KAPUAS HULU - WEST KALIMANTAN
Bentarum
The Bentarum landscape of Kapuas Hulu encompasses lush forests, meandering rivers, and rich biodiversity. In the north lies the hilly and mountainous terrain of Betung Kerihun National Park. To the south lies Danau Sentarum National Park, renowned for its unique seasonal lake ecosystem.
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The area between the two parks has long been recognised as a corridor for connecting Danau Sentarum to Betung Kerihun. Known as Bentarum, or sometimes Labian-Laboyan, it covers 326,862-hectares and is home to over 14,000 people, predominantly indigenous Dayak Iban and Dayak Tamanbaloh people.
CHALLENGES & BIODIVERISTY
Conservation challenges in Bentarum
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Indigenous people in Bentarum have no formal management rights over their forests, making them vulnerable to external actors and impeding their ability to manage forest areas according to local customs.
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Indonesia’s complex land-use system creates patchwork forest blocks where protected areas, concessions, settlements, farms, and unprotected forests coexist. This fragmented mosaic makes coordinated and effective landscape management challenging.
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66,470-hectares of Bentarum is allocated as Areas for Other Uses, the land category where oil palm concessions can be established. Concessions are fragmenting forests along Bentarum’s central belt.
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​​Carbon credit concessions are being established throughout Bentarum’s 260,391-hectares of Forest Estate. Although a conservation strategy, some operate without community consent.​​​
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​A main road runs east to west through Bentarum, increasingly converting this connected landscape into separate north and south forest blocks.
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Forest conversion for small-scale agriculture, exacerbated by low productivity, poor soil health, crop losses to foraging wildlife, and increasing vulnerability to flooding.
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Hunting of wildlife is widespread, driven by culture, subsistence, and as retaliation for perceived crop damage. Lack of food security and increased negative interactions with wildlife are influencing hunting rates.
Key Biodiversity
The Critically Endangered Tricolour langur (Presbytis chrysomelas cruciger)
The Critically Endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)
The Endangered Abbott’s gibbon (Hylobates abbotti)
The Endangered flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps)
