Inside Katingan’s Vanishing Wilderness: A Future Built or Broken by the Forest

In Katingan Regency, agriculture and fisheries continue to form the economic backbone.Photo credit: Rmsp.

By Felicia Tesalonika

Forests in Central Kalimantan Province, including Katingan Regency, are facing mounting pressure from mining concessions and expanding palm oil estates. The pace of deforestation is accelerating, posing direct risks to Indigenous livelihoods and damaging ecosystems that help regulate the global climate.

Pristine primary forests are becoming even more valuable in today’s world. International travelers are increasingly drawn to eco-tourism and eco-therapy destinations, seeking untouched landscapes that offer quiet, purity, and immersion in nature. Intact forests have become one of the most sought-after travel assets, a growing market Katingan could capture if its natural environment remains protected.

The urgency is unmistakable. The world now needs an SOS for Kalimantan’s forests, often described as one of Earth’s remaining lungs. Preserving these forests is not merely a local or national issue. It is a global responsibility with far-reaching consequences.

An Economy Rooted in Agriculture and Forests

In Katingan Regency, agriculture and fisheries continue to form the economic backbone. Agriculture contributes nearly half of the region’s gross domestic product. Key crops include palm oil, rattan, rubber, sugarcane, coffee, and coconut. Many households rely on timber, agroforestry, and non-timber forest products as part of their daily survival strategies.

More than 60 percent of residents earn income from rubber and rattan, although smallholder rubber yields remain significantly lower than those of large commercial plantations (IFACS, 2013). Livestock raising and rice cultivation also play important roles. In Kampung Melayu Village, Mendawai District, families continue the traditional once-a-year swidden rice farming system that has been passed down for generations.

Rattan as a Strategic Commodity

For many families, the forest remains the core of the local economy. Communities gather forest vegetables, rattan shoots, ferns, honey, and a wide variety of non-timber products for sale in local markets.

Katingan is one of Central Kalimantan’s major rattan production hubs, supplying between 600 and 800 tons of raw rattan every month. Commonly cultivated varieties include Taman rattan (Sega and Irit), Marau or Manau, and Sabutan. More than half of all households—about 12,746 families—operate rattan gardens spanning roughly 325,000 hectares across ten districts. Taman and Irit varieties remain the most widely planted.

Building Skills and Unlocking the Creative Economy

Acknowledging the central role of forest resources, policymakers and community leaders emphasize the importance of protecting ecological integrity while improving the skills and knowledge of local residents. Enhancing education, technical expertise, and entrepreneurial capacity is essential for ensuring that communities gain higher added value from the natural resources that surround them.

Within this broader strategy, the creative economy emerges as a key opportunity. If properly nurtured, creative industries could generate new streams of income for Katingan, a potential that remains largely untapped. Natural resources can be depleted through extraction. Creativity and human innovation, however, expand without limit. Katingan is well positioned to cultivate creative sectors rooted in local culture, forest wisdom, and ecological diversity.

For this reason, the creative economy is set to become one of the region’s strategic pillars for accelerating future economic growth.