Question

What policy did the Dutch follow in Java to have a control over the forests?

Answer 1

(i) Java is now famous as a rice-producing island in Indonesia. But once upon a time it was covered mostly with forests. The Dutch started forest management there. Like the British, they wanted timber from Java to build ships. In $1600$ the population of Java was an estimated $3.4$ million. They used to practice shifting cultivation.

(ii) The Kalangs of Java were a community of skilled forest cutters and shifting cultivators. They were so valuable that in $1755$ when the Mataram kingdom of Java split, the $6,000$ Kalang families were equally divided between the two kingdoms. Without their experties, it would have been difficult to harvest teak and for the kings to build their palaces.

(iii) When the Dutch gained control over the forests in the eighteenth century they tried to make the Kalangs work under them. In $1770$ the Kalangs resisted by attacking a Dutch fort at Joana, but the uprising was suppressed.
(iv) In the nineteenth century the Dutch enacted forest law in Java, restricting villagers' access to forests. Now wood could only be cut for specific purposes like making river boats or constructing houses, and only from specific forests under close supervision.

(v) Villagers were punished for grazing cattle in young stands, transporting wood without a permit or travelling on forest roads with horse carts or cattle. In $1882$, two lakh eighty thousand sleepers were exported from Java alone.

(vi) The Dutch first imposed rents on land being cultivated in the forest and then exempted some villages from these rents if they work collectively to provide free labour and buffaloes for cutting and transporting timber. This was known as the blandongdiensten system.