the students free food and lodging.
When Rudi entered university, he got involved with student activities working for positive social change. In 1987, during his second year, he established the non-governmental organization Gita Buana, focusing on community economic development linking people and natural resources. In 1991, after having gained experience with Gita Buana, Rudi and his colleagues from twelve organizations in Central Sumatra established Warsi. Through the work of Warsi, he gained extensive field experience in managing a village-based community development program employing participatory mapping and village spatial management. Rudi also expanded his knowledge of the lives and distribution of two indigenous groups in Jambi Province, the Orang Rimba and the Talang Mamak. His extensive knowledge of the Orang Rimba has been further strengthened by his participation in the development of an action planning team. These working relationships have given him opportunities to make connections with foreign donors and partners. In 1999, after gaining a broad apprenticeship, Rudi began to shift Warsi’s focus towards establishing land rights through the creation of national reserves for marginalized indigenous groups.