Dayak Basap Community Uses Sacred Rituals to Protect Ancestral Forests

RRI.CO.ID, Sangatta - As illegal logging and the threat of forest fires increasingly endanger customary lands across East Kalimantan, the Dayak Basap indigenous community in Karangan Subdistrict, East Kutai Regency, is turning to ancient spiritual rituals as a powerful instrument of environmental defense and political assertion.

Rather than relying solely on conventional conservation frameworks, the indigenous group gathered in Sangatta on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, to execute sacred rites aimed at shielding their ancestral habitat from ecological degradation and land fires (karhutla). The ceremony served a dual purpose: reinforcing internal unity among community members and delivering a direct message to external entities exploiting local natural resources.

Leaders emphasized that the forest acts as a vital maternal figure for the Dayak Basap, sustaining both daily livelihoods and cultural identity passed down through generations. Amid growing pressure from outside timber interests, the community urged state authorities to grant formal legal recognition over their customary territories, arguing that securing indigenous land tenure is one of the most effective strategies to support government-led forest protection and wildfire mitigation.

Indigenous representatives and customary elders asserted that state environmental management must integrate formal legal protections for indigenous communities, who serve as the natural guardians of vulnerable rainforest ecosystems.

Head of the Karangan Dayak Basap Customary Council Fadli articulated the deep-seated grievances driving the spiritual demonstration and reiterated the need for legal safeguards.

"The ritual is an expression of our inner voice, having long felt oppressed by outside parties who enter and take the yield of our land, The forest is a 'mother' to indigenous communities, and right now its condition is far from fine due to the greed of external parties engaging in logging. We hope there will be formal legal recognition for the existence of the Dayak Basap indigenous community, so that our traditional rights and living space have clear protection," Fadli said in Sangatta on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, as quoted by Antara.

Dayak Basap Customary Leader from Karangan Dalam Village Decky Zulkarnain highlighted the intrinsic bond between indigenous survival and forest conservation.

"We, the Dayak people, are very closely connected to the forest; if the forest is damaged, our living space is also disrupted, the administration should not view this solely from an environmental perspective, but also pay attention to the existence and rights of indigenous legal communities as the original inhabitants of the Karangan area," Decky Zulkarnain added. ***